STEVE REID
Editor & Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
Mote Marine and most recently the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program have found dangerously high levels of bacteria and low levels of life-supporting oxygen in Sarasota Bay instigated by Tropical Storm Debby.
Just last week, Estuary Program Director David Tomasko said that four weeks after the storm, the open waters of Sarasota Bay to Siesta Drive to Venice Inlet “are out of compliance for fecal indicator bacteria, and should not be considered safe for recreational activities, such as swimming, jet skiing, wakeboarding, or any activity that could involve the participant accidentally ingesting water through their mouth or nose or entry of water via cut or scrape.”
This very unglamorous finding is followed by Tomasko in his report with a dirty laundry list of likely sources that include human sewage, bird and dog feces that was washed from the storm into the bay, and even decomposing seaweed. He noted that most of the human health risk from sewage contamination is from viruses which the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirms.
And then there is a compounding effect. Low levels of oxygen in the bay translate into a dying off of clams, fish and stingrays that then contribute to the bacterial load.
The good news is the northern bay near Palma Sola in Manatee County as well as south to Bird Key Park and the southern end of Longboat Key are considered “s