SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. — A weekly report from the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation showed five dead animals in the last two weeks, including two dolphins, two sea turtles, and one manatee.
The causes of these fatalities are unclear until the autopsies, but a researcher at SCCF has suspicions it could be toxins leftover from last year’s red tide.
“It was the worst we’ve ever seen. And all that red tide contaminated the environment, and contaminated the food that animals eat,” Rick Bartleson said.
Even months after a red tide outbreak, toxins could still be in food marine life eats.
“6 months after the red tide you could still have problematic levels of toxins,” Bartleson said. “Manatees and sea turtles eat seagrass beds, and the seagrass bed has just been really loaded with toxin during the red tide, and that toxin hasn’t gone away.”
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation says once the agency collects the dead dolphins and manatees, it usually completes an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
