BIG PINE KEY, Fla. – As the end of the legislative session came to a close last week in Tallahassee, legislators added an item to the state budget that would fund research on a marine mystery developing in the Florida Keys.
If signed into the budget by the governor, $2 million will be allocated to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to “determine the scale and scope of the ongoing fish mortality and disease event in Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay, and the Florida Keys.”
Since Local 10 News’ report last week, the number of critically endangered smalltooth sawfish that have been recorded dead by FWC has risen to 21, and we have received a steady stream of videos from concerned residents in the Florida Keys.
Separately, more than a dozen fish species have been seen “spinning” and acting erratically.
“Now we don’t know if these two events are related,” Gil McCrae, the director of the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Institute, explained to Local 10 Anchor and Environmental Advocate Louis Aguirre. “But we have the investigations and lines of inquiry going on right now.”
FWC says they have ruled out pathogens, bacterial infections and red tide toxins.
In a statement, the agency also added that “dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, and temperature are not suspected to be the cause of the fish behavior or kills.” That full statement can be read at the bottom of this article.
But officials aren’t the only ones investigating.
“Back in February of last year, I noticed that pinfish started behaving odd, like they were playing dead,” reflected Little Torch Key resident Gregg Furstenwerth. “And then some of them were spinning.”
For Furstenwerth, the Lower Keys are more than just a vacation spot. This is his home.
That’s why after he saw that first pinfish he pressed record, and hasn’t put down his camera since.
“And then come around November, I started seeing the behavior (the fish) start doing that again,” Furstenwerth said.
“At first, I was scared and now I’m just curious what the environment is going to turn into if this keeps on progressing.”
That curiosity is fueling both residents and tourists to document these bizarre behaviors from Key West, all the way north to Key Largo.
In a video posted Wednesday by the Ocean First Institute, the organization’s director of research and conservation, Chris Malinowski, expressed his shock and awe.
“We’re in the Upper Keys right now, off of Key Largo, and this is to our knowledge the first time we’re seeing the fish spinning off in this area,” he said as he documented an erratic fish in broad daylight.
One video from December, sent to Local 10 News from the Big Pine Key area, showed a confused stingray splashing about on the surface. “What is he doing… I’ve never seen them do that,” the visitor can be heard saying.
Another recent video from the Spanish Harbor Chanel taken by fisherman Angel Eiras showed dozens of snook acting bizarrely.
“I walked about one-half mile along the shore during low tide and witnessed over 30 dead snooks and a lot more acting erratic with [a] swimming condition I’ve never seen before,” Eiras told the Don’t Trash Our Treasure team via Instagram.
“We have a very serious situation in the Lower Florida Keys now that could be spreading to the middle and upper-level Keys,” Brian Lapointe, a Florida Atlantic University research professor, said.
Lapointe is the principal investigator at FAU’s Ocean Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.
For more than four decades, Lapointe has conducted the bulk of his research in the Lower Florida Keys and calls the area home. During that time, he witnessed first-hand changes in water quality at his underwater “laboratory” at Looe Key.
“Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, I used to dive Looe Key when it was pretty much still intact–as it has been for 1000s of years–covered with branching corals,” Lapointe reflected. “Unfortunately, we don’t experience that anymore.”
While the formal investigation into this recent fish behavior began in November of last year, Lapointe believes that we need to go further back to understand the situation.
“So this story really goes back to last summer, when we began to see that pea soup, green water appear on the keys that first appeared in late June, early July,” Lapointe reflected. “I was getting texts from divers saying Brian what is going on.”
“It got worse through the summer,” he added. “And as we all know, we had a very hot summer in South Florida that exacerbated it.”
Lapointe volunteered to collect his own water samples last week after seeing images from his neighbors in Big Pine Key. Furstenwerth, along with other concerned residents, joined him.
“These are from Pine channel in Bow channel in the Lower Florida Keys,” explained Lapointe as he showed some of the samples while the Don’t Trash Our Treasure team visited his Fort Pierce laboratory.
“(One) thing we we found in our water sampling last week, was a dinoflagellate called Gambierdiscus,” he explained. “Normally, it’s a benthic dinoflagellate that lives attached to seaweeds on the bottom… so to see it up in the water column at relatively high concentrations…was unusual for us.”
According to the U.S. National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms, there are at least 18 different species of Gambierdiscus. So far, it does not appear to be the smoking gun that scientists are looking for.
“Gambierdiscus is related to red tide, but not closely related,” explained Professor of Marine Science in the Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School Dr. Mike Parsons. “So it’d be like us [humans] versus a dog in terms of how closely related we would be.”
Parsons has been working directly with FWC in their investigation of the Lower Keys. He is also a member of Florida’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force and serves as the Director of the Greater Caribbean Center for Ciguatera Research.
Ciguatera is a neurotoxin that can be caused by ciguatoxins, which are one of the 18 types of Gambierdiscus.
“If that was happening, we would expect to see a Ciguatera outbreak, [and] we’d expect to see people getting sick from eating fish,” Parsons said. “There are no reports of that, so that meant [that] left us scratching our heads.”
Local 10 News reached out to the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County to confirm if there has been any increase in symptoms that could be linked to Ciguatera poisoning but did not hear back.
McCrae offered this piece of advice: “If you see a fish swimming erratically, if you catch a fish that doesn’t appear to be healthy, it’s best to avoid consuming that fish.”
“Is Gambierdiscus causing this fish behavior? We’re not 100% sure there,” Parsons said. “But that’s our lead right now.”
But for now, the case has yet to be cracked in this aquatic investigation.
“A lot of people are working hard on this, we want to get to the bottom of this just as quickly as everyone else does,” he said.
“Because as soon as we figure this out, then we can talk to start talking about mitigation, start talking about solutions..and that’s where we want to be talking.”
While the scientific process takes its time, Furstenwerth says that he hopes this is a point of reflection for everyone.
“It’s important that people pay attention to what we have,” he said. “And not wait until we figure out what we’ve lost before we decide that it’s important.”
For now, Lapointe emphasized the need for everyone to stay patient and calm. “This is a new phenomenon, it is still a big mystery, a puzzle that we’re trying to put together,” he said.
“We will ride this out and hopefully come out on the other side…better for it.”
Full FWC statement:
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is documenting reports of abnormal fish behavior (spinning and whirling) in the Lower Keys. There have also been reports of small-scale fish mortalities in these areas. FWC is working with partners and stakeholders to investigate the abnormal behavior.
More recently, there has been a series of smalltooth sawfish deaths in the Lower Keys that could be related to this event, and to date we have 21 confirmed dead sawfish. FWC staff are coordinating recovery of smalltooth sawfish carcasses, which is aided by reports to the sawfish hotline 844-4SAWFISH or sawfish@myfwc.com. Samples from carcasses are being sent to FWC’s Fish Health group for analysis and/or distribution to experts elsewhere.
At this time, the cause of the abnormal behavior and mortalities is not known, and efforts to collect and analyze samples are ongoing.
What we know so far:
Based on fish necropsy data to date, there are no signs of a communicable pathogen and specimens were negative for bacterial infection. Additional sawfish tissues are still being processed for analysis.
Dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, and temperature are not suspected to be the cause of the fish behavior or kills.
To date Red Tide toxins (brevetoxins) produced by Karenia brevis have not been detected in water samples.
As we continue to respond to this event the FWC holds steadfast to working collaboratively with our conservation partners, stakeholders and the community. Public reports are an essential resource to our investigation into this event. Please report abnormal fish behavior and fish kills to FWC’s Fish Kill Hotline at 800-636-0511 or MyFWC.com/ReportFishKill.
How you can help:
Sawfish: Report all healthy, sick, injured or dead sawfish to FWC’s Sawfish Hotline at 844-472-9347 or via email at Sawfish@myfwc.com with the date, time and location of the encounter, estimated length, water depth and any other relevant details. Under the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal to catch, harm, harass, or kill an endangered sawfish. It is also unlawful to possess, sell, carry, or transport sawfish or parts of sawfish—such as the rostrum (snout). While some fishermen catch sawfish as bycatch, they can follow safe handling and release guidelines to quickly and safely release incidentally captured sawfish.
Fish Concerns: If you see abnormal fish behavior, fish disease, and fish kills, submit a report to FWC’s Fish Kill Hotline either through the web form MyFWC.com/ReportFishKill or by phone 800-636-0511.