How's the beach?

I will let SJ, Kurt, and other locals give the official report but from our observations it looks like the beach at Eastern Lake is net positive. I'm sure it depends on the topology (elevation etc) of the exact beach. In some areas even on the little stretch in front of Ramsgate, there is evidence of both net positive and net negative but it does not look worse in any place since Dennis pictures IMO. The net positive look that I saw may be because the scraped piles were flattened back out and spread over the beach area in front of them.

The condos and houses on the gulf front that were damaged as a result of Dennis do not appear to be any worse off from Katrina. Again, this is just based on the post Dennis pix that we saw on this board and now our in person visual inspection.

The good news for our little area is that SoWal County has reconfigured the Eastern Lake channel where Eastern Lake flows into the gulf and the gulf access at the end of Eastern Lake Drive/Gulf Drive (west side of the lake) has new steps and can be used for great access to the lake or the gulf!!! The Ramsgate access has not been repaired yet and I do not expect it to get repaired until the gulf front condos and houses are repaired and after the H "season".

The water is clear in most cases, not much scrap on the beach, no jellyfish (yet), but I heard someone say something about the "red tide" but we have not seen evidence of it (not sure I know what red tide is?). Water is calm and warm.

Red Tide Report:

RED TIDE CURRENT STATUS REPORT (September 2)


Present Status: A Florida red tide has been detected this week in St. Vincent Sound and western Apalachicola Bay. Water samples collected from Franklin County contained low to medium concentrations of Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism. Fish kills were reported in Gulf, Franklin, and Wakulla counties, and respiratory irritation was reported in Gulf and Franklin counties. Low to high concentrations of K. brevis were detected last week at several sites off the coast of Taylor and Dixie counties, and a sample collected this week from the Florida Middlegrounds contained low concentrations of K. brevis. It is unknown if this bloom is continuous with the current southwest Florida bloom. Monitoring will continue.



http://research.myfwc.com/features/view_article.asp?id=12628

Oh, dear. We do not want this in SoWal.

It's been down here for months and months. Appears fairly regularly, yearly or maybe every other year, but this episode has been bad. It's a microorganism of some sort (Aquaticbiology can you help?) but isn't really known to hurt people. It is "blooming" due to the very warm waters in the Gulf. I seem to remember that we had a warm winter and the waters didn't cool down that much, so this year we've had a longer and more intense episode in the Tampa Bay area and points south.

While it doesn't hurt people generally, it kills lots of fish, and dead fish stink, driving away tourists. Also many people complain of stinging eyes and throat when they walk the beaches. But nobody walks the beaches because they stink.

It isn't this way every day, and it varies in intensity for sure, but it has been a big tourism problem for our area down here. A) it cuts down on the enjoyment of the beach. On bad days nobody wants to be there. And B) You start to run into the question of whether to warn renters about it ahead of time. You don't really know when it will be bad or when it will go away, but lots of people have flown here and been really angry that the beaches are in this condition during their vacation and nobody told them ahead of time. The hotels are being hush-hush. I would like to think that rental companies in SoWal would handle it better.

Bottom line, let's just all wish for October so things can cool down a bit and hopefully we won't have to see it this year ... or ever.

I see that it can cause respiratory problems. Has anyone is SoWal had problems with this in the past?

I'm not trying to start a panic here, just trying to educate myself. Thanks!

I see that it can cause respiratory problems. Has anyone is SoWal had problems with this in the past?

I'm not trying to start a panic here, just trying to educate myself. Thanks!

Yes, it causes respiratory problems in animals which live in the water. Red tide pretty much cuts off the supply of available O2.

Yes, it causes respiratory problems in animals which live in the water. Red tide pretty much cuts off the supply of available O2.

How about respiratory problems to humans? (walking on the beach and/or swimming in the gulf)

Red Tide

Karenia brevis(a.k.a. - Red Tide) produces brevetoxins that are capable of killing fish, birds, and other marine animals. Bottom-dwellers such as groupers and grunts are usually the first fish to die in a Florida red tide, although most fish are probably susceptible. Mortality, in terms of numbers killed and species affected, can be severe and is dependent upon factors such as bloom density and the length of time animals are exposed to the toxins.
Brevetoxins may also cause health problems in humans. The toxins accumulate in shellfish that are filter-feeders, such as oysters, clams, and coquinas, and may reach levels capable of causing neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP) when ingested. NSP is a temporary illness characterized by gastrointestinal and neurological distress. Symptoms include nausea and diarrhea; dizziness; muscular aches; and tingling and numbness in the tongue, lips, throat, and extremities. Symptoms of NSP usually appear within a few hours of eating contaminated shellfish and disappear within a few days. Brevetoxins can also irritate eyes and respiratory systems when the toxins become airborne in sea spray; the irritation disappears once a person is no longer exposed. Other public health effects caused by red tides include puncture wounds from spines when beaches are littered with dead fish and, rarely, contact dermatitis from exposure to brevetoxins in seawater.

I think my daughter and I may have had this while in Fla. recently :idontno: --we ate in Apalachicola and both suffered most of these symptoms shortly thereafter...lasted about 24 hours and then gone...thank god!

Thanks for this info, Smilin' Joe. I had these exact symptoms for about 24 hours while at the beach last year, had just enjoyed a dinner of various shellfish and this was almost three weeks after Hurricane Ivan. It was really scary, because in addition to very bad nausea and the other grim stuff, I had these neurological symptoms combined with a very high fever. My husband was ready to take me to the ER at Sacred Heart. Well, the good news is that I'm not allergic to shellfish. Now that would be REALLY scary!

I have been told that we shouldn't let our dogs swim in the lake or at the surf's edge when there is a red tide condition. And of course one shouldn't let their cat swim in the lake when it exists, no matter hard hard they beg. (Holiday weekend...really silly.... :laughing1

Seaside - Sept 03 2005



Seaside - Sept 03 2005



Grayton Beach - Sept 03 2005

Water is looking mighty fine.:lol:

Ohhhhh....thank you, Smilin' Joe! Your photos brought tears to my eyes. Marty and I wanted to know how we can get that cold brew or world class Margarita to you when we are there in October or December? And by the way, you are hereby allowed to jump that fence and enjoy a dip in our pool anytime you like! We are so thankful to you for getting us info after the storm.

Ohhhhh....thank you, Smilin' Joe! Your photos brought tears to my eyes. Marty and I wanted to know how we can get that cold brew or world class Margarita to you when we are there in October or December? And by the way, you are hereby allowed to jump that fence and enjoy a dip in our pool anytime you like! We are so thankful to you for getting us info after the storm.

Thanks! Your pool does often look rather inviting, like it did today, but I think I may scare your tenants if I decided to go swimming while they are around.:floor: I guess you could inform them that I come with the rental.:laughing1

Thanks! Your pool does often look rather inviting, like it did today, but I think I may scare your tenants if I decided to go swimming while they are around.:floor: I guess you could inform them that I come with the rental.:laughing1

Donna could raise her rates if that was the case....can you imagine having SJ welcoming your guests to 30-A? He could easily be the Ambassador of SoWal!!

Speaking about how the beach is now......does anyone know the answer to this question? When New Orleans pumps all that sewage, germ filled, toxic water out of the city and into the lake and the Gulf........is it filtered by the pumps? Or is all that crap going to be dumped into the Gulf only to start mixing into the waters that will hit all the other coastlines of the Gulf? I have not heard one person addressing the far reaching enviromental and human sickness problems this could cause if this junk just gets dumped and starts to float toward Florida's panhandle. Our beaches are not that far away from this. What would happen to the shrimp and fishing industry if this waste hits the water? UCK! Do we all need to start emailing our congressmen and local representatives with this concern? Anyone know the facts about this??

The beaches at Seaside are as good as they were Pre-Katrina and Post-Dennis. The water is clear and calm. The first sandbar seems bigger and shallower. Only knee deep yesterday afternoon. The sky is clear and the weather is fine. We expect to have another perfect day at the beach today.

The beach is perfect today. No flies! Calm surf. Hot. Several folks were out in their kayaks, and I counted 8 fishing boat trailers and 1 hobie cat trailer on Grayton Beach.

As a side note, my unscientific study indicates 3 to 3 1/2 inches of new sand on Grayton since the storm.

I think I might just head on back.

sunshine

As said in other posts, the beach is awesome today. We fished in the gulf and Eastern Lake this morning and we caught a few small ones and my 9 yr old caught a "brown" Snapper that was about a pound!!! We saw small rays in the surf, several crabs (both hermit and blues), and some crawfish in the outflow between the lake and the gulf.

We ate at Yianni's Seagrove Grill last night and it was excellent. My wife and I recommend it. BYOB but they have no "uncork charge" and flasks are welcome so enjoy.

My 4 yr old just told me today that "big yellow" (our Seagrove house) is his favorite place in the whole world. Priceless.

The flies are much less today and my vinegar mix is still working as previously reported!!! :clap_1: :clap_1: :clap_1:

Wish you'll coud be here. :welcome: Too bad we are leaving tomorrow sometime. Back to reality. :bang: :bang: :bang:

I am convinced that someday (soon I hope) we will come down here and never go back. :cool:

We ate at Yianni's Seagrove Grill last night and it was excellent. My wife and I recommend it. BYOB but they have no "uncork charge" and flasks are welcome so enjoy.

The flies are much less today and my vinegar mix is still working as previously reported!!! :clap_1: :clap_1: :clap_1:

I did not know Yianni's allowed that. Cool.

Glad to read that there are some flies out. I added vinegar to my home brew natural insect repellent and want to test it out. It was still holding back the mosquitos this morning. The vinegar smell is practically non-existant, so I hope it works.😀

I have no idea what they plan to do with that filth and corpse laiden water but I will cry if they pump it out into the gulf.

Crab trap in destin sand is beautiful...water was great today. some snorklers found part of the swing set stuck in the sand bar and brought it ashore. while gardening this morning I had a bunch of flys. it was awful!