NOKOMIS, Fla. — Florida health officials are urging caution along the Tampa Bay coast, including nearly every Sarasota county beach, after detecting mild to medium levels of red tide.
It's the harmful algal bloom that can kill fish and cause respiratory illnesses in people.
Local health officials have issued an alert for people to use caution at nearly every beach in the county, including Lido Beach, Siesta Key Beach, Turtle Beach, Nokomis Beach, North Jetty Beach, Venice Beach, Service Club Beach, the Venice Fishing Pier, the Ringling Causeway, Brohard Park Beach, and Manasota Key Beach.
It's stressful news for businesses still recovering from the impacts of two hurricanes.
Pelican Alley, a Nokomis Beach staple, has been working non-stop to rebuild since hurricanes Helene and Milton flooded their restaurant.
Tommy Adorna, co-owner of Pelican Alley said, "It came in and it was about halfway up these windows, probably about five feet."
He said it's the worst damage the restaurant, one of the oldest in the state, has ever seen. And he knows he's not alone.
"Anyone who is going through it, it’s a hard time," Adorna said.
Tommy and his wife Renee Adorna hope to reopen Pelican Alley at the start of December. But they said a significant bloom of red tide could cut business in half or more.
"It definitely impacts us because we’re right on the water," Tommy Adorna said.
"People change their trips, we can’t serve outside, people don’t want to sit outside so we lose that," Renee Adorna explained.
It's the same story at Suntan Terrace Beach Resort.
Manager Patty Jo Hill-Ferraro said, "It can be rough. It has been before. We’ve had red tides that shut us down."
But Hill-Ferraro said their regulars are eager for them to recover and reopen. She said most of them are unlikely to be deterred by these levels of red tide.
"Minor red tides are pretty much ignored by locals and visitors alike," Hill-Ferraro said.
It seems to be the price of paradise.
According to the Adornas, the key to success is to accept hurricanes and red tides as part of doing business along Florida's beautiful coast.
Tommy Adorna said, "We think something is always possibly going to happen. It’s not, ‘Oh, it’s never going to happen.’ We say, ‘Oh, it’s Florida, when is it going to happen?"
How to check for red tide
FWC's red tide map shows what level of red tide, from background to high, has been detected at each beach.
Mote Marine Laboratory's beach condition map allows you to see everything from sunset time to water temperature to crowd size to reports of debris, respiratory irritation, dead fish, etc.
FWC's red tide resource page explains the differences in what you can expect from background, very low, low, medium and high levels of red tide.
10 Tampa Bay's Andrea Chu contributed to this report.