About 20 dead sea turtles have washed ashore in Pinellas County, Florida over the past three days, an extremely high number that has doctors and scientists puzzled.
"It may or may not be associated with red tide," said Dr. Janine Cianciolo of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. "They tend to show symptoms of what's called a red tide intoxication, but you have to take a lot of samples and they must go through testing to actually determine that."
Recent underwater videos show a massive die-off of sea life along the west Florida coast.
"Right now, anywhere we go from shore to 20 miles offshore, from Sarasota to Tarpon Springs, we can't find a single creature alive on the bottom right now," said dive instructor Michael Miller. "All the coral, all the sponges, all the crabs, not a single living thing, all the star fish, the brittle stars, everything's dead," said Miller.
PROFILE
- Explorer at Large
- Casey is a freelance adventure/travel writer and photographer. He was born in New Orleans and has lived and worked in Florida, South Carolina, Colorado, the Caribbean and British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. His eclectic background includes stints in radio and television as a news director, talk-show host and play-by-play announcer. His travels have taken him throughout the Caribbean — most notably the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Turks & Caicos and Haiti. His articles and photos have appeared in numerous national and international publications. He currently is working on a novel and on a history of Florida's barrier islands. Casey is married and has four children. He, his wife and two youngest children live in the Leeward Islands and spend time between northern Arizona and Washington State's Olympic Peninsula.