The dead fish started washing ashore Monday morning near Vanderbilt Beach in Collier County, just north of Naples. Now, state researchers in the Bay Area work to figure out what's killing all the sea life.
"We can microscope, analyze the cells at the cellular level," Biologist Catalina Brown tells 10 News as she sorts through tissue samples from dead fish at the Fish & Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg. Brown is one state researcher working to solve the mystery of what's killing all sorts of fish in Collier County.
"We found lots of interesting creatures," one Naples tourist says. "We found some crabs, some sting rays, and some little horned fish." She and others visiting the beach couldn't help but notice how many kinds of fish swam right up to shore.
Biologists say stress might be pushing fish toward the beach, away from what is lurking off-shore - a large bloom of two kinds of algae. "The Hiemalis is a non-toxic species. The Takayama Tuberculata is not known to have documented toxins in Florida water, but it is related to species that produce toxin," explains Carli Segelson with the state Research Institute.
Segelson says large patches of algae, like what might exist near Collier County, can be deadly to sea life. "The water samples we did take a look at showed there was low dissolved oxygen in the water and those levels were low enough to result in a fish kill. It's not uncommon for a large algae bloom to deplete the oxygen levels in the water."
Samples of the fish and ocean water from Collier County don't show any signs of disease, parasites, or Red Tide - yet. However, biologists still need to run tests on two dead sharks from the beach and at least four more samples of ocean water. So, for now, biologists can only guess what's to blame for the fish kill.
If you see any dead fish along Florida's shores, call the Fish & Wildlife Fish Kill Hotline at: 1-800-636-0511.
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