Murky waters at Naples Pier keep swimmers away

Beachgoers played volleyball or soaked in the sun, but no one ventured into the murky waters around Naples Pier on Sunday.

The telltale coughing accompanying red tide algal blooms was absent, but the water was opaque more than a few feet from the shore.

“If you put it in the microwave, you could drink it like coffee,” said Brian Hobbs, a longtime Naples resident.

Hobbs and his friend Pat Musumamo were fishing off the Pier through the early afternoon with little luck.

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Scientists were unavailable Sunday to comment on what's causing the murky water, but Musumamo said he thinks it's pollution.

“This is worse than red tide,” he said. “If this were red tide, we would be coughing.”

People still walked up and down the Pier, but beachgoers had plenty of empty space to themselves as the sands were sparsely populated, even for the off-season.

“I can’t believe people swim in this,” Musumamo said.

While people have avoided the murky water, dolphins seemed fine to hunt in the dark.

Pods are hunting the fish around the Pier, even swimming right up to the coastline for a meal, as one beachgoer caught on camera Saturday.

Severe algal blooms have slowed, and live fish have returned to the support poles around the Pier, Naples Harbormaster Roger Jacobsen said.

“Anytime you have a structure, you have fish around it,” he said. “The small fish are eaten by bigger fish, and they get bigger and bigger and bigger, and then they draw in the dolphins.”

Some fish swim just feet from the shoreline, and dolphins will swim anywhere to grab a bite to eat, Jacobsen said.

Dead fish killed by red tide are usually untouched by dolphins, he said.

“They are hunters,” Jacobsen said.

Fish normally found in deeper waters such as cowfish and sea robins are finding their way around the Pier, Jacobsen said, which also makes good food for the dolphins.

Offshore species can come closer to shore to avoid red tide or low oxygen conditions created as a byproduct of red tide. 

Dolphins bumping and roughhousing close to shore isn’t a cause for concern, even with the months of algal blooms poisoning coastal waters, Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen was at the Pier on Saturday when someone recorded a video of a dolphin pod with babies swimming close to shore.

"It's great to see them around the Pier, even if the water is murky," he said.