Red tide: St. Lucie County beaches to be tested this week for algae bloom from Fort Myers

Seven St. Lucie County beaches will be tested this week for possible red tide.

There have been no reports of red tide-like symptoms on the county's beaches, spokesman Erick Gill said Monday, "but they're going to test just to be sure."

The state confirmed red tide on Palm Beach County beaches, which have been closed since Saturday, and suspects its arrival on Martin County beaches, where people complained of breathing problems Sunday. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will test to confirm there, too.

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Red tide could have made its way to the Treasure Coast from the Gulf of Mexico, said Ed Phlips, an algae expert at the University of Florida.

"If all the conditions are right, a red tide bloom can come around the tip of Florida, get caught in the Gulf Stream, which is very close to shore along the Treasure Coast, and be blown onto the beaches," Phlips said Monday.

Nutrient-laden water from Lake Okeechobee discharges flowing out the St. Lucie Inlet could be feeding the red tide, added Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society on Hutchinson Island near Stuart Beach.

St. Lucie County beaches

Waveland Beach in St. Lucie County is just three miles north of Jensen Beach, the northernmost of four Martin County beaches where lifeguards were removed Sunday because an unknown irritant was making them cough. Also affected were Stuart, Bathtub and Hobe Sound beaches. 

"It's certainly possible that, if the winds and currents are right, they could push red tide up here," Gill said. 

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The red tide's effects could be patchy, Phlips said.

"You could have a lot coming ashore at one spot, and then nothing just a couple of hundred yards down the beach," he said.

Red tide can be in the water without there being a visible bloom, Phlips and Perry said. 

"It would be hard to see a bloom in the water," Perry said.

The FWC is expected to take water samples this week and send them to the agency's lab in St. Petersburg to test.

Lake Okeechobee discharges 

Red tide is wreaking environmental havoc on Florida's southwest coast, where tons of dead fish and other marine life has washed up on Gulf Coast beaches.

More: Red tide causing dead zones in Gulf of Mexico

The red tide also could move through the St. Lucie Inlet and into the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon on an incoming tide," Phlips said. But it wouldn't last long because of low salinity.

The red tide probably won't last more than a couple of weeks, Phlips said.

"That would be my guess," he said. "But I can't say for sure. It depends on how long favorable conditions continue."

Surf report: Cough and rash

Alex Rivera, 54, of Sewall's Point started coughing Sunday afternoon as he was planting coconut palms along the dune at Chastain Rocks Beach just north of Bathtub Beach.

"Within 20 minutes of getting to the beach, I started getting like a tickle in my throat and a slight cough," Rivera said Monday. "A friend came to help me, and within 10 minutes he was coughing."

Later in the afternoon, Rivera went surfing at Jensen Beach Public Beach.

"It was OK," he said, "nothing like at the Rocks, but the air just didn't feel natural."

After surfing for just about 30 minutes — "The waves were breaking too close to shore," he said — Rivera got out of the water, took off his shirt and noticed a rash covering most of his left side.

"It looked like a jellyfish sting," he said, "but there weren't any jellyfish."