The city of Boca Raton announced Wednesday that they have sent water samples to the FWC, to see if red tide is present.
“As soon as I walked up to the beach I already felt it like, a tickle in my throat,” said Brian Puebla, who was visiting South Beach Park in Boca Raton.
We also saw some dead fish on the beach.
“It’s kind of disheartening honestly, I really like being here,” said Lily Richman, who was also visiting the beach in Boca.
And now the question for Boca Raton, is the naturally occurring red tide algae bloom here too, like it is to our north, confirmed at some beaches all the way to St. Lucie County?
“We went last week and it was really clear and the water was great but now we noticed the water is more cloudy,” said Andrew Sanchez, who is also visiting the beach in Boca.
The amount of dead fish we found in southern Palm Beach County pales in comparison to what Chopper 5 exclusively captured earlier in the day in northern Palm Beach County.
Red tide has not been confirmed as the cause of death for any of those fish. That testing is still underway.
But the conditions in Boca Raton have Brian Puebla and Sebastian Estrada rethinking their workout routine on the beach until they know for sure what’s in the air and water.
“Take a week off. Take as long as you need. Health is the number one thing,” Puebla said.
“It’s definitely not the most comfortable thing in the world. I tried to go into the water, as you can see I’m like halfway wet. I decided to come out because there was too much algae. I felt an itch on my legs,” Estrada said.
If you do discover dead fish, you’re asked to call FWC’s fish kill hotline 800-636-0511.