Crews work to clean up dead fish on Sanibel

Reporter: Morgan Rynor
Published: Updated:
WINK News file photo

Crews began working to rid Sanibel of thousands of dead fish by cleaning the island.

“We’re on a three week vacation from the UK and we’re traveling the whole of Florida,” said United Kingdom resident Anthony Stansfield.

From coast to coast, this family is seeing the difference that red tide makes.

“We didn’t experience any of it while we were on the Miami side and we’ve been experiencing it at various beaches here on this coast,” Stansfield said.

Only entering the water on the east coast, the Stansfield’s say they might time their vacation differently next year.

“It’s just a shame about the stench and to see all the devastation with the dead fish and all the other dead animals on the beaches,” Stansfield said.

Beaches on the bay side of Sanibel are being hit the hardest, according to the most recent Sanibel report.

A Goliath Grouper weighing nearly 350 pounds washed ashore early Monday morning.

“Well we’re continuing our cleanup from the red tide. We obviously have fish kill and fish washing up,” said Keith Williams, of the Public Works Department.

These crews have been out here for a week, and areas like the Lighthouse Beach are looking much better.

“They go by a couple of times a day, and we got down here to the lighthouse i thought it was going to be much worse but it is pretty clean,” said vacationer Greg Cramer.

Both locals and vacationers alike appreciate the effort, and Williams says it’s not going to stop until the red tide does.

“We’re going to continue that process as the entire fish kill and red tide continues,” Williams said.

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