Page 63 - Panama City Living Magazine September-October 2019
P. 63
Redfish
RELEASE
STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FENDER
The waters off Port St. Joe in Northwest Florida are a fisherman’s dream—at first glance. Driving along Highway 98, the road hugs closely to the bay, with water so still on some days, it looks like liquid metal and mirrors the sky above. It begs you to throw in a line and watch the surface ripple while you wait for a fish to take hold.
Beneath the surface things are not quite so picture-perfect. Red tide, a phenomenon caused by algal blooms, is a frequent occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico and while its effects are most frequently observed along the coastlines of west and south Florida, in 2017 and 2018, red tide struck Port St. Joe. One of the results of this toxic algal bloom was the death of massive numbers of fish.
www.PanamaCityLiving.com • September–October 2019 • 63
