Page 66 - Panama City Living Magazine September-October 2019

REDFISH RELEASE
for the water. One oyster can filter an average of 50 gal- lons of water a day. Oysters that grow in areas where red tide occurs are unsuitable for human consumption.
As efforts to clean up the Gulf waters continue, so will the need for people to intervene and repopulate certain fish species. Kranz says he believes we will see even more red tide incidents than we’ve seen in the past. He points out that the higher concentration of nutrients and warm- er waters we've been seeing create a perfect environment for red tide to thrive.
As the volunteer community members from Port St. Joe stood on the beach during the fish release in May, it felt like residents had just won a small battle in the bigger war against red tide. With the large crowd of helpers, it only took about one hour for 8,000 juvenile redfish to make their way into the bay.
As the final bags of fish were poured, released redfish could be seen swimming in the shallows. The newest resi- dents in Port St. Joe were settling in, along with the hope for a year free of red tide.
66 • September–October 2019 • www.PanamaCityLiving.com