how far offshore is the Red Tide affecting catches ?

The current outbreak of Red Tide has killed beach angling . Presumably most of the fish have moved offshore . Any idea how far out you have to go find them around the Ballysadare / Sligo bay area ?
Cheers

its all over mayo too,,,,lugs are dead,,dead fish found up near enniscrone estuary,,,,,,there is not a flat to be seen,,,had a few trout yesterday ,,,,,,i think this tide takes alot of oxygen out of the sand and water when in close so the flats wouldnt like that so they head for deeper water,,,shame on this tide,,,hope it clears soon and having said that the water in killala bay has becoming back to it proper colour in the last few days so things are looking up,,,fingers crossed

Is there a site where we can monitor where the Red Tide is at the moment. I know for sure that any shell fish taken from that area would be dangerous for human consumption and people need to be aware of where it is spreading.

pdate on North West Algal Bloom
North West Algal Bloom Ireland


The bloom that has been affecting areas of the North West from Mayo to Donegal and at lower concentrations down along the rest of the West coast continues to impact on coastal marine life in several areas.

Mr Joe Silke of the Marine Institute stated today “The bloom that reported by the Marine Institute in the North West over the past two weeks, has shown some signs of increase along the west coast in the past few days. We started to detect low levels of it in the water from late May, but in the past two weeks it developed into a dense bloom in parts of the north-western counties from the Mayo to Donegal area.

In the past week high levels have been detected in Galway Bay, but no mortalities have so far been reported in this region. In Donegal the bloom was so dense that there were many reports of discoloured red or brown water in some areas and several areas have reported dead marine life washing up on the shoreline requiring Local Authorities to close certain beaches.”

This is a one of several microscopic algae that occur naturally in coastal waters, this particular one is called Karenia mikimotoi. Dead fish on Rossnowlagh Beach Photo:Paddy Ennis While the algae is not harmful to humans it did result in large numbers of dead fish including turbot, flounder, scorpion fish and shore rockling in Inner Donegal Bay. Other dead species were worm pipefish, lesser weavers, grey gurnard, shanny, sand goby, pollock, sole, plaice, flounder and dabs which have been washing up on Rossnowlagh and Murvagh beaches and earlier this week red flags were raised. The Local Authorities took the decision to close both beaches in response to large numbers of dead fish but these restrictions have been lifted on Tuesday. The situation is being closely monitored by the Marine Institute and Donegal County Council who are both keeping the public informed as the situation progresses on their websites. Mortalities of marine organisms have also been reported from the Sligo and Mayo coastal regions.

Local sea anglers have reported low fish catches along the Donegal coast, and in some areas a complete absence of any fish. This is due to the bloom which fish will avoid when they can. Lobster and Prawn fishermen have also reported very poor catches in the Donegal area. Oyster farms in Donegal also were reported to have suffered losses of up to 80% of stocks in some areas.

Mr Silke explained “The bloom affects species that live on or near the sea bed so we are seeing flatfish, lugworms and some shellfish getting washed up on the beaches. It is a natural bloom which we have seen it to occur in several places over the years. It is believed that it originates offshore as a natural part of its summer life cycle, and gets concentrated up against the coast with tidal and coastal currents.”

Some indications that the bloom may be moving back out to sea were observed in the latest satellite images and modelling data, however cell counts of samples analysed in the Marine Institute today show that the bloom is still of the same density in the Donegal and Sligo regions as it was last week, but increased levels were reported in Galway Bay.

The Marine Institute’s monitoring programme will continue to sample and monitor the bloom and post updates on our website at marine.ie and on local radio.

taken from marine.ie
updated and published 14/july/2012

Is there a site where we can monitor where the Red Tide is at the moment. I know for sure that any shell fish taken from that area would be dangerous for human consumption and people need to be aware of where it is spreading.

Some updates here http://www.marine.ie/home/aboutus/newsr ... lBloom.htm

Hi

Mulranny, Mayo

I was down on a small beach yesterday with the kids and decided to check out the rock pools - all the seaweed was in a terrible state however there was plenty of life in the pools - hermit crabs, crabs, lots of different kinds of fry, blennies and tons of shrimps, so there is hope.

Saw one lad (parked up in a white van) spinning off the completely wrong place (!) on the rocks but he gave up after 20 minutes around HW - wind / sea was choppy and straight in your face from the SW.