Florida Red Tide Today, Beach by Beach

Reading this map honestly

Red tide is patchy and it moves. A “not present” reading means the last water sample near that beach came back clean — it does not promise tomorrow, and a “medium” twenty miles away can arrive on a few days of onshore wind. The per-beach pages pair the samples with live wind direction for exactly that reason: a bloom offshore on an east wind is a very different day than the same bloom on a sea breeze.

No samples listed for a beach means FWC hasn’t tested that stretch lately — common in the Keys and on the Atlantic side, where blooms are rare. That’s an absence of data, not an all-clear, and the beach pages say so rather than pretending.

Common questions

Is there red tide in Florida right now?

Yes, at some level. The strongest recent reading near our spots is medium (newest sample: Aug 17). Check the beach-by-beach table — red tide is patchy, and one beach can be miserable while the next one up the coast is fine.

How current is this map?

FWC republishes its Karenia brevis sample layer daily, and this page refreshes every hour. But the samples themselves are collected every few days per site, not continuously — always treat a reading as “the last time somebody tested,” not a live sensor.

Which coast gets red tide the worst?

The southwest Gulf coast — roughly Tampa Bay down through Naples — sees the most frequent and intense blooms, usually late summer into fall. The Panhandle gets occasional events. The Atlantic side is largely spared: K. brevis is a Gulf organism, and it only reaches the east coast when currents carry a bloom around the Keys.

Can I fish during red tide?

Often, yes — away from the worst of it. Fish that are actively dying are in distress, but healthy fish caught in clear water inside a general bloom area are considered safe to eat filleted. Avoid harvesting shellfish during any bloom, and if a beach is stacked with dead fish, move: your lungs will thank you and the bite there is dead anyway.