The sight and smell of dead fish around Tampa Bay is hard to miss

TAMPA, Fla. - High concentrations of red tide in Tampa Bay are causing massive amounts of fish kills, and experts say it’s still early in the rainy season to see fish kills at this magnitude.

"It sucks for the people who do fish, the business of fishing in this area is also big and it's taking a beating, it's terrible man," said James Van Dyke, who likes to fish as a hobby.  

Efforts to clean up all of the dead fish are happening across the region. Volunteers at Grandview Park in south Sarasota County did a coastal clean-up Saturday afternoon.
               
"Today our focus was to collect trash and educate people here about planting seagrass, oyster restoration natural grass restoration, and then mangrove restoration, really highlighting, when red tide is here when we have these healthy ecosystems, there's a better bounce back for the fish and the fishery," said Kyle Rossinof MangGear.

In Tampa, the city shut down the dog beach at Picnic Island on Friday.

In St. Petersburg, more than 120 employees have been taken off their normal jobs to remove dead fish around the clock.

Pinellas County contracts DRC Emergency Management to clean up the dead fish. The company says it had three boats out on the bay doing clean-ups on Saturday and will have eight boats out on the Bay on Sunday.

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