{"id":236300,"date":"2026-04-17T23:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/236300\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:25:09","slug":"fort-myers-beach-announces-another-fish-kill-event-fort-myers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/236300\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Myers Beach announces another fish kill event – FORT MYERS"},"content":{"rendered":"


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According to Fort MYERS Beach Environmental Project Manager Chadd Chustz, there was a fish kill event at the lagoon in the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area near the former Wyndham Garden Inn. Photo by Nathan Mayberg<\/p>\n

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According to Fort MYERS Beach Environmental Project Manager Chadd Chustz, there was a fish kill event at the lagoon in the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area near the former Wyndham Garden Inn. Photo by Nathan Mayberg<\/p>\n

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Fort Myers Beach Environmental Project Manager Chadd Chustz is calling for town residents to limit the use of fertilizer and to plant native vegetation after Friday’s large fish kill event that town officials believe may have been caused by fertilizer runoff. Photo by Stephen Clark<\/p>\n

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Just weeks after scores of dead fish were pulled out of Buccaneer Lagoon on the bay side of the south end of Fort Myers Beach, approximately a dozen dead fish were reported in a beach lagoon this past week in the 7000 block of Estero Boulevard that between 70 and 80 fish, including mainly redfish and mullet, Fort Myers Beach Environmental Project Manager Chadd Chustz told the Fort Myers Beach Marine and Environmental Resources Task Force at their most recent meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shallow, it\u2019s not tidally connected currently. It\u2019s stagnant water, it\u2019s not flowing,\u201d Chustz said. \u201cIt is noticeably low. You can see how much the shoreline has retreated which is probably due to the drought conditions we have been having. We took samples.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chustz said Florida Gulf Coast University took samples of the water, which was shipped to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Chustz said the latest water test result could be indicative of an algal bloom, due to the high chlorophyll recorded.<\/p>\n

According to Chustz, the dead fish were pulled out of the lagoon in the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area. Several days after questions were sent to Chustz, Public Information Officer Abigail Eberhart and Town Manager Will McKannay seeking more specificity, Chustz said about a dozen dead fish were found along the shore though he didn\u2019t clarify questions seeking answers about the 70-80 dead fish he said were found in the lagoon. Eberhart and McKannay did not respond to follow-up questions.<\/p>\n

Chustz has maintained that he believes the first fish kill incident at Buccaneer Lagoon last month was due to fertilizer runoff that followed a heavy rain event on March 7. \u201cIt was only one-third of an inch but it did come down hard,\u201d Chustz told the Marine and Environmental Resources Task Force (MERTF). He said the fish kill reports began coming in on March 11. Samples were taken March 13 as town staff removed the dead fish out of the lagoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe walked the grounds. There are areas where grass is being fertilized what would run off into the mangrove areas,\u201d Chustz said. Chustz said the algal bloom could potentially be growing naturally but fertilizer could \u201cexacerbate that.\u201d He said town staff has been educating local residents about the town\u2019s fertilizer ordinance. Town staff will be bringing recommendations for fertilizer use to local condo owners in the area to inform them of their town\u2019s fertilizer ordinance, he said. \u201cNobody wants to see dead fish,\u201d Chustz said. It\u2019s not good for business or anyone who lives there. he said.<\/p>\n

Fort Myers Beach Marine and Environmental Resources Task Force Chair Dave Nusbaum asked Chustz his degree of confidence that the first fish kill event was due to fertilizer runoff at Buccaneer bay or if it is possible that the fish kill was due to sewage. \u201cThe storm sewers are hooked up for discharging into the back bay,\u201d Nusbaum said. \u201cI wanted to just float the possibility that somebody dumped something into the storm sewer at a point that it flowed into the back bay and created the fish kill.<\/p>\n

Chustz responded that town staff cruised \u201cthe whole lagoon, we went outside the lagoon.\u201d Chustz said at the end of the lagoon there is Lee County Stormwater. \u201cThere is an input there but the water looked normal,\u201d he said. \u201cThat would be the least flushd If there was something happening there, it would have still been there when we were kind of scouting around. That stormwater, everything seemed situation-normal over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chustz said it wasn\u2019t surprising to find all of the dead fish located in the canal, congregated at one area, due to the wind conditions. \u201cIt seems likely that is the epicenter of those mangroves next to the condos where things were happening,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have an increase in nutrients, the algate that is already there blooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elevated numbers of nutrients depletes the oxygen and leads to dead fish, Chustz said.<\/p>\n

Chustz said the town is working on educational materials to send to town residents to prevent future fish kill events from happening.<\/p>\n

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) studied last month\u2019s fish kill, FWC Public Information Officer Bradley Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn response to the discolored water and fish kills reported in Buccaneer Bay and its canal system, FWC worked with local partners to investigate the event,\u201d Johnson said. Environmental date and water tests showed that \u201cdissolved oxygen was extremely low ranging from 0.03-3.35mg per liter. The water samples were analyzed by our Harmful Algal Bloom staff, and the samples were dominated by various raphidophytes and the dinoflagellates Heterocapsa spp. It is not clear the relationship between the observed description of the pale\/chalky discolored water and the microalgae observed, since water discoloration by these species are typically, respectively, greenish-brown and reddish. It is widely known that the accumulation of organic matter from microalgae and other aquatic organisms, and the decomposition that follows, may account for the depleted oxygen and the odors emitted by anaerobic bacteria releasing sulfides and similar chemicals which smell similar to rotten eggs or sewage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said that water collected from the site and brought to Florida Gulf Coast University staff to investigate the fish kill, preserved a sample for harmful algal bloom analysis by the FWC. \u201cThe sample was dominated by a species of the diatom Chaetocerous sp. While numerically abundant, this was a very small cell (only ~5\u00b5m in diameter) and thus did not raise concerns in terms of accumulating high biomass in association with this event,\u201d Johnson said. He also cirted drought conditions in the area which may have combined with low water levels and higher temperatures to elevate \u201cthe demand for dissolved oxygen, a deficit of which could not be met. These factors together appear to have resulted in the fish kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Parsons, professor of marine science at Florida Gulf Coast University, also observed the testing data.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, lots of phytoplankton, especially at the first two sites, and very low oxygen levels,\u201d Parsons said in an email. \u201cNon-toxic phytoplankton. I would guess that the phytos and other critters drew down oxygen levels to the point that fish could no longer breathe (there wasn\u2019t enough oxygen to pass across their gills), causing them to die due to lack of oxygen.\u00a0 Water was probably stagnant (not exchanging much with bay or gulf waters), allowing the phytos to grow and draw down oxygen without getting flushed out by tides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, the FGCU Water School is holding a water collection day on Fort Myers Beach this Saturday, April 18. The water testing pickup starts at 10:30 a.m. at the offices of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce at 100 Lovers Lanes on Fort Myers Beach and needs to be dropped off at 11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n


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