Ft Myers Beach in summer

[anne1125]

I've just read in a few reviews that Ft Myers Beach has murky water. We have a reservation for next August but now I'm not so sure.

What do you think?

Anne

 

[chriskre]

I only go in the summer and love it most years.
Yes the water can be murky and sometimes sadly have red tide, but it's a crap shoot. Other times it's beautiful and almost clear.
If there are storms brewing then it tends to be murkier.
I still go in when it's murky but wear water shoes and shuffle your feet so you don't step on any stingrays.

 

[ronparise]

I've just read in a few reviews that Ft Myers Beach has murky water. We have a reservation for next August but now I'm not so sure.

What do you think?

Anne

The problem at Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island is Lake Okeechobee


(from The Conservancy of Southwest Florida website http://www.conservancy.org/)

As polluted water released from Lake Okeechobee continues to rush down the Caloosahatchee River, dark dirty water plagues our beaches and threatens our greatest economic engine – tourism. Many of you may be experiencing the ripple effects first hand.

Economic impact on real estate and tourism: Recent survey reflects 90 percent on hotels on Fort Myers Beach reporting cancellations and 70 percent of visitors say they won’t be back.

Large areas of seagrasses being killed: Seagrass is a main source of food for juvenile fish and endangered manatees.

Sport fishing industry suffering and potential long-term effects of juvenile fish dying as a result of poorer water quality, less habitat availability and lower oxygen levels in the water from nutrient-fueled algae outbreaks.

Large amounts of nutrient pollution pouring in with resulting algae already visible in the river. This pollution fuels green slime algae outbreaks, which often have produced toxins to aquatic life and threatened public health - resulting in the repeated closure of a major water plant that services Lee County residents.

Mass oyster die off occurring: Juvenile oysters are dying off and water conditions are currently lethal for oysters, which are an important economic resource as well as habitat for many marine species and for water quality.

Harmfully high and heavily polluted water releases from Lake Okeechobee have been coming down the Caloosahatchee these past few months at up to three times higher than that known to produce significant harm: causing large-scale die offs of oysters and seagrasses, destroying habitat for endangered species, and degrading water quality in the river and estuary.

The pollution these releases are bringing is not only discoloring our water now, but is accumulating and will have lingering effects in fueling future algae blooms. Those blooms are not only unsightly but unsafe; creating toxins that kill aquatic life and pose a public health risk.

Inversely, in the dry season, the Caloosahatchee is often cut off completely from any flows from the Lake, causing the river to stagnate and portions to even flow backwards. The alternating mismanagement of either too much or too little flow is destroying the Caloosahatchee river and estuary systems, the basis of the region’s tourism-based economy.

The Caloosahatchee River was connected years ago to Lake Okeechobee through an artificial dredged canal in order to divert water previously flowing south of the Lake to the Everglades. This was done to create the Everglades Agricultural Area, an area of the former Everglades that was drained to be used for large-scale sugar cane production by agribusinesses.

Being constrained to a few small canals instead of the former large flowway south of the Lake, when lake levels get too deep, water has to be discharged east to the St. Lucie and west to the Caloosahatchee instead of flowing where it formerly had.

Also, nutrient pollution (from sewage, fertilizer, manure, etc.) has reached unsafe levels throughout Florida because Florida has not had measurable enforceable nutrient water quality standards. Agriculture and developments are also not being required to adequately retain and treat their own run-off on-site. This has resulted in too much pollution getting into waterways and flowing downstream

 

[Bwolf]

Just go and enjoy the experience. Whether or not the water is murky is out of your control.

There are efforts to manage Lake Okeechobee discharges better than in the past. That should help quite a bit.

 

[anne1125]

Thanks for the replies. I guess we'll give it a shot.

 

[TomR]

Anne: We have been to Sanibel, which is right off shore from Ft. Myers, a couple of times during the August/September timeframe. The water was somewhat murky one time but also warm every time. We spent more time in that "murky" water enjoying ourselves than any other beach vacation that I recall. We loved it. Enjoy your vacation.

Tom

 

[chriskre]

Thanks for the replies. I guess we'll give it a shot.

Worse case scenario, you hang out by the pool and just enjoy the gulf view sunsets which are spectacular and worth going just for that.

I don't think you'll regret your decision unless a hurricane passes thru.