Fish kill in Matlacha over, waters cleared weeks after Tropical Storm Debby

Chad Gillis, Fort Myers News-Press
·2 min read

The waters in Matlacha Pass have cleared after post-Debby conditions caused a fish kill there.

Tropical Storm Debby dropped several inches of rain across the region, and a lot of that water ended up in Matlacha Pass.

Due to excess nutrients and low dissolved oxygen levels and other water quality issues, hundreds of fish died near the small fishing community.

Calusa Waterkeeper Codty Pierce said the waters have cleared since but that he's still concerned about nutrients in the system.

"The majority of that turbidity issue has been flushed out," Pierce said. "The only place I'm seeing turbidity and algae is in the little oxbows, and following that fish kill we were leading up to a strong moon and a lot of water is being flushed and it's flushed all the contaminants north and south."

Pierce said the water is still loaded with nutrients, and that those nutrients could eventually feed an algae bloom or create another water quality problem.

An aerial shows a bloom and fish kills in the Matlacha Pass area. A retired biologist says the fish kill there was likely rooted in stormwater runoff from Cape Coral that happened during Tropical Storm Debby.
An aerial shows a bloom and fish kills in the Matlacha Pass area. A retired biologist says the fish kill there was likely rooted in stormwater runoff from Cape Coral that happened during Tropical Storm Debby.

"The sediments and nutrients are still in the ecosystem," he said. "Some of the suspended nutrients have been flushed out but there's still a tremendous amount of sediment on the sea floor."

Dee Brennan, who works at D&D Matlacha Bait and Tackle, said the water looks good in the pass right now, and that fishing has been excellent in the past week or so.

Waters have cleared in Matlacha Pass

She said agents with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC, cleaned about 100 fish off the dock near their shop.

"It was the freshwater rain, and there was an overabundance of it," Brennan said of the fish kill. "FWC said it was like an explosion, and it takes the oxygen out of the water."

Brennan said the turbid waters have settled in the past week.

"Everything's better now," Brennan said. "It's super clear and the wind has been blowing, and the tides have been strong and it has cleared everything up."

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Matlacha Pass waters in better shape after fish kill post T.S. Debby