Cortez residents say lots of dead fish, bad smell in area

CORTEZ -- In the 19 years John Jelinek has lived along Sarasota Bay, he has never seen the water there as bad as it is now.

The large number of dead fish, foul odors and murky water have concerned the Paradise Bay Estates resident and assistant dock master.

"I've never seen anything like this," Jelinek said Friday morning. "It's really bad."

Residents in Paradise Bay Estates, 10315 Cortez Road W., say they saw the conditions worsen Thursday and believe it to be caused by a sewage leak of some sort.

"It doesn't have a red-tide smell to it," Jelinek said. "It has a sewer smell to it. That's what has me concerned."

Manatee County officials say it is not related to the sewage system.

"We have had no leaks, no breaks and no repairs anywhere in the area at all," said Amy Pilson, a spokeswoman for the Manatee County Utilities System. Manatee County went out to inspect the area Friday.

A water sample taken by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission determined that the oxygen level in the water was half of what it should be, Pilson said Friday afternoon. If the oxygen level in the water is too low, fish can't survive.

Based on that information and the inability to identify any other source, algae bloom was determined to be the cause, she said.

"Around this time of year we do tend to have algae blooms," Pilson said, adding that they've "pretty much ruled out" red tide. "It's been a very large unified effort to try to determine the source of this outbreak."

The conditions will improve once the tides change and the area gets rain, which will dissipate it, Pilson said.

"It's just the natural part of the environment and it will run its course," she said.

Yet the poor water conditions are keeping Paradise Bay Estates residents off the water.

Don Domrose, who was out along the dock Friday morning near his boat, said he was going to go out on the water Thursday but changed his mind.

"This, nobody seems to know what it is," he said.

For the past two days, Werner Rimatzki has watched shrimp that were in a metal bucket on the docks in 6 feet of water die within 30 minutes.

"I want to know what is killing my shrimp," said Rimatzki, who in the last 10 years has never seen anything like this. "The water is dirty. It's green. It smells. We want to know what's going on with it."

No one is going out in the water, which has a distinct sewage smell to it, said Bobby Shepherd, who has lived in Paradise Bay Estates for three years.

"It is obviously a health hazard here now," Shepherd said. "This is extremely unusual."

All the fish are dying, said resident Sonny Maurice.

"I've never seen it like this," he said. "It's terrible. I've been here 17 years and never saw it like that."

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter @Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Cortez residents say lots of dead fish, bad smell in area ."