DeSantis ‘proud’ of state response to red tide in Tampa Bay, rejects state of emergency

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sought to assure the Tampa Bay community on Wednesday that he is taking Tampa Bay’s red tide struggles seriously after weeks of calls from local leaders and residents to do more.

DeSantis said there has been an “all hands on deck” response to the ecological crisis from his administration since the beginning: money spent to pull fish from the bay, research to prevent future blooms and state employees partnering with local governments to mitigate the disaster.

“We’re proud of the efforts that are going on,” DeSantis said.

The press conference was rolling along as planned until a local reporter informed DeSantis that St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, who was not invited, had accused the Republican administration of politicizing the response.

DeSantis snapped at the reporter for relaying Kriseman’s message: “Well, you should look to see, is that credible to say that?”

“It’s never been political,” he added. His office later added that Kriseman never asked to attend. State Sen. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat, St. Petersburg City Councilman Ed Montanari, a Republican, and Pinellas County Commissioner Dave Eggers, also a Republican, joined local business leaders and the state’s top environmentalist who defended the governor’s handling of the outbreak during a press conference in St. Petersburg.

Kriseman, the City Council, Agriculture Secretary Nikki Fried (who will run for governor in 2022) and environmental groups have all called on DeSantis to declare a state of emergency, saying it would allow even more resources to be dedicated to the clean-up effort. That’s how the governor’s office helped the west coast during the 2018 outbreak, when Pinellas removed about 1,800 tons of dead sea life and debris that year.

DeSantis on Wednesday said Kriseman and other city officials have not articulated why a state of emergency is needed and he insisted he had already allocated money in the state budget to respond to this kind of problem.

“It would send a message that somehow all of Florida is having problems, when in fact the economy’s open. People should be coming,” Desantis said. “This place is open. They’re doing well and so it would have been very irresponsible to do that.”

Proprietors of local businesses standing beside DeSantis agreed.

“We represent nearly 1,000 businesses on the beaches, and a state of emergency does not help our economic vitality at all,” said Robin Miller, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce.

So far more than 1,270 tons of dead sea life and debris have been removed from Pinellas shores, most of that coming from St. Petersburg in recent weeks. But the state says it doesn’t need to declare an emergency because, unlike 2018, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection now has a dedicated funding source to address red tide. As of this week, state officials say they’ve given $2.1 million to Pinellas for clean-up costs incurred by Pinellas County and the city of St. Petersburg.

This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 3:50 PM.