Florida releases of Gulf hatchery-grown redfish are apparently dead in the water.

According to a Byron Stout article in the Fort Myers News-Press, the discovery of cataracts in hatchery-raised redfish—virtually all of the redfish fingerlings at the Port Manatee hatchery on Tampa Bay were diagnosed as diseased, along with 30 to 50 percent at Sanibel’s REDstart facility—put a halt to releases. As in humans, cataracts cause cloudy vision in fish, possibly affecting their ability to find food or avoid predation.

“Last year, we didn’t release any of those fish with cataracts,” said Luiz Barbieri, head of fisheries research at Florida Marine Research Institute. “We don’t know the cause.” Genetic factors have been ruled out, leaving scientists to look at environmental problems. Water for the facilities is

drawn from adjacent bays.

Every redfish at the Sanibel REDstart facility later died in an unexplained overnight event.

Along with affected hatchery fish, samplings of wild populations in Tampa Bay, Charlotte Harbor and the Atlantic coast’s St. Lucie Estuary have also found cataracts. Coincidentally, Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor were subjected to severe inundations from with red tide algae last year, while the St. Lucie Estuary once again got blasted by Lake Okeechobee releases, resulting in prolonged turbidity and toxic blue-green algae exposure.

Of the unknown pollutants which cost Florida a year class of redfish stocking, Barbieri noted, “I would be much more apprehensive if we were not moving to a new facility with state-the-art filtration systems that will allow us to have much better control of those kinds of issues.” Bishop’s Harbor is being looked at as a possible relocation site.

FS