At the beginning of October we made a trip to the beach. We decided to try South Padre Island this year and rented a place on AirBnB that worked out great. It was a condo and they also had a pool which worked out great for us because sadly when we arrived we found out that “Red Tide” was happening on the Gulf. What is Red Tide? “Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae—simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater—grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds.” The toxins get in the lungs of the fish and other animals and they suffocate. They cleaned the beach each morning to get rid of the dead fish, but as the day passed more and more dead animals would float up. Then when it was really bad the toxins would float up and we would breath them in a cough and cough and cough. It was horrible. And stinky. And there is no warning for Red Tide, so we didn’t know. It was the great science lesson of the trip, but here are some photos of the times we did get out to the beach at the beginning.
