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heh. That article cites scubaboard.com as it's #1 source of info on red tide.
usia.com:But What About SCUBA?
Toxic algal blooms are harmless underwater, especially if you are diving offshore. Shore dives can be tougher. The stench can affect sensitive people and they’ll have trouble breathing. Red Tides have a large amount of dead critters, from the plankton itself to other organisms done in by the dearth of oxygen. As this biological matter decays, the smell gets worse and can cause problems for some people breathing it in on the beach. While this reduces visibility in the water, your actually diving in under the water should not be affected.
When diving through a red tide, you will experience low viz, stinky gear (you will have to wash everything thoroughly after you dive) and some respiratory irritation. It won’t damage your gear. As a rule, most people would probably advise against diving in a red tide, but from all the available research, it isn’t harmful.
Dead fish? Yep, those are gross. I was glad that I dive a skin rather than just shorts. Obviously if you're going diving for the purpose of looking at fish, red tide isn't the time to go.
There were a few. I'm not sure I'd call it "a lot". There were more dead fish floating than I saw underwater. However, low vis means I only saw the fish on the bottom that were within maybe 3-5 feet of me.Did you see a lot of dead fish at depth when you dived during the red tide? Just sort of laying all over the bottom?
heh. That article cites scubaboard.com as it's #1 source of info on red tide.
That said, I agree with it as I've personally dived in red tide... people make a far bigger deal out of it than necessary.