Southwest Florida beaches are back in business, as red tide subsides

By Susan Glaser, The Plain Dealer

Good news, fans of Sanibel Island and southwest Florida: the red tide outbreak that plagued the coastline for much of late summer and fall appears to be gone, at least for now.

I strolled Sanibel’s strand early this month and was ecstatic – not just because I swapped five days of overcast skies with dawn-to-dusk sunshine, but because one of my favorite beaches has seemingly recovered from this environmental catastrophe.

I know I’m not the only Greater Cleveland who gasped at the photos last fall of piles of dead fish on the sand and lifeguards wearing gas masks.

When I made my vacation reservation in late October, I wasn’t sure what I’d find in late December.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I arrived to discover a perfect, shell-filled beach, a no-vacancy sign at my condo complex and a line out the door at Pinocchio’s, my favorite ice cream shop.

“People are starting to come back. The restaurants are filling up,” said Francesca Donlan, communications director for the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau. “We’re getting confident that we’re out of it.”