MATLACHA, Fla. — Hot air temperatures have warmed up the water to unusual levels and that has fishermen feeling the heat.
"Everyone says, oh, it's hotter this year. It is I mean, we're having record heats," said Carrie Grainer, owner of Barnhill Seafood Market.
Heat that affects more than just the air and land. Codty Pierce, the Calusa Waterkeeper, says his organization has recorded water temps in the low 90s which is rare this time of year.
"We've seen an increase in water temperature trends across the board, but when we start talking about three to five, you know seven years beforehand, you know, we never really experienced water temperatures this quickly as well as this early inside of the season like what we have now," said Pierce.
Pierce says the warmer water, means less dissolved oxygen for our sea life.
"For fishermen, you know, we see less bait we see less of our larger game fish that require more oxygen," said Pierce. "It kind of leaves some of these flats and little hidden lagoons and areas just completely desolate of life during the hot portion of the year. That's not historically the case."
So, anglers have to change the way they've always fished.
For Grainger, a third-generation whole fish house owner and commercial fisherman on Pine Island, that means having her crabbers get in earlier.
"Starting this week, the crabbers are going to have to be into the dock, and when I say that they have to be here and unloaded by 2 in the afternoon because it's just, one it's too hot on the crabs and it's too hot on the crabbers, and they don't know when to stop."
Grainger's crabbers have to take out ice buckets to store their catch because the hot water is deadly for blue crab, which is a big source of income for many of the businesses in this tight-knit island town.
"That is a huge problem for all of us, and it's a big, you know, wake-up alarm, that things are changing that we really need to work on our water quality issues as we are adapting to climate change at the same time," said Pierce.
