Wendy Wesley was in St. Petersburg, Florida on Wednesday morning when she took a photograph of a massive dead grouper that had turned up along the coastline.
The grouper was found at Lassing Park in the Old Southeast neighborhood that’s just north of downtown.
That was not the only grouper that was filmed that day, though, Dan Matics from FOX News shared a video on Twitter of a massive 400-pound grouper being lifted out of the water by a backhoe in the Crisp Park area. Crisp Park is just north of Lassing Park.
Experts are still trying to figure out why there’s such a massive fish die-off overwhelming the oceans around St. Petersburg and authorities say they are doing everything they can to deal with the situation.
See Footage Of The 400-Pound Grouper Below
— Dan Matics (@danmaticsFOX) July 14, 2021
The city says as of July 13th, over 614 tons of dead fish have been collected by Pinellas County workers with 477 tons of the fish being collected in St. Petersburg alone.
“Anywhere you look, from St. Pete to Tampa Bay, the channels, south Apollo Beach; it’s just floating dead fish,” fly fishing captain Dustin Pack told FOX. “Numerous amounts of fishing charter cancellations. So business is not good.”
Residents and visitors in St. Pete are asked to submit information to authorities if they notice any dead fish so a clean-up crew can drive out to the location. The city says folks can call the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 and report any dead fish they find.