Wildlife advocate stunned by Florida's red tide death toll

The head of one of the largest environmental non-profits in the U.S. says he was stunned Wednesday to see thousands of dead fish and devastation to other marine life from a red tide off of southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Collin O’Mara, the president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, went onto the waters in the Sanibel Island area Wednesday with a charter boat captain. O’Mara reported thousands and thousands of dead fish, eels and horseshoe crabs in the Gulf of Mexico. He also saw the carcasses of Goliath grouper fish.

“I was astounded by the level of carnage that we saw,” said O’Mara. “Of all the disasters I’ve seen in the past decade, this is probably the most visual.”

Dead fish