Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced the appointments of 11 researchers and scientists to the state's recently re-organized Red Tide Task Force. They are Dr. Donald Anderson, Dr. Duane De Freese, Dr. Quay Dortch, Jill Feiger, Dr. Leanne Flewelling, Dr. Charles Jacoby, Dr. Barb Kirkpatrick, Dr. Sherry Larkin, Mr. Andrew Reich, Rhonda Watkins and David Whiting. 

The task force had previously been inactive and without funding until its re-organization by the FWC; it will complement the Blue Green Algae Task Force and the Florida Red Tide Mitigation and Technology Development Initiative, which is the partnership between the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute within FWC and Mote Marine Laboratory. Over the course of 16 months, from November of 2017 until February 2019, the most recent red tide event was recorded as the fifth-longest since 1953, and the first since 2007 to impact Florida’s southwest, northwest, and east coasts simultaneously.