Thread: I Thought East Winds were Good?

I thought East winds were supposed to be good for our area of the Gulf. It seems that no matter if the wind is from the East or West, the water gets muddy.

Wind from the east... :

We can thank the well meaning folks who brought us "beach re-nourishment" for that! >
Even @ the FL Panhandle piers it seems the water gets all 'silty' every time the wind gets over 15 knots or so.

It did not used to be like that.
Also there has been a drastic decrease in the numbers of sandfleas (mole crabs) and cocina (small colorful clams) that live right along the shoreline.

Pier#r wrote:

Also there has been a drastic decrease in the numbers of sandfleas (mole crabs)

I have noticed this as well. To bad, they are a great bait for striped grouper!!

Pier#r is total correct about the shells and fleas;and party right about the political activity on our water clarity.When we get strong surf and , or currents it sturs up the silt and mud in our area.The mud and silt is from the Mobile and Mississippi river systems;and it gos back to the history of our area over the past 10,000yrs.;from P'cola east their bottom and history is different.During the summer the winds are light and mostly from the SW;at 10 to 15mph and pushs the out flow from Mobile Bay this way.But when we are lucky enough to get winds from the SE for a week or more water from Fla gets pushed this way.We have to wait so long after the wind change for the clear water; because of a point to the east of the pier;between the pier and the beach pavillion;as water is pusher our way that point causes an eddy that traps the dirty water to the west of it.You may have noticed how the water just east of the pier; must of the time is clearer;that is why.Beach re-nourishment has made it so that we have to wait longer for that stained water to be pushed out.The staining of the water;makes it warmer and the staining has a high organic content and both reduces the O2 availabe,and king mackeal need a lot of O2 to keep them happy and hungry.That's more than asked about in this post but also gos to related post.The history has several papers published on it,and it can be summarized a another day.