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Cleanup continues after red tide washes dead fish onto Pinellas County beaches

Contractors hired by the county are helping to cleanup the dead fish -- onshore and off.

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. – It’s the cleanup coming after months of bracing for the big hit.

This past weekend, red tide finally reached the coastline of Pinellas County with reports of fish kills from St. Pete to Clearwater.

RED TIDE: Click here for complete coverage

Kelli Levy, Pinellas’ director of environmental management said the amount of dead fish easily numbers in the “hundreds of thousands.”

The county acted quickly in hiring debris contractor DRC Emergency Services to harvest the dead fish after commercial fisherman reported a fish kill a mile off Sand Key Park and Clearwater Beach on Friday.

PREVIOUS: Businesses concerned after red tide leaves dead fish, bad smell on Pinellas beaches

The county received a $1.3 million grant for red tide cleanup, so the contractor will be paid with that money.

Workers with LilMo Marine Services have also been subcontracted to help with cleanup onshore and off.

“I have two, large offshore vessels with skimming nets and what they’re doing is catching as much of that fish debris before it ever makes it into our bay waters, our intercoastal and our beaches,” said Alex King, vice president of LilMo Marine Services.

“I think we’ve got a game plan together to tackle it efficiently, mitigate it as best as possible before it takes over the community.”

Monday morning, as crews worked some beachgoers still chose to brave it, saying they’d stick around so long as the smell didn’t become overwhelming. While others like Mark Brumfield who was visiting from Illinois with his wife timed his ticked out of town just right.

“We got here last Monday and by Saturday you could notice the smell you could start seeing some of the dead fish,” he said.

“Five of the seven days were without it, the last two were a little hairy but I wouldn’t say it ruined our vacation.”

In addition to contract workers, employees with Pinellas County are also canvassing the beach 3-4 times a day.

The county plans to keep contractors working until this toxic bloom is no longer a threat.

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