Red Tide Catches Miami Area Beachgoers By Surprise

SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL — If you've ever been to the beach in the days just before a Florida hurricane, then you have a pretty good idea of what the beach looked like along Sunny Isles and nearby Haulover Park on Thursday. No throngs of tourists. No Frisbees. No cars in the parking lot. Just stretches of empty sand and surf.

Of course the water was a lot calmer, and some of the Miami-Dade police were carrying gas masks, but that was mostly to make the point that red tide must be taken seriously.

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"It's just a precaution," one Miami-Dade officer told Patch as he rode up and down in his squad car informing people that the beach had been closed over concerns of red tide. He said that a number of people reported a burning sensation in their eyes.

See also Miami-Dade Beaches Reopen For Weekend Despite Red Tide

"You're not going to feel it unless you're right up at the water," he said.

Signs were printed on computer paper and posted along the entrances to Haulover. One Sunny Isles Beach lifeguard told Patch that his signs had not yet arrived as of Thursday afternoon. He was verbally telling people to stay off the sand.

The presence of red tide took many beachgoers in Miami-Dade County by surprise. County officials closed all beaches north of Haulover Inlet but left open beaches to the south, which incudes tourist-driven Miami Beach.

The affected beaches were permitted to reopen on Friday in Miami-Dade.

The closures affected Haulover Park, Sunny Isles Beach and Golden Beach, which are the northernmost beach communities along the coastline before entering Broward County.

Haulover Park is one of two public beach parks operated by Miami-Dade County. The 177-acre park has 1.4 miles of beach. The entire beach was closed on Thursday.

Patch found several beachgoers, including two tourists from New York, who noticed that Haulover Beach looked empty on Thursday, but didn't know why.

At least one of them went for a swim and had the ocean all to himself.

"I saw no one in the ocean. Just me. It was so weird," observed the tourist, who identified himself only as Moe as he attempted to dry himself off from his lonely dip in the Atlantic.

Alberto said he came from South Beach, where the beaches are open only to find out that Haulover was not open. He wasn't familiar with red tide.

"I was working and I passed by," he said, adding that he just stopped by hoping to have a quick swim.

Another woman who asked not to be identified drove down from West Palm Beach, more than an hour away. She saw a sign about the red tide when she arrived but kept going.

"I was just going to get sun on the beach and not go in the water," she told Patch. "I don't have any respiratory issues."

Photo gallery by Paul Scicchitano