Although red tide season is October to February, summer blooms continue to sprout up around the state. An intense and widespread red tide now stretches from the Panhandle to Charlotte County. The colonies of algae that make up these blooms seem stronger than even 50 years ago — meaning summer blooms may become more common. Some scientists say although red tide naturally occurs in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, modern blooms are not natural and are fed by man-made sources like farming and urban development. This could be the case with a bloom that developed at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee, after water was released from Lake Okeechobee. This bloom has lingered for almost a year, at times being very intense, the Naples Daily News reports.