In this Monday, Aug. 6, 2018, photo, work crews clean up dead fish along Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach, Florida. From Naples in Southwest Florida, about 135 miles north, beach communities along the Gulf coast have been plagued with red tide.

(AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

At a Glance

Offshore winds fromthe storm helped disperse the blooms that have killed thousands of sea turtles and other marine animals in recent months.Some Sanibel areas tested below 1 million cells per liter for the first time in two months.Officials warn, however, that the relief at area beaches will likely be only temporary.

Tropical Storm Gordon helped pushred tide away from Southwest Florida'scoastline, alleviating the effects at area beaches where dead fish washing ashore and noxious smells have recently become the norm. But scientists warn the relief may be only temporary.

Offshore winds fromthe storm helped disperse the blooms that have and other marine animals in recent months.

Rick Bartleson, a water quality scientist with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, told the Fort Myers News-Pressthat , which causes red tides, was down across the region.

"The samples I looked at are way down in concentration," Rick Bartleson, a water quality scientist with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, told the newspaper. "They were around 40 million cells per liter last Friday, and now they're down to 40,000 cells at Beach Access 1. Algiers on Saturday was 41 million, and in three days it went down to 200,000. That's basically a 99 percent drop."

According to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissionreport, this week in Collier County. In neighboring Lee County, concentrations in waters fluctuated between background concentrations and 1 million cells per liter.

Some Sanibel areas tested below 1 million cells per liter for the first time in two months.

Typically, marine wildlife can die and breathing irritation can occurin humans when counts reach 10,000 cells per liter, according to FWC.

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Even before the storm, a week of offshore winds helped disperse the red tide.

Over the Labor Day weekend, beaches previously covered in dead fish were clean and the noxious odors coming from the red tide were gone.

"We were ," Roy and Pam Oehme, who were visiting Lido Beach, told WWSB.

"When we got here, we were kind of pleasantly surprised that there wasn't too much stuff on the beach," said Roy Oehme. "It was very clean, there wasn't the smell. We kept hearing that even inland, there was a horrific smell but right now, the last few days we've been here, it's been good."

The good news may be short-lived, however, according to Vincent Lovko of the Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, especially considering this is the time of year when red tides typically form off the coast of Florida.

"As recently as Sunday, there was a satellite image that still indicates a significant and along the central West Florida coast," Lovko told WWSB. "All the way from Pinellas County down into Collier and towards the Keys."

Red tides caused by Karenia brevis occur naturally and typically develop 10 to40 miles offshore in Florida in the fall. The Marine Laboratory and Aquarium notes that there isbetween nutrient pollution and the frequency or severity of red tides in Florida.However, when red tides move closer to shore, they are capable of using man-made nutrients from runoff for their growth.

The latest bloom originated in waters off Lee Countynear Fort Myers in October of 2017but expanded to include waters just south ofTampa Bay. It was the longest bloom since 2006.