City Engineer Kathleen Weeden said workers replacing planks as part of the pier reconstruction uncovered both pigeon nests and pigeon droppings

VENICE — Venice city officials believe that the no-swim advisory issued Thursday by the Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County for the Venice Municipal Fishing Pier may be related to the ongoing pier reconstruction project.

“It’s likely the elevated readings are from the bird poop debris that has been sitting on the pier for years and now that we’re doing renovations, there’s some that’s falling in the water — that’s unavoidable,” said Venice City Engineer Kathleen Weeden.

The health department lifted the no-swim advisory Friday afternoon, after the latest water quality tests came back satisfactory.

Weeden noted that when workers removed walls of Papa’s Bait & Snack Shack, they found nesting and a collection of waste.

“They took the inside walls off of the bait shop and there were six-inches worth of bird feces in the walls, there was nesting on all of the piles, and there’s a lot of bird poop of the pigeons,” Weeden said.

Workers for contractor Infinite Construction LLC have been replacing the decking, refurbishing the railing on the 700-foot-long, 20-foot-high structure, which was damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017. The project, which costs roughly $739,000, started in mid-May and is expected to be finished before the end of August.

Weeden noted workers are doing their best to remove as much of the bird droppings as they can when they remove the old boards. In addition to the bait shop walls, much of it is on the old pier decking and between the stringer boards.

The Health Department issued the no-swim advisory based on a high level of enterococcus bacteria found during water quality testing on Monday.

In addition to bird droppings, workers also uncovered pigeon nests.

“We’ve had to rescue a lot of baby pigeons and take them to the Wildlife Center,” Weeden said, referring to The Wildlife Center of Venice. “There’s just dozens and dozens of nests under the pier.”

When the pier was rebuilt and raised from 12 to 20 feet in 2004, netting had been put in to keep pigeons out, since high bacterial readings near the pier had previously been linked to the birds.

Still, the pigeons found a way back in.

“The birds were nesting in the netting and on top of the piling caps,” Weeden said.

As workers rebuild the pier this time, they’re blocking in the openings, in hopes of discouraging the birds.

“We want to see our waterfowl using the pier,” Weeden said. “And right now, we have an abundance of pigeons.”