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I read already that they are estimating that this years algae bloom could be as high as a 9.5 rating out of 10. With all the run off from the high water this summer that it is going to be another pretty bad bloom.
How does this effect fishing? Can you still catch fish in areas covered with Algae or will it deplete the area of Oxygen so much the fish will move or die?
What are the concerns with the algae, and what are the bloviated myths?
No one has an opinion on this? I was just looking for prospective.
I've heard mixed advice on how it affects fishing, but I don't know how accurate it is. Wish I had more facts also. A couple links added if you care to research more about causes, concerns, etc.
http://www.heidelberg.edu/academicli...ncwqr/p#Maumee
http://epa.ohio.gov/habalgae.aspx#14...-helpful-links
Two or three years ago I was fishing for perch south of Kellys and the water was so stained that boats going by created green wakes. The algae seemed to only be at the surface since only the foot or so of anchor line at the surface was stained. The fish were down on the bottom and didn't seem affected. The were biting ok. I just hosed them off later and then cleaned them as usual. They were fine on the table. Now if it gets as bad as they say it might, maybe it will affect the fish and they will move east. I don't know. we'll find out soon.
My opinion is that the nutrient runoff caused by the abnormal amount of rainfall has created the perfect storm for algae blooms this year. Those nutrients come from a variety of sources. Namely cities that have an inadequate raw sewage water containment and treatment system, all town and villages with little or no treatment facilities, regular farms and especially factory farms with large livestock feedlots and caged egg facilities as well as urban areas that use large amounts of fertilizer for their green lawns and landscaping.
The phosphorus loads are way more than the rain water can safely dilute, the resulting overload flow slows once it get to the lake and increases the amount of available food for the algae blooms. If the overload kept flowing out of the lake at the rate it flows into the lake then there would most likely not be the large damaging algae blooms. Unfortunately the lake acts like an over sized septic tank and the concentrations of nutrients become more pronounced at the points of entry into the lake.
The Maumee River Water Shed with drainage of 8,316 square miles of surface area is the largest drainage area of all the great lakes. Most of this drainage area is of course farmland which by no means is the only major stand alone source for the phosphorus overload. But, just the sheer magnitude of the size of the drainage area would indicate that the problem holds some significant obstacles in solving the phosphorus overload. Unfortunately the Maumee River drains into the warmest and most shallow area of all the great lakes which intensifies the problem with near perfect conditions for the dreaded algae to bloom and to flourish far beyond any type of naturally occurring algae bloom would otherwise.
I feel this situation could result in one of the worse algae blooms since the 1960s when there were large mats of dead algae floating on the western basin of lake Erie.
Here is a link to the over all size of the Maumee river drainage area as well as some other information.
http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/aoc/maumee/index.html
DISCLAIMER: This post is only my opinion on what is causing the algae blooms and what my research has lead me to believe. I in no way blame the regular Farmers for the overall problem but to leave them out of the equation would be wrong also.
Dead and decaying algae depletes the oxygen levels in the water and any living organism that cannot escape the low oxygen levels will perish. So don't be to surprised if the fishing goes south this summer.
Wakina, is it really opinion when it's well thought out and supported by exceptional amounts of data (as your "opinions" usually are)? I think it's time to fire everybody and bring in more people like yourself that use common sense to assess a given issue and then maybe we can actually apply the correct solution for once.
Thank you as always for the information. Keep up the good work, sir!
Wakina, is it really opinion when it's well thought out and supported by exceptional amounts of data (as your "opinions" usually are)? I think it's time to fire everybody and bring in more people like yourself that use common sense to assess a given issue and then maybe we can actually apply the correct solution for once.
Thank you as always for the information. Keep up the good work, sir!
Is it ironic that the current algae problems really began to show itself at the same time that nw ohio lost 10s of thousands of acres of crp ground. And is it ironic that we over the last decade have seen thounds of additional acres of farm ground tiled. And is it ironic that over the same time period we have seen countless tree lines removed and wood lots cleared and converted over to farm ground. All this has been happening at the same time that the phosphorus load running into our water ways from municipal sources has been significantly reduced, as was mandated by the epa. I don't want to point fingers at anybody but writing is on the wall.
Interesting post! I do have a couple of questions about your information. 1. Could you provide a link to the information "that nw ohio lost 10s of thousands of acres of crp ground"? 2. What replaced the crop ground? Edit~~ I think that you meant soil erosion and that went over my head sorry for those 2 questions! 3. Could you also provide a link that shows "the phosphorus load running into our water ways from municipal sources has been significantly reduced, as was mandated by the epa." ? Toledo's sewage upgrades are only 68% finished so that leaves 32% uncontrolled.Quote:
Originally Posted by ErieEye
Here is a link to a thread on this site that shows what the flow rate of the Maumee river was during the time frame of the thread. As You can see the Maumee River was running at very fast rate and the city of Toledo supplied the Maumee river with 377,000,000 gallons of raw sewage. There is also a colored graph in this thread that shows the amount of rainfall for the month of June. That Chart indicates that approximately 1/3 of the normal annual precipitation of 35 to 38 inches fell in the time frame shown on that chart. Since that time there has probably been an additional 6 to 7 inches of precipitation in the first 14 days of July, bringing the total precipitation for just that 45 day time span close to being 1/2 the normal annual precipitation. It is not the Farmers fault that mother nature produced more precipitation than would be normally anticipated over a 45 day period!
http://community.walleye.com/showthread.php?9328-Sewage
The top contributors to high phosphorous would be surface runoff from Farm's, lawns, golf courses ect and the untreated(raw) sewage contributed to the watershed from all of the villages, towns and cities as well as those foreign owned factory farms that allow manure to accumulate and get washed into the nearby steams to eventually end up in the lake.
The addition of tile to farmland has cut down the flow of phosphates considerably due to the water being filtered thru the soil covering the tile. The amount of water that can be diverted to the tile and out as drainage has not changed, but the amount of water that needed to get away was considerably more than what the tile could remove so the excess water that was not trapped in the soil became phosphorous rich surface runoff into the creeks and ditches and finally the rivers feeding the Maumee and then to Lake Erie.
As a fellow fostorian I'm sure you are aware of the sewer upgrades that were done within our own town as 1 example. We have a drainage ditch that runs out of town along our property. Back in '97 we had a heavy rain event that caused our own sewer system to overflow. Every limb and branch lining that ditch had toilet paper hanging from it. That no longer happens because of our own epa mandated upgrades. Every small town surrounding fostoria has had epa mandated sewer upgrades done over the last 10 years. As far as the field tile goes, the phosphorus load lake erie is getting has switched from that phosphorus that is directly attached to the soil particles i.e. surface runoff to dissolved phosphorus which is getting flushed out of the fields through field tile. The problem with that is that dissolved phosphorus is more redily available for the algae to use and grow on.
Wakina, I do believe what he was referring to when he said "loosing 10s of thousands of acres of crp ground" was Conservation reserve program lands "crp grass lands", also called filter strips, and or riparian buffers, basically a lot of contracts between the farmers and the conservation program have been up within the last 10-15 years resulting in "10s of thousands of acres" returned to crop producing lands. All of those grasses and buffer zones utilizes vegitation that consumes phosphorus and nitrogen etc.
I can say this and that is the fact that we both want the same thing! We want the excessive algae blooms to stop.Quote:
Originally Posted by ErieEye
I can't argue about the dissolved phosphorus vs phosphorus that is in the run off that never sees a tile. I can state that the modern method and the environmentally recommended way of applying fertilizer is to inject it directly into the ground to avoid the runoff affect that happens with the surface application of fertilizer. Also the no till method of soil preperation is recommended.
Not sure if there is a way for raw sewage to access the the environment during heavy rains from the sewage treatment plant in Fostoria. I will find out for sure as I have a friend that is still working at the sewage treatment plant as well as a relative who just retired from there earlier this year. Wayne and Bradner both have the open lagoons for the treatment plants and as I understand it both have over flowed several times in heavy extended rains. None of the mentioned Cities or villages send sewage to the Maumee if the were to discharge raw sewage, Fostoria and Wayne would both endup in the Portage River while Bradners' may end up in the Sandusky River but I am not sure which it is for Bradner. In any event there should be no sewage getting into any of the watersheds.
Here is some more reading on the subject.
http://www.epa.gov/lakeerie/primer.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...rie-phosphorus
I can actually show you the pipe that the sewage would run out of, it still exists right next to our property. The only reason it doesn't overflow anymore is because storm water can no longer enter the system. As far as the examples given, these towns all used to add to the phosphorus load that lake erie used to get. The river that carries it to the lake is a moot point in my opinion. The point I was making is if we had to do upgrades here I would assume towns within the Maumee watershed had to do it also. As far as what I said farm runoff, that is information that I got from a special that fox 36 had about lake eries algae problems a couple months ago. That is what a representative from the farm bureau said. I'm gonna try to find that show on the internet. If I can I'll post it.
urbanites apply 100x more fertilizer/phosphorus to there lawns /sq ft. than farmers apply per acre.So watch out where you are pointing your finger.Now sewage is all together another batch of apples. I do understand that if farmers that live in close proximity to lakes and spread there liquid hog and cow manures to there land without immediately incorporating it into the ground, are hugely applicable to phosphorus run off.I do farm and I do my best to spread fertilizers in the fall to leach into the ground to avoid spring applications of run off, and do foliar micro fertilizer applications in the summer to crops/for absorption, that never touch the ground.I do concern myself with the bees and monarchs and bees are plentiful, monarchs are a concern, I try to leave as much milkweed I can in hedge rows to help them out.And, fishing is certainly a passion of mine and a privilege to do so.
Actually I'm going to completely disagree with you on that. Yes there are home owners who over fertilize there yards. For each homeowner who does that there are 20 homeowners who don't fertilize at all.