Algae- Whats the truth

[BossHogg]

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?

[BossHogg]

No one has an opinion on this? I was just looking for prospective.

[Spoon addiction]

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.

[Century]

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

[Defernaut]

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.

[ErieEye]

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.

[limitlypps]

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.

[wakina]

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.

[Hoytman86]

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!

[Hoytman86]

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!