Cyanobacterial Bloom Growing In Lake Erie - Windsor Star

[hatrack]

COLCHESTER -- A mysterious green gunk seen floating in Lake Erie recently may indicate that an explosion of toxic algae is again threatening to suffocate the lake. “I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Bruce Fox, owner of Art’s Bait & Tackle in Colchester Marina, who has lived near the water all his life. “It looks like pea soup. You can see streams and streams of it in the water. You would almost think you could walk on it, it’s so thick.”

Fox said the lime slime appeared perhaps two weeks ago and has now started to dissipate somewhat, but not before vexing anglers. He said the slime was so thick and deep at one point that fish couldn’t see the lures.

University of Windsor professor of biological sciences Jan Ciborowski believes the goo is something called cyanobacteria, also known as microcystis, or blue-green algae - even though it does not appear blue. “It was one of the signs of the lake not being in good shape,” Ciborowski said, referring to the ’60s and ’70s when the Great Lakes were more toxic soup than water. “And it’s starting to come back.”

EDIT

http://www.windsorstar.com/technology/Green%20gunk%20sign%20Lake%20Erie/1970183/story.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Our local swimming hole was like that when I was a kid. People washed their hair *guilty* in the

pond and also brought boats and whatnot. And the town dump was at the other end of the pond. Once that was no longer allowed and the dump changed the way it did things the pond eventually cleaned itself up.

[Nihil]

2. Silver lining!

> He said the slime was so thick and deep at one point that
> fish couldn’t see the lures

... thus managing to live another day!

:evilgrin:

[MineralMan]

3. These days a high percentage of fish caught by anglers are

released. I release all the fish I catch. A couple of times, I've caught the same fish on another day. I could tell because the fish had distinctive markings.

[Nihil]

4. I realise that's probably the case ...

... it just struck me as funny when I read it! :hi: