![]() ![]() "It's a sad state for sure," Kowalski said. CBF's Matt Kowalski snapped this photo of algae on the North Fork this August. On the North Fork, mats of filamentous algae have increasingly clogged the river in recent years, ruining summer plans for fishing, tubing, and swimming on the river. A separate advisory that shut down a 50-mile stretch of the Shenandoah River's North Fork to recreation due to "toxic algal mats" that were also found to contain cyanotoxins.įilamentous algae in the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. Harmful algal blooms this summer have led to a Virginia Department of Health advisory for parts of Lake Anna due to cyanotoxins created by algal blooms, which can lead to everything from nausea and vomiting to blisters and pneumonia. "As an open water swimmer, swimming through algae blooms reduces visibility to near zero and is no fun," Deppe said.Īlgae is also a problem in fresh water. Jim Deppe of Virginia Beach ran into the algal blooms while swimming in Hampton Roads this August and quickly left the water. To address the problem, we must meet pollution reductions under the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint.įor their own health, people should stay away if they notice discolored or murky water that may have an unusual smell, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Some types of algae also produce toxins that can harm people, pets, and underwater life.Ĭlimate change is creating better conditions for algal blooms by increasing both temperatures and rainfall. When algae die, the decomposition process takes nearly all the oxygen out of the water, creating dead zones where fish, crabs, and oysters can't survive. This mixture acts as fertilizer, causing the algae to grow explosively in warm, still water bathed in sunlight. The phenomenon is fueled by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that heavy rains wash into rivers and the Bay. The blooms swirled in the water column as currents pushed them around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. They found large patches of reddish-brown water bordering clearer blue-green water, indicating a harmful algal bloom often called a red or mahogany tide. Recently CBF Senior Scientist Chris Moore surveyed the blooms by boat around Hampton Roads with drone operator Wyatt Young of American Multimedia Solutions. Wyatt Young/American Multimedia Solutions Similar toxins can be produced by other algal blooms.The large patch of reddish-brown water bordering clearer blue-green water near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, indicates a harmful algal bloom often called a red or mahogany tide. The algae that cause red tides in Florida produce brevetoxins, which attack the nervous systems of fish, shellfish and birds as well as humans and other mammals. Algal blooms can be worsened by fertilizer runoff from farming and waste from sewage treatment plants, but Frankovich says that doesn’t seem to be the case with red tides in Florida. In addition to warm waters, Frankovich says red tides are fueled by naturally occurring upwellings of nutrient-rich water. “But a lot of times they persist throughout the entire year and make the next year's bloom even larger.” Fish are washed ashore the Sanibel causeway after dying in a red tide on Aug. ![]() “They seem to start up in the late summer, then they persist for about four months into late fall, and then they die back,” he says of red tides in Florida. Thomas Frankovich, a Florida International University biologist who studies algal blooms around Key Largo, Florida, says red tides occur when water temperatures are high. ![]() But algal blooms can be caused by many different species of algae. In Florida and Texas, red tides are caused by an alga called Karenia brevis. They’re also common along the coast of California and in the Gulf of Maine. In the United States, they are common along the Texas coast, and they occur almost every summer along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Red tides occur in coastal waters all over the world. Spanish explorers heard stories of “red water” from Florida Indians in the 16th century. The earliest reports of red tides are from Japan in the 8th century.
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