The Microcystis bloom on Maumee Bay (August 19, 2003). The bloom stretches eastward for 25 miles. (Enhanced Landsat 5 natural color image by T. Bridgeman, Lake Erie Center - U. Toledo)
A mysterious bloom of algae in Lake Erie is puzzling scientists and threatening a Great Lakes fishery. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Schaefer reports:
Transcript
A mysterious bloom of algae in Lake Erie is puzzling scientists and threatening a Great Lakes
fishery. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Schaefer reports:
Recent satellite photos show a vast green mat floating about ten miles off Maumee Bay near
Toledo. Bob Heath, a limnologist at Kent State University, says the bloom is a strain of
microcystis, a toxic blue-green algae. It’s been recurring almost every year since 1995 and
showed up in Lake Huron, Saginaw Bay in 1997. Heath says it’s caused by too much
phosphorus, but he says researchers aren’t sure of the source.
“The Great Lakes are really in a very fluid state and they’re a very fragile ecosystem. And we
need to be mindful of all of the possible things that could assault the health of, especially of Lake
Erie.”
Heath says zebra mussels and other grazers won’t eat the algae, so it’s out-competes other food
sources, resulting in fewer sport fish. It can also poison fish and waterfowl and lend drinking
water an earthy taste.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Schaefer.