(Orleans)– An intense algae bloom has the water along the shoreline of Big Spirit Lake resembling something more like pea soup.
Mike Hawkins, Northwest Regional Fisheries Management Supervisor for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources tells KUOO news high volumes of nutrients, extremely high water temperatures and other environmental factors, have combined to make algae blooms and die offs especially bad this summer…
“When we don’t have a lot of wind to kind of blow that material around those blooms can really intensify. And then when the wind DOES blow they can come in along shorelines and we get these algae die-offs that can get real smelly and produce some pretty intense colors as well: blues and whites, some green, so. Those things are happening because of the extreme conditions in the water. There’s also curly leaf pondweed from earlier in the season that is decaying and releasing its nutrients up into the water column, so a lot of things just kind of combining during the summer period that can cause those algae blooms to intensify.”
He offers this advice to swimmers and pet owners…
“Anytime the water looks really scummy, it’s got that odor, it’s a good idea to stay out of it. Most of the time people stay out of it, but pets will go in. Dogs, especially. So it’s good to keep them out of the water. If they consume some of that water or lick their fur after they get out, that’s when they can ingest some of those toxins. It’s just important when the water looks bad just to stay away from it and let conditions improve. As the summer progresses here and water temperatures fall, we should start to see that water clearing back up.”
Hawkins adds the problem isn’t just limited to Big Spirit Lake…
“I was on West Okoboji yesterday and a couple of the bays had some blue-green bloom going on. It’s not as intense there because we just don’t have the same higher nutrient level on West Okoboji as we see on some of the other lakes. East Okoboji had a little bit of a green tint to it as well and the other lakes undoubtedly are having similar conditions. There are several different varieties or species of cyano bacteria and so they can bloom at different times. We can see one species dominating a bloom during a period and then maybe later on we’ll get a bloom. I would say Center Lake is very, very green, you know, right now and is experiencing a pretty heavy bloom.”
Hawkins notes they are also seeing some fish kills. While some of those are the result of decaying algae removing oxygen from the water, extremely high water temperatures are even more of a contributing factor. We’ll have more on that in upcoming newscasts.
