Red algae closes beaches in Sydney

Dinoflagellates in at Clovelly beach in Sydney Australia

From the Herald Sun:

Red tide of algae strikes 10 more Sydney beaches

The Metropolitan Sydney, South Coast and Hunter Regional Algal Co-ordinating Committees yesterday said they had warned "communities along coastal beaches between Sydney and the Central Coast about algal blooms.

"This bloom has likely occurred as a result of the upwelling of nutrient-rich deep ocean water on to the continental shelf," they said.

"Testing of samples taken from Bondi beach have been identified as noctiluca scintillans, which appears as a pinkish to reddish discolouration in water."

"Upwellings create food sources for the predatory noctiluca scintillans - there's more bacteria and phytoplankton for them to eat," Dr Murray said.

...

"They live on the surface off the coast and are very buoyant, so they are at the mercy of wind and ocean currents. If you have the right mix they can be concentrated in dense groups and pushed on to the beaches.

"These two algal concentrations - on the northern and eastern beaches - would have come from the same offshore source.

"They aren't toxic but accumulate ammonia because of what they eat, which can be irritating to some people."

"Scientists find toxic algae in open ocean"

From the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

SANTA CRUZ - Blooms of toxic algae can occur in the open ocean, a team led by UC Santa Cruz and Moss Landing Marine Lab scientists reported last week.

Once thought to be a problem plaguing only the coast, causing fisheries closures and wildlife deaths, the research shows that open sea algae populations also occasionally bloom into toxic soup.

The scientists found toxin-producing algae almost everywhere they looked within open regions of the Pacific. The scientists also detected domoic acid, the toxin that the algae produces. The toxicity exploded whenever iron was added to the water, producing a population boom.

"They grew like a fury," said UCSC ocean scientist Mary Silver, who designed the research. "They are really responsive to iron."

Algae blooms visible from the moon grew during previous studies fertilizing open ocean waters with iron. Kenneth Coale, director of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, led these studies in 1995 and 2002. The toxicity of the blooms could not be confirmed until more sensitive measures were invented.

Even up to 12 years later, algae toxin remained in the iron-enriched seawater samples Coale had in storage.

"It was always a nagging, gut feeling about domoic acid," said Coale. "After teaming up with Mary Silver's group, that nagging suspicion was confirmed."

Since the algae consume the carbon dioxide, Coale's research led to proposals to fertilize the ocean on a mass scale to stave off global warming. The discovery of the algae's toxicity throws a wrench into these plans.

"We should use this as a caution," said Silver. "Using iron fertilization as a remedy for global warming would be dangerous."

Domoic acid attacks the nervous system. During blooms, the algae that produces it become a dominant food for small fish and shellfish. Animals higher up in the food chain amass poisonous amounts of the toxin because the algae lodges in the guts of their prey.

"With high algae levels, fish pick them up," said Silver. "With their stomachs loaded with cells, they can be quite toxic."

Harmful algae blooms occur seasonally along California's coast, leading to a ban on shellfish harvesting between May and November to protect public health. In humans, the toxin attacks the brain, producing confusion, memory loss and hallucinations.

Marine mammals with domoic acid poisoning rarely recover, according to Coale.

"They can't forage; they can't migrate. They get lost and re-strand themselves," he said. "It's pretty much the end of the line for them."

"Scientists say the toxic blue-green algae will only get worse on Ohio lakes"

From Cleveland.com:

The simmering summer of 2010 is coughing up a sickly and unprecedented batch of toxic blue-green algae in western Lake Erie and nearly a dozen of Ohio's shallow, inland lakes.

Many lake scientists are speculating that it's only going to get worse.

"We're going to see a greener and greener lake until changes are made," said John Hageman of Stone Laboratory, Ohio State University's water research station on Gibraltar Island in western Lake Erie. "Everything points to this just getting worse."
That might be hard to imagine.

But it could help to survey the squalid situation at Grand Lake St. Mary's -- a large, inland lake in western Ohio. The 13,000-acre lake near Celina grabbed the attention of both the public and health officials all summer long because of its toxic, pea-soup waters and foamy surface.

"Grand Lake St. Mary's has gone green every summer for decades, that's not new," said EPA spokeswoman Dina Pierce. "But this year, it just exploded -- at times it looked like a science fiction landscape, almost turquoise or swimming pool blue with white foam on top.

"People who have lived there their whole lives had never seen anything like it."

But while the Great Lake and the big lake near Celina have grabbed the headlines, in recent weeks it seems as if almost any shallow body of warmer water in Ohio might be at risk from being tainted by a floating, green bloom of algae.

Simply put, the 2010 algae outbreak is breaking the mold.

"This is first year we've seen blooms like this -- all across the state," said Jen House of the Ohio Department of Health, which is working with the EPA and state Department of Natural Resources to coordinate warnings at the various lakes and Lake Erie beaches. "The problem is that this bacteria loves warm, sunny weather and we've had plenty of that."

State officials have posted warnings about the dangers of coming in contact with blue-green algae at sites from West Branch State Park in Portage County (later found to be free of blue-green algae) to East Harbor State Park on the shores of Lake Erie's warm and shallow western basin.

Ohio health and recreation officials have received about 30 complaints linked to human sickness or irritation from exposure to algae -- more than half from Grand Lake St. Mary's, where officials have long known that runoff from animal feeding operations is providing nutrients for the algae to grow.

At least three dogs have also reportedly been killed by exposure to the blue-green algae in the Ohio lake. Those pet deaths followed similar algae-related dog deaths in recent years in Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana.

Scientists on Lake Erie, where most of the research takes place, blame high concentrations of phosphorus and high water temperatures for algal blooms on course to be the worst in 30 or 40 years. Most say those same factors are playing a role in the algal blooms on the inland lakes.

The dissolved phosphorus count -- fertilizer runoff from farms in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan -- flowing out of the Maumee River is the highest since records began in 1975, according to records at Heidelberg University...

The temperature increase, meanwhile, appears to be merely following a long-term trend that many attribute to a slowly increasing global climate. Water temperatures in Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes have been extraordinarily high since a record warm spring.

Satellite images have shown similar algal growth in each of the last few summers - the largest outbreaks since the blooms reappeared in the mid 1990s, after disappearing for more than 15 years in the wake of the more stringent water quality laws of the early 1970s.

The algae that bloom by midsummer and often stays through September is not only unsightly, but can threaten both fisheries and tourism because the worst strain -- the bacterial microcystin, known as blue-green algae -- can unexpectedly turn toxic about half the time.

"This is a Lake Erie-wide issue, at least," said Gail Hesse of the Ohio EPA's Division of Surface Water and head of the Ohio Lake Erie Phosphoous Task Force. "This lake is water resource for all of Ohio, so we should all have be concerned because the algae can be a public health concern when it goes toxic."

An algal bloom isn't just a natural wonder and contributor to the dead zone. It's potentially fatal.

Blue-green algae -- actually the peptides secreted by certain blue-green algae known as microcystis -- is a known neurotoxin, meaning that at high concentrations it can severely damage the nervous system, including the brain. That makes it especially dangerous to small children or those with weak immune systems.

While there are currently no official health standards for microcystin, state officials are posting warnings based on those recommended by the World Health Organization: No more than 20 parts per billion for recreational water and 1 part per billon for drinking water.

Grand Lake St. Mary's blew those standards out of the water.

"Last year microcystin was already sky high at 84 parts per billion," Hesse said. "Then, early this year, we had readings over 2,000 -- that's on a whole different scale, unimaginable until now."

"Record levels of toxic algae hurt coastline"

From USA today:

Large swaths of toxic algae have punished U.S. coastal towns at record levels this year, shutting down shellfish harvests and sickening swimmers from Maine to Texas to Seattle.
The algal blooms stretch for hundreds of miles in some areas in a phenomenon known as "red tides" and give off toxins that sicken fish and birds and can cause paralysis in humans, said Wayne Litaker, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The blooms have been getting increasingly larger and more toxic since 2004, causing an estimated $100 million a year in damage to the country's seafood and tourism industries, he said.

This year, the algal blooms:

• Forced the closure of Maine's bivalve shellfish harvest, which includes clams, oysters and mussels, from early April to September — a first in state history, according to state biologists.

• Killed more than 4 million fish off the coast of Texas, according to the state Parks and Wildlife Department.

• Emitted a soaplike foam that coated the wings of seabirds off the Northwest coast, killing more than 10,000 of them, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The toxic algae are ocean-dwelling creatures that have been around for centuries, said Donald Anderson, a senior scientist at the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The 1970s and '80s also saw large outbreaks of red tide, he said.

The seed beds that sprout the toxic algae have grown much larger in recent years, spawning blooms that stretch for 500 to 1,000 miles in some areas, he said. Overfishing and global warming also may contribute to their widespread growth, he added.

Though the blooms affect a relatively small number of humans, they can be lethal. The algae release a neurotoxin that can reside in shellfish. When ingested by humans, it can cause death, he said.

The toxin found off the Texas coast, known as karenia brevis, is not as directly harmful to humans but has killed millions of striped mullet, ladyfish and other bait fish, washing up piles of the fish on tourist beaches, said Meridith Byrd, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The toxins ride sea spray and cause some swimmers to experience sinus or asthma attacks, she said.

In Cushing, Maine, 129 clam harvesters were forced out of work when the harvest closed, said Butch Taylor of C&S Seafood, a wholesaler. "It's been a bad year," he said. "It affects everybody."

"Foam from ocean algae bloom killing thousands of birds"

From oregonlive.com:

A slimy foam churning up from the ocean has killed thousands seabirds and washed many others ashore, stripped of their waterproofing and struggling for life.

The birds have been clobbered by an unusual algae bloom stretching from the northern Oregon coast to the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.

"This is huge," said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at the University of Washington who leads a seabird monitoring group. "It's the largest mortality event of its kind on the West Coast that we know of."

The culprit is a single-cell algae or phytoplankton called Akashiwo sanguinea. Though the algae has multiplied off the coast of California before, killing hundreds of seabirds, the phenomenon has not been seen in Oregon and Washington and has never occurred on the West Coast to this extent, Parrish said.

"We're getting counts of up to a million cells per liter of water," she said. "Think about that. That's pretty dense."

Marine biologists said it is not clear why the algae are multiplying, though they do flourish in warm weather. Recent storms could have contributed to the problem, with crashing waves breaking them up.

The algae get whipped by the surf into something akin to a sticky soap which looks like the top of a root beer float. The foam can be deadly to seabirds because it washes off the natural oils that keep them waterproofed.

Without that protection, they get cold, wet, eventually dying of hypothermia.

When they wash ashore, they are covered in foam.

"It looks like they're lying in a sea of bubble bath," said Greg Schirato, regional wildlife program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said thousands had died.

This algal bloom, unlike the toxins produced by blue-green algae, poses no threat to humans or pets. But the bloom could kill fish by clogging their gills, said Zachary Forster, phytoplankton specialist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"We haven't seen any instances of that," Forster said.

The first seabird die-off in the Northwest occurred in mid-September, with swarms of dead and dying birds washing up on beaches around Kalaloch on the Olympic Peninsula.

At least a thousand scoters or sea ducks, were killed, Parrish said.

"Then it subsided and we thought it was over, but it started up again," she said.

This time Oregon was hit as well.

On Tuesday, birds flooded ashore on the Long Beach peninsula and on beaches as far south as Cannon Beach, prompting an outpouring of calls to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast near Astoria.

The center, the only wildlife rehabilitation facility serving the northern Oregon and Washington coasts, is working around the clock treating more than 500 birds.

"We're in an emergency crisis mode," said Dr. Virginia Huang, president of the center's board.

"Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" to hit record size: NOAA"

(Reuters)

The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" -- a swath of algae-laden water with oxygen levels low enough to choke out marine life -- will likely reach record size this year, and the main culprits are rising ethanol use and massive Midwest flooding, scientists said on Tuesday.

The dead zone, which recurs each year off the Texas and Louisiana coasts, could stretch to more than 8,800 square miles

this year -- about the size of New Jersey -- compared with 6,662 square miles in 2006 and nearly double the annual average since 1990 of 4,800 square miles.

Scientists from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University said the algae that lowers oxygen levels in the dead zone is being fed by farm use of fertilizers like nitrogen and phosphorus.

For fishermen who look to the Gulf of Mexico for crabs, shrimp, crawfish and other seafood, the growing dead zone means they must venture farther out into the gulf's waters to find their catch.

The record dead zone is due to soaring use of ethanol in U.S. motor gasoline supplies and by massive flooding in the Midwest earlier this year, scientists said.

"We're planting an awful lot of corn and soybeans," said Eugene Turner, a scientist at Louisiana State University. "It rinses off easily when there is a rain."

One-third of this year's U.S. corn crop, or 4 billion bushels, will go to make the alternate fuel ethanol, the U.S. government has projected, compared to 3 billion bushels of the 2007 crop.

The dead zone starts in Midwestern corn country when farmers fertilize their fields with nitrogen. The fertilizer run-off flows down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, making algae bloom on the surface and cutting oxygen to creatures that live on the bottom.

Substances in this runoff include the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, which can stimulate the growth of algae. These algae settle and decay in the bottom waters of the Gulf, and the bacteria that decompose them gobble up oxygen faster than it can be replenished from the surface, which means lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water.

U.S. scientists estimate that a record 83,000 tons of phosphorus seeped into the Gulf of Mexico from April through June, up to 85 percent above normal seasonal levels.

"Excess nutrients from the Mississippi River watershed during the spring are the primary human-influenced factor behind the expansion of the dead zone," said Rob Magnien, director of the NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research.

To reverse the pattern, U.S. farmers must plant more perennial crops that trap rainwater and keep it from running into the Gulf of Mexico, Turner said.

And eventually, scientists need to invent new breeds of perennial corn plants that can remain in the soil from one planting season to the next, avoiding the need to strip fields bare and leave them susceptible to flooding, he said.

Water Emergency in Adelaide Australia

EMERGENCY plans have been prepared to supply Adelaide with spring water for drinking as experts warn the drought is forcing us to consider extreme measures.

Spring water suppliers yesterday said they had talks with SA Water about the feasibility of delivering water in either bottles or tankers to households if Adelaide's water crisis dramatically worsened.

SA Water last night said discussions with suppliers were held as part of "contingency planning" in case mains water became undrinkable because of poor quality.

Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, a climate change expert, said Adelaide was at a "significant risk" of a water crisis within the next six to 12 months, because of salinity and toxic algal blooms in the River Murray.

SA Water insists Adelaide will not run out of water but says contingency plans are essential to ensure the water supply, "including in times of drought".

...In the event of a water supply emergency, Mr Bailey said tankers would deliver water to drop-off points for householders to fill large bottles. In less severe cases, bottles would be distributed.

Adelaide University Professor Mike Young said the situation in SA was "much, much worse than many people realise". The Wentworth Group member and former CSIRO chief research scientist said SA Water had a responsibility to develop "contingency plans for the worst conceivable event".

"The scary thing is that what seemed to be totally inconceivable is now starting to look quite conceivable," Professor Young said.

"If next year is the same as last year and this year, there are no options left to get water out of the River Murray. The River Murray will collapse, that is the reality." Professor Young warned if present conditions continued, "we could end up with a system where we can't drink the water".

"Warming linked to 'unprecedented' algae growth in Arctic lake"

MONTREAL (AFP) — Global warming is believed to be softening the harsh Arctic environment, causing the algae population in Canada's northernmost lake to spike over the past two centuries, researchers said Wednesday.

The team, led by Laval University scientists Warwick Vincent and Reinhard Pienitz, found aquatic life in Ward Hunt Lake, located on island north of Ellesmere Island, increased 500-fold during the period.

The changes occurred at a speed and range "unprecedented in the lake's last 8,000 years," the researchers said in a statement.

And, they say, the likely culprit is "climate change related to human activity."

The findings, to appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters on September 28, are based on an analysis of an 18-centimeter (seven-inch) sediment core plucked from the lake's center in August 2003.

Its layers, the researchers said, chronicle the diversity and abundance of aquatic life in the lake over the last 8,450 years.

The deepest layers of sediment revealed a very small number of algae as well as only minor variations in concentration, but the top two centimeters (0.8 inches), corresponding to the last 200 years, showed an abrupt increase in the lake's algae population, they said.

"This is of course an extreme environment for living organisms," said lead author Dermot Antoniades of the Center for Northern Studies.

"But our data indicate that current conditions make the lake a more favorable location for algae growth than it was in the past."

"We cannot claim with certainty that these changes were brought on by human activity, but natural variations observed over the last millennia were never so abrupt and extensive," he said.

Located on the 83rd parallel in the Quttinirpaaq (meaning "top of the world" in Inuktitut) National Park, Ward Hunt Island is completely surrounded by ice.

"Lake pollution in SW China worsening"

KUNMING -- The pollution in lakes in southwest China's Yunnan province, some of which have already seen several blue algae outbreaks, is actually getting worse, Chinese researchers and lake protection experts say.

"Urban population, agriculture and industrial use are guzzling most of the water resources, particularly in the densely-populated central areas in the province. The portion of water that should have been spared to maintain the local ecology has been reduced to the lowest possible amount," said Ma Hongqi, a veteran expert with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Plateau lakes like Dianchi Lake, near Kunming, capital of Yunnan, have been shrinking and are being suffocated by a massive influx of pollutants, he said.

In 1999, about 58 million cubic meters of untreated waste water was poured into Dianchi Lake. The figure nearly doubled to reach 97 million cubic meters in 2004 and is still rising, said Guo Huiguang, former director of the provincial environmental sciences research institute.

The Dianchi Lake, covering more than 300 square kilometers, started to suffer from blue algae blooms in 1999 and the latest blue algae outbreak this year has forced Kunming to replace the lake with a reservoir as its source of drinking water for its 1.5 million residents.

"We have been seeing a rise in phosphorous substances and chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of water pollution, in the lake, and the chances of algae bloom outbreaks are still very high," Guo said.

Li Huiyu, a resident who lives near the lake, said, "Sometimes there is a stinky smell coming from the lake and it gets worse in summer.

"If you put the water in a bottle, at first it's green, then it turns blue, and in a few days, it just goes black," he added.

Declining water quality is also being seen in Xingyun Lake, Qilu Lake and Yilong Lake, which, combined, cover more than 100 square kilometers.

In July, the province announced a plan to spend 8.4 billion yuan (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) to tackle pollution in Dianchi Lake, the largest freshwater lake on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, in a bid to restore the size of the lake by reversing land reclamation, planting more trees around the water and setting up more sewage treatment plants.

Toxic Algae at Geist Reservoir (Indiana)

By John Tuohy / From The Indianapolis Star

An environmental expert told a gathering of about 75 waterfront residents this morning there is no magic potion for ridding the Geist Reservoir of toxic algae that has bloomed there this summer.

Geist visitors were warned three weeks ago to avoid swimming in the water or swallowing it when waterskiing. The algae produces a toxin that could cause skin rashes, cramps, nausea, diarrhea and, in rare cases, liver damage.

"Only colder temperature and a lot of rain will immediately change the conditions," said Lenore Tedesco, director of the Center for Earth and Environmental Science at the Indiana University/Purdue University-Indianapolis.

Though there are no short-term solutions, Tedesco said the way to avoid future algae outbreaks is to reduce the amount of fertilizer used on their lawns. The phosphorous-rich pesticides cause algae growth when rainwater runs it into the reservoir.

"Everyone has a responsibility to be very, very conservative with fertilizer use," Tedesco said, urging the residents to form a watershed-wide plan to cut down of fertilizers.

Tedesco spoke at the Indianapolis Yacht Club in a meeting arranged by State Senators Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, and Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield. State Rep. Brian Bosma R-Indianapolis and state health and environmental officials also attended.
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I used to go to this lake - 30 years ago before people were allowed to build houses all around it. No problems, then, of course.

More reasons for people to have natural landscaping. The hummingbirds are loving my backyard wildflower project. No fertilizers, no pesticides.

Seems like someone would want to talk to people who run the golf courses in the watershed - in addition to the homeowners. Seems like perhaps some laws should be passed regulating fertilizers and such.

... Golf maintenance operations use significant amounts of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides (more, acre-for-acre than farms in some cases), which can contaminate nearby lakes and streams as well as local groundwater.

A typical golf course uses about a half ton of chemical pesticides each year, at least some of which runs off into nearby groundwater sources. With nearly 20,000 courses now in operation across the United States and Canada, such problems affect just about every community from coast-to-coast...

"Invasive Algae Killing Costa Rican Coral Reef"

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - A tropical algae thriving on fertilizers from hotel golf courses and badly treated sewage is killing one of Costa Rica's most important coastal reefs, scientists say.

The green, feather-like algae is spreading along the reefs of Culebra Bay in Costa Rica's northwestern Gulf of Papagayo, a popular scuba diving spot and home to a rare species of coral. The algae blocks the sunlight and suffocates the reefs.

A tourism and construction boom along the palm tree-lined beaches is creating nitrogen- and phosphate-rich waste that feeds the algae, known as Caulerpa sertularioides, and Costa Rica is only just becoming aware of the problem.

"It's an ecological disaster," said Cindy Fernandez, a marine biologist with the nonprofit MarViva Association, who alerted the Costa Rican government to the threat, which is now being taken on by the state-run University of Costa Rica.

Scientists say about 80 percent of the reef area, which stretches for about a mile and a half (2.4 km) along the coast line, is covered in the algae.

The aggressive algae spreads when even the smallest sliver comes loose, from the likes of strong currents or dive boats dropping anchor, to root itself in another part of the reef.

Even the sweep of a diver's hand or the kick of a diver's fin can send a fragment swirling away to start another patch.

That means experts cannot pull it up like weeds.

"If you pull it up it will reproduce faster," said Jenny Asch, coordinator of the government's marine conservation program, who is leading efforts to find a way to eradicate the algae.

If left unchecked, the algae could also severely damage the ecosystem of the bay, allowing non-native species of fish to come in and displace the native species.

Toxic, Blue-green Algae Infesting Northeast Lakes

Algae closes Newton beach

NEWTON, N.H. -- A potentially toxic algae has hit a third pond in New Hampshire, and authorities have closed it.

The cyanobacteria was discovered Tuesday near the town beach in Country Pond. State environmental officials are advising the public to avoid the water and keep pets away.

Showell Pond in Sandown and Willand Pond in Somersworth were closed this month because of the algae. It contains toxins that can cause everything from skin irritation, vomiting and diarrhea to liver and central nervous system damage.


Quebec's famous lakes teeming with blue-green algae

Unsightly and potentially toxic, blue-green algae has infested Quebec's prized lakes, fed by fertilizers that keep summer home lawns plush and green and local residents and authorities fretting.
With its half-a-million lakes, Quebec is nirvana to fishermen and boaters fleeing inner city stress for the peace and calm of summer cabins and mansions on the shores of cool lakes.

But this summmer, a pall has fallen over this idyllic paradise and over the surface of many lakes in the form of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria.

Besides turning the lake surface a putrid shade of green, the pond scum or bloom, as cyanobacteria is also called, can be toxic, causing skin irritation on contact and liver or nervous system problems when swallowed.

The Quebec government has posted warnings on the Internet for 72 lakes and rivers people should not drink from -- three times the number from last year.

"For two weeks, they've been providing us with water for drinking and cooking. At the beginning of the summer it was bottled, but since last week it comes in tanker trucks," said Cowansville Mayor Arthur Fauteux, whose 12,500 citizens live some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Montreal.

Most of the polluted lakes in Quebec are resort areas where decades of growing human activity has battered ecosystems to the point of fragility.

"They've built houses and cut down trees to get better views of the lakes, they've replaced natural vegetation with lawns that need fertilizing. There are many factors that over the years have wrought a change in the quality of the lake waters," Department of Environment biologist Marc Simoneau told AFP.

Blue-green algae chiefly get their nourishment from phosphorous, which is rarely found in water but becomes abundant in the presence of fertilizer that washes off lawns and farms...

"Quebec is no more polluted than other regions around the world," David Bird, a cyanobacteria specialist with the University of Quebec, Montreal, told AFP.

"These precautions are the result of global awareness to the real danger of toxic cyanobacteria after all those people died in Caruaru, in Brazil."

In 1996, some 50 people at a blood dialysis center in Brazil died after getting injections of cyanobacteria contaminated water in their veins.

"Report: Dead zone in Gulf grows"

NEW ORLEANS - (AP) Researchers predict the recurring "dead zone" off the Louisiana coast will grow this summer to its largest size in at least 22 years, 8,543 square miles.

The forecast, released today by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is based on a federal estimate of nitrogen from the Mississippi River watershed to the Gulf of Mexico. It discounts the effect large storms or hurricanes might have.

The "dead zone" in the northern Gulf, at the end of the Mississippi River system, is the second-largest area of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world. Low oxygen, or hypoxia, can be caused by pollution from sources including farm fertilizer, soil erosion and discharge from sewage treatment plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Excess nutrients can spur growth of algae, and when the algae die, their decaying takes up oxygen faster than its brought down from the surface. As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can die or otherwise be adversely affected, the consortium Web site says.

Eugene Turner, a professor of oceanography and coastal sciences at Louisiana State University who is involved with the report, said it's tough to determine caused byhypoxia or other factors, such as climatic effects. However, "we really don't want to mess with this, to make it worse," he said.

The dead zone usually begins forming in the spring and exists through summer and into the fall. Though the size of the dead zone has shrunk some years, on average, it's steadily grown larger, Turner said.

If the prediction for July stands, it would be the largest dead zone measured since mapping began in 1985, the report says. An assessment is set to be made at summer's end.
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See also: gulfhypoxia.net
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And from Grist: Gulf Dead Zone: Bigger than ever

U.S. farmers planted 92.9 million acres of corn this spring, a 15 percent-plus jump from last year. If you lumped all that land together -- not too hard to imagine, given that corn ag is highly concentrated in the Midwest -- you'd have a monocropped land mass nearly equal in size to the state of California.

...fishing communities along the Gulf Coast are bracing for disaster.

That's because growing corn in vast monocultured fields requires heavy doses of synthetic nitrogen, but all of that fertilizer doesn't end up in corn plants. A good bit of it washes into streams which feed into the Mississippi River, then to be carried clear down to the Gulf.

In a process known as hypoxia, all of that free nitrogen feeds a giant algae bloom, which ties up oxygen and destroys most life underneath: hence the "Dead Zone."

Algal bloom leaves towns high and dry in Australia

by Leo Shanahan at theAge.com (Australia)

A toxic algal bloom has forced authorities to cut normal water supplies to towns along Victoria's Great Ocean Road, leaving locals reliant on daily deliveries by water trucks.

The latest outbreak comes as the head of a major regional water operator said he expected an increase in the number of blue-green algal blooms and follows an outbreak at Werribee South last month that affected farmers using recycled water to grow their crops.

At a cost of about $3000 a day to regional water supplier Barwon Water, 20 trucks a day are delivering water from Anglesea Reservoir to about 1400 Aireys Inlet and Fairhaven residents.

The algae, which has made the water unsafe to drink, was detected last Wednesday and has forced Barwon Water to shut down all supply from the Pan Reservoir that supplied the towns.

If consumed, blue-green algae can cause skin irritations, allergic reactions and nausea.

Barwon Water chairman Stephen Vaughan told theage.com.au the bloom was caused by a combination of warmer temperatures, prolonged drought and recent rain.

"It's mostly related to temperature and the unseasonably warm May," he said.

"It also occurs when reservoir levels are lower rather than fuller, and the third thing is the little bit of rain we had two weeks ago probably washed nutrients from the into the reservoir and then you get phosphorus and nitrogen ... that's enough to kick it off."

...Mr Vaughan said that while such outbreaks were likely to happen once every four to five years he warned that with warmer temperatures and drought, such algal blooms would be more common in all water supplies...