When you see green soupy water in your areas (Cyanobacterial Algal Blooms)

[Leo Nguyen]

Try not to swim and play in green soupy water. You may be ending up in the hospital:

https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2016/1174/ofr20161174.pdf

https://www.usgs.gov/news/science-harmful-algae-blooms

Just a bit of something we've been monitoring and tracking on in the past decade. Be safe out there.

[John Sheehan]

Thanks Leo , now is this a natural occurrence due to temperature fluctuations,lack of rain  or whatever  or do you feel there is something more unnatural occurring ? 

  The reason I ask is because nearby Shepherds lake ( where I sometimes keep fish to eat )has been testing positive for cyno toxins but there are  no houses on the lake ,so I question it being nutrient enriched .

[Leo Nguyen]

It's a natural occurrence. However, due to man's provision of excess in everything, the natural suddenly becomes super-un-natural. Rather than the level where nature balances out to prevent a turmoil within the ecosystem, man has open windows that far exceed nature capacity to balance out properly, without decimating the ecosystem.

Careful not to induce yourself with cyano-toxins. Low concentration, from low bacterial counts, may not harm you. High concentration will render you helpless. If you think a bad case of food poisoning was tormenting, you haven't seen nothing yet.

[John Sheehan]

Again, thanks Leo .

[John Sheehan]

Here's a recent un detailed article about the Cyanotoxins found in Shepherds Lake:  http://www.northjersey.com/community-news/town-government/state-iss...

[Leo Nguyen]

The funny thing is, whether you try to kill or let them die naturally, the toxins get released. Allowing them to grow exponentially, and expect nature to deal with them afterwards as a natural balancing method, that won't work. In small concentration, nature will balance it out through method of dilution and incorporation. When excessive nutrients are introduced, but no removal/capping methods to prevent those nutrients from being utilized by the cyanobacteria, you have a huge problem on your hand. Light green soupy water is a sign of the problem is getting out of control. Before it gets out of control, monitoring is needed for concentration, with nutrient loading, vs water body volume. Ignoring it is a gamble. It's like stepping out onto the highways and expect not to get hit by a vehicle. You may get lucky, but eventually, your luck will run out.

You probably asked, "When do this commonly occur?" There's no one answer to satisfy this. The warmer region, year round. If water temperature remains above 75°F, with plenty of nutrients, you got yourself a problem.

[John Sheehan]

   I've notices patches of seemingly excessive green water at Shepherds lake this year but also the typically  healthy weed population and look  as always. The fish appear very healthy looking and the water does not show excessive green color like the photo in that pic in the link you posted .I am suspecting caution on the side of alarmist here in this article regarding Shepherds but I am no scientist.

[Leo Nguyen]

Always best to remain on the side of cautions. It might deem a person a pessimist, but it's better to be an alive pessimist than a dead optimist.

The aggressive turn-about of the color is less than 2 months. It can go from a healthy looking appearance of a waterbody, into a pea-soup like within weeks. The smaller the body of water, the faster the turn-about. Unfortunately for us folks here in California, we have massive weather swings, similar to southern the states, with heatwaves and nutrient-rich offloading from agricultural and urbanized areas, resulting in promoting the cyanobacteria to bloom as if they are on steroids. Fishes that manage to populate within these affected waterbodies, best not to eat them. Denatured cyanotoxins (cooked) have a similar effects as undenatured cyanotoxins, although, they're not as aggressive in attacking the autoimmune systems. Unless you're one of the those who have been consuming cyanobacterial algae for years as supplements, increasing your resistance to the cyanotoxins, then it's best not to play in such environment until it's in a safe concentration for your body to tolerate, whichever that level may be.

[John Sheehan]

Shepherds is 74 acres and I fished it a lot  this year .Never  looked like pea soup but I guess I'll release for now .Darnit !

[Leo Nguyen]

Did the DEP mention of the concentration level of the cyanobacteria? That article is pretty lacking in useable detail, and the DEP didn't release any concentration report for review either. You may see a glob, or a slime layer, or even coloration exchange into a green-like color, concentration will let us know the cyanotoxins' concentrations which may be good to eat, or deadly to even play in water.

[John Sheehan]

The DEP will continue to monitor. Yes i agree the article is undetailed .The article states though they are letting Nature take it's course.  "Although state officials do not anticipate this situation escalating, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has posted a warning on its website as a precaution......Because it will die off on its own as the weather grows cooler, the DEP is not planning to take any action to combat the algae which might ultimately do more harm than good.

[Leo Nguyen]

"..die off..": that water temp better hitting the downwards into the 20 before those cyanobacteria considered in dying off. A few resilient ones will maintain a dormant status in the soil, like a life capsule, or entrapped in organic bubbles.

All agencies stated something similar about not letting things escalate, but this is how it started out. Producers and public don't want to spend money to intercept the situation, and the situation gotten out of hand decades later. This is where we are at now; the tail end of cleaning up our "let nature goes her merry little course".

Either algae die from treatment, or from natural courses, the cyanotoxins is trapped within the body, released after any possible death, and don't breakdown readily in water and UV exposure. It takes time for the toxins to break down in nature, oxidizing and denaturing. So, not sure about the "no treat" aspect. Agencies over here move forward with dredging and harvesting these blooms into an isolated area, away from the main waterbody, and perform denaturing processes using oxidization and drying methods, including allowing UV to break down the cyanotoxins to a lesser harmful level.

So, if you see a green floating glob, treat it like the Blob.

[John Sheehan]

time will tell I guess   No it hasnt hit 20 degrees here yet .So you don't agree I guess ,necessarily , with their assessment treatment could worsen the situation  then .