Algae Blooming "In Huge Patches" Across Chesapeake Bay - Middle River Crabs Suffocating

[hatrack]

Brown's Cover, eastern Baltimore County

John Neukam has been catching crabs in pots near the Middle River for decades. But this year, the crabs have been dying in the water, suffocated by a bright green algae bloom that is choking off oxygen and worrying watermen and recreational boaters. "You crab all week, you get a bushel and a half in your live box, and they die," said Neukam, after checking his pots yesterday morning. "I've been here all my life - 64 years - and we've only had this one other time, when fertilizer from a farm seeped into the cove."

People who live in subdivisions off the coves and creeks in the Middle River area have been scared to eat the fish they catch, worried about letting their children and dogs swim in the water, and in some cases unable to get their boats out from their docks, which have been socked in by the thick, carpet-like algae.

The state Department of Natural Resources says the algae is not toxic, but it is alarming. When the algae dies, the decomposition sucks the oxygen out of the water, killing crabs and fish. The algae also blocks sunlight from the beneficial bay grasses, which provide a refuge for shellfish and crabs.

EDIT

This recent bloom comes in an area that has seen a resurgence in bay grasses, helped along by aggressive DNR plantings. The grasses help to filter nutrients from the water and produce oxygen. DNR has documented significantly higher populations of crabs in areas with grasses than in those without. "We were so excited about the grasses, and then this happened and we were like, 'Oh, no!'" said Jim Mitchell, who lives on Browns Cove and is environmental chairman of the Holly Neck Conservation Association. The algae grows on the grasses, but officials say there's no reason to think the grasses cause the algae. Mitchell, 54, a polygraph examiner for the state police, has lived on the cove since 1973 and said he has never seen a bloom as severe as this one. Coming into the neighborhood at night, he said, you can smell mildew from the dying algae. "The community is really upset about it," he said.

EDIT

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-md.co.algae09aug09,0,7865802.story

[Mojorabbit]

1. Can't this stuff be

be scooped out of the water for a temporary fix?

[BrklynLiberal]

2. At the rate we are destroying this planet, it will not be habitable for human beings in mere decade

[DCKit]

3. They should be checking the septic systems of the McMansions (and others).

The whole of the bay is entirely over-developed with far too little ecological oversight. Poop 'n pee are hellacious fertilizer.

[Sal Minella]

4. Yes. Not to mention the fertilizer that causes those lovely green lawns also causes green water.

[ladjf]

5. The human "death machine" blunders on.