Friday, June 27, 2008

Going green

The Goose Pond is getting a little choked up with large clumps of algae forming. I can only assume this is from the large amounts of run off of very fertile farm lands with all the rain we've had.
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Completely chocked off not going around the Goose Island today.

Thick as guacamole! Pass the chips!

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Back to some open water. I was told not to come in contact with the algae...hmm? This has me a bit nervous as there is even algae forming in the open areas of Rock Lake. I've never seen it like this before. Quite a lot of small sunfish, blue gill washed up on the shore as well.
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This can't be good. - The Capt'n



1 comment:

Warrior Ant Press Worldwide Anthill Headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. said...

your periphyton image reminded of a musical score by the Rev. Dwight Frizell about the Irish Wilderness Area in S. Missouri. Dwight's one of KC's most unique and talented artists.

http://www.dwightfrizzell.com/IrishWilderness/SoundscapeComposition.html

don't think this particular algae is toxic though, though it's presence certainly represents excessive nutrients which can really disrupt the ecosystem balance. around here we call it, "the slime" which rhymes with "the blob".

the fish likely perished from a dissolved oxygen crash that results from these blooms and/or the decompostion of organic matter following a runoff event.