| Algae blooms are another threat to the Florida bass | | | | are several projects going on right now on Lake |
| population. The algae helps produce oxygen depleting | | | | Okeechobee. Due to the drought, many areas of the |
| bacteria which can and has led to massive fish kills. | | | | lake are dry and the water management team has |
| These blooms often occur in the summer months | | | | been dredging up the muck. See this article: |
| where the water temperature is high and afternoon | | | | This project will not only remove some of the fertilizer |
| thunderstorms stir the lake bottom on which the algae | | | | contaminated muck, but by removal of this muck the |
| feeds. | | | | lake bottom will be harder and promote good |
| The primary cause for algae blooms is nutrient | | | | spawning. Unfortunately, according to the article only |
| enriched water. The algae, which suspends in the | | | | 1% of the muck will be removed. |
| water, uses these nutrients to grow and propagate. So | | | | The state has been working on dechannelizing the |
| where do these nutrients come from? They can | | | | Kissimmee River canal. What this would do is to revert |
| come from natural decay of existing lake vegetation, | | | | back from the man made canal to the original |
| however a major contributor to the nutrients is man | | | | Kissimmee River flow. This would let mother nature |
| made fertilizers. Both agricultural and residential runoff | | | | resume it's natural filtration of the water from the |
| produced during rain showers often end up in the | | | | upper lakes into Lake Okeechobee. |
| lakes. Many of these fertilizers then settle to the lake | | | | What can we do? We need to minimize our use of |
| bottom until winds stir them up which causes them to | | | | fertilizer and use it in a way to prevent runoff into our |
| suspend in the higher sunlit areas in the lakes water | | | | river/lake systems. If we don't start soon, say |
| stratification. Then poof, the algae blooms occur. | | | | goodbye to our fishery and hello to pea green lake |
| So what is the state of Florida doing about this? There | | | | water. |