A week into hurricane season, as concerns over algae blooms mount, Caloosahatchee river-watchers don’t have to worry about Lake O making things worse – at least for the moment.
Calusa Waterkeeper volunteer and pilot Ralph Arwood flew over the lake Sunday and the upper reaches of the river Tuesday. The lake looks dramatically green in his photos, but so far, the river appears clear from the sky he says. That doesn’t mean trouble’s not brewing underwater. At least three spots on the river are flagged for algae toxins, including the popular Davis boat ramp in Fort Myers Shores, where the Florida Department of Health in Lee County issued an alert May 26.
“The public should exercise caution in and around Caloosahatchee River-Fort Myers Shores,” according to an emailed statement urging people not to drink, swim, wade, use personal watercraft, water ski or boat in waters where there is a visible bloom, and to keep pets and livestock away from the bloom.
Last week, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation biologist Rick Bartleson was finding Microcystis, an algae that can produce toxins, in river water samples in northeast Lee County near the FPL plant. His nonprofit has a series of water quality sensors in the river and its estuary.
Calusa Waterkeeper Codty Pierce agrees. He watched for the last few weeks as the Corps released water to lower the lake before hurricane season.
“The influx of tannin-stained freshwater has been quite noticeable from the power plant all the way to the mouth of the river near Shell Island,” Pierce wrote in an email. “With no rainfall in the last month coastally, the tannic water was very easy to notice as it made its way out from the river on outgoing tides,” he wrote. “Initially the freshwater attracted lots of baitfish like the menhaden and the silverside anchovies that I imagine were feasting on the phytoplankton-like algae material.”
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