A toxic blue-green algae bloom appears to be strengthening its grip on the Caloosahatchee River, as green slicks of the organisms are visible in downtown Fort Myers.
“I’ve been seeing it around the Edison Bridges and a little downtown,” said Calusa Waterkeeper Codty Pierce. “It’s that lime-green streaking at the surface.”
The blue-green algae has grown thicker at a time when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started again making releases to the Caloosahatchee River from Lake Okeechobee.
A bloom has raged on the lake for several weeks now, although conditions have varied from partial coverage to around 90% of the lake showing algae, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, satellite images.
“We already have cyanobacteria,” Pierce said of potential lake releases. “And I’d like to see water releases to other areas. We’ve been at 3,200 (cubic feet per second as measured at the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam) and that’s above the harmful threshold.”
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