News items from Eutrophication News

The rapid, large scale coastal development underway in the Middle East must be better planned and managed to avoid aggravating degradation and losses in the fragile marine ecosystems shared by eight Gulf countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – warns a new report by the United Nations University (UNU). The report, by UNU's Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, says fisheries and a broad range of other valuable resources and services provided by the Gulf's ecosystems are at risk of being lost because of inadequate environmental management.

Efforts to reduce nutrient pollution flows to Chesapeake Bay appear to be working, because data show the size of oxygen-starved “dead zones” in the bay has been declining — offering hope that a similar effort could pay off for Barnegat Bay.

EU member states agreed on Tuesday (15 November) to proposals aimed at reducing the use of phosphorus compounds in dishwasher and laundry detergents, taking a decisive step in tackling the formation of algae in Europe's waters.

DIPOLOG CITY, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines – The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) recently issued a bulletin warning that shellfish collected from the seawaters of six Mindanao provinces are still positive for paralytic shellfish toxins beyond the regulatory limit.

SANTA CRUZ -- High-tech robots will warn us when blooms of toxic algae threaten the coast of California. A team of scientists led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz is deploying gliding underwater robots and sensitive underwater labs to identify where and when blooms begin.

Efforts to reduce pollution of the Chesapeake Bay are starting to pay off, a major new study says, finding that despite weather-driven ups and downs, the "dead zone" that stresses fish and shellfish every summer has actually shrunk, on average, in recent years.

Providence, RI – On Halloween, Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center unveiled the "Ten Scariest Facts about Narragansett Bay", showing that a frightening mix of pollutants including nitrogen, phosphorous, and heavy metals have made Narragansett Bay a ghost of its former self.

A vast tide of microscopic red algae off the coast of Texas is thought to have been responsible for the deaths of 4.2 million fish since September. The 'Red Tide' is a regular occurrence in the Gulf of Mexico during the autumn, but this year's deadly bloom is one of the largest seen and especially destructive to the Gulf's wildlife.

PORTLAND, Maine — The University of Maine is getting a $201,000 grant for research on red tide in the Gulf of Maine. Sen. Olympia Snowe says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant covers funding for the first year of a three-year project to study early detection methods for red tide, the name for outbreaks of naturally occurring toxic algae blooms.

FLORIDA - The federally mandated “numeric nutrient criteria,” a set of standards to govern water pollution in the state of Florida, have been harshly criticized by industry, agriculture and even lawmakers — who argue the criteria are too stringent and would result in job losses and stymie business growth. But now a new set of critics have emerged: environmentalists, who feel the criteria aren’t quite stringent enough to make any real impact.

TEXAS - Oysters harvested off the Texas Gulf Coast may be hard to come by this fall. Red tide has forced officials to shut down all oyster harvesting until further notice. Red tide is an algal bloom that can turn the ocean waters red and kill fish by releasing toxins. It’s been detected along the Coast from Brownsville to Galveston.

GREAT LAKES - After a celebrated comeback from abysmal water conditions and high pollution levels in the 1970s, Lake Erie is regressing to the highest levels of phosphorous contamination in 40 years, a Great Lakes expert said on Thursday.

Excessive nutrient levels in Elkhorn Slough cause algal blooms and degrade the habitat for fish and wildlife in many parts of the slough. In the first thorough assessment of the effects of high nutrient levels on the ecosystems of Elkhorn Slough, researchers have mapped out the extent of the problem and identified ways to improve conditions at many sites.

EDMONTON - A scientist says Alberta needs to limit recreation property development and farming around its lakes if it wants to keep the water free of serious outbreaks of poisonous bacteria. This summer the province issued health advisories that essentially closed 12 popular lakes due to blooms of smelly toxic bacteria known as blue-green algae.

The Environmental Protection Agency has published in the Oct. 21 Federal Register a proposed rule that "co-proposes two options for obtaining basic information" from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to support EPA in meeting its water quality protection responsibilities under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

LAWRENCE, Kan.— The toxic blue-green algae that infested many Kansas waterways this summer are dying off as the temperatures drop, but state officials say they're hard at work on a plan to combat the blooms when they return.

The Chesapeake Bay is North America’s largest and most biologically diverse estuary. It has provided a rich bounty of crabs, shellfish, and fish, and high quality recreational opportunities. However, the Bay living systems have been increasingly stressed over time by the pressures of growing populations—there are over 20 million people in the 166,534 km2 mile watershed—industrial pollution, atmospheric deposition of air pollutants, and conversion of forests to farms—especially animal intensive farming—and to urban development.

GREAT LAKES - Algae blooms were common in Lake Erie’s shallow western basin in the 1950s and 1960s. Phosphorus from farms, sewage and industry fertilized the waters so that huge algae blooms developed year after year. The blooms subsided a bit starting in the 1970s, when regulations and improvements in agriculture and sewage treatment limited the amount of phosphorus that reached the lake. But in 2011, a giant bloom spread across the western basin once again.

CORPUS CHRISTI — The most widespread bloom of toxic red algae to plague Texas in a decade continues to kill fish and cause respiratory irritation along Coastal Bend beaches and bayfronts.

Professor Bob Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science has played a major role in a new U.N. report on low-oxygen “dead zones,” a growing threat to ocean life and marine economies in coastal waters throughout the world.