Workers mowed and manicured beaches, campgrounds and other park areas in advance of the final, official holiday of the summer — then waited.

The crowds typically seen at eastern Oklahoma lakes during the Labor Day weekend, however, failed to materialize.

Despite comfortable temperatures and sunny skies, campgrounds and beaches were mostly empty Monday. A few golfers played their way around local course, but it was hard to find anyone on the water…Read more

A new federal report says Ohio cities are just as much to blame as its farms for toxic algae polluting Lake Erie.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that a U.S. Geological Survey study found sewage plants in Detroit, Toledo and other lakeside cities contribute just as much phosphorus to the lake as manure and fertilizer runoff from farms.

Phosphorus is a byproduct of sewage, fertilizers and manure and is responsible for the toxic blue-green algae that excrete liver and nerve toxins which can sicken people and kill fish and wildlife…Read more

Since 2003, biologists have tried to get rid of this algae which kills coral reef by using a suction device, but now, they’ve found something better.Sea urchins love eating algae and voracious grazers chew through fragments and metabolize that and be a natural control for the algae.The alien algae were imported to Hawaii in the 1970s for experimental projects but were later abandoned and soon began to spread uncontrollably. But by placing 1,200 urchins on a patch reef in the bay, researchers have seen a significant change over the last year.

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With that ultimate goal in mind, Kent SeaTech changed its name to Kent BioEnergy and is researching the most efficient ways to grow and harvest algae in 25 acres of green-hued ponds.

Van Olst said the company has about a dozen patents and others pending, including one for a process by which algae is made to clump and fall to the bottom of tanks for easy collection.

Al Darzins, the applied science group manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, said Kent BioEnergy is one of about 100 companies worldwide trying to develop algae for commercial use and competing for private and government funding.

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The world’s phytoplankton appear to have been disappearing at a rate of about 1% a year for the last century, researchers announced Wednesday, a disturbing long-term trend for the microscopic algae that form the basis of the marine food chain and produce much of the world’s oxygen.

In reporting their findings in the journal Nature, the Canadian team said that, since 1950, phytoplankton biomass has shrunk about 40%. Scientists had known the population was shrinking, but the long-term nature of that reduction came as a surprise.

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Ocean experts at the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, a multi-agency science team, said algae-tinged water is harmless even if it is a little slimy.

Some forms of algae are toxic but there are no documented health hazards related to swimming or fishing in areas with Tetraselmis, the microscopic algae blamed for the discoloration, scientists said. It has been found in concentrations of 15 million cells per liter of seawater.

“The foam has persisted this week, though its patchy distribution make it visible only at some beaches and the foam becomes more apparent in the afternoon when the wind and waves mix the surface waters,” said an alert on the coastal observing network’s website.

It’s not uncommon for Tetraselmis algae to be in ocean water but such noticeable blooms are infrequent, said Melissa Carter, a research associate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which is part of the University of California San Diego. The last time she saw such an explosion was in August 2009, leading to conjecture about what conditions might cause a repeat event.

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Yehonatan Bar-Yosef, a PhD student in Prof. Aaron Kaplan’s group at the Hebrew University’s Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, suggests a novel mechanism in a paper published online on Thursday in Current Biology.

A toxic cyanobacterial blue-green alga known as Aphanizomenon ovalisporum was first detected in Lake Kinneret in 1994, and its presence has been noted each summer since. However, how the toxic algae bloomed has remained a mystery.

Bar-Yosef has discovered that Aphanizomenon is known to produce the toxin cylindrospermopsin (CYN). Secretion of the CYN, Bar-Yosef found, induces phosphate-limitation responses in other microorganisms in the ecosystem, even in the presence of ample phosphate in the water. Phosphate is an essential nutrient for growth in many organisms.

By blocking other organisms from absorbing phosphate, Aphanizomenon reserves more of the mineral for itself.

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Large blooms have been detected in the Gulf of Finland between Suursaari and Porvoo and in south western Finnish waterways.

In coastal waters, blue-green algae blooms are present in the eastern Gulf of Finland and in locations near Espoo and Sipoo as well as in the Hanko peninsular and archipelago.

Continuing hot weather is expected to further increase levels of the toxic algae. Water temperatures are also higher than usual.

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Large blooms have been detected in the Gulf of Finland between Suursaari and Porvoo and in south western Finnish waterways.

In coastal waters, blue-green algae blooms are present in the eastern Gulf of Finland and in locations near Espoo and Sipoo as well as in the Hanko peninsular and archipelago.

Continuing hot weather is expected to further increase levels of the toxic algae. Water temperatures are also higher than usual.

Swimmers are advised to avoid areas affected by blue-green algae blooms and also to keep pets away.

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Several algae blooms have been sighted on Lake Champlain, and researchers are testing the algae to determine whether they contain poisonous toxins.

Extensive blooms have been reported in Westport and Port Henry along the New York shoreline and in Panton, Ferrisburg and Charlotte in Vermont.

Test results are expected back from the University of Vermont’s Rubenstien Lab by the end of the week. Although Winslow feels the blooms do contain blue-green algae, a lot more has to be determined before it is considered a danger to health.

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