These are pictures we took at Possum Kingdom Lake where our lake house is located. The lake has been hit by something called "golden algae". First time it occurred was about 5-6 years ago. It is extremely toxic to fish. When they swim through it the algae coats their gills and they cannot breathe and all die. The lake was restocked with fingerlings after the first outbreak. Last year was the first year since the original outbreak where we could catch fish that were "keepers".
It initially shows up as foam on the shoreline of the lake (which is 63 miles long). It came back with a vengeance this year. Golden algae is always present in the water but sometimes it has a "bloom" which is where it multiplies rapidly and becomes toxic. Last Saturday we had a huge amount of rain 7-9 inches within 24 hours. That resulted in the flood gates being opened. When the water is moved about rapidly (as when it goes over the dam) the algae turns to foam. The first picture is the water below the dam. As you can see it is covered with the white foam.
About 1/2 mile below the dam is the bridge shown in the subsequent pictures. The water level is up to the bottom of the bridge. This caused the foam to back up over the bridge. It was deeper than the cars are tall. This 4-5 foot deep back-up continued for at least 500 feet prior to the bridge. This means doom not only to all the fish in our lake but in the lakes below us. Lakes Granbury and Whitney will also see the fish kill.
The first time it happened was in Israel, the second time in Arizona or New Mexico. The 3rd time was the outbreak at Possum Kingdom a few years ago. Now we have the repeat event. Scientists have studied it - but so far no cause of the outbreaks has been identified and no cure is known. There is little money for research to do much else.
Today there was so much foam they had to close the bridge and we could not even get down to the road to see it. It's a sad day for all the lake people. The one good thing is that it is not toxic to humans. Thought you all might enjoying seeing what 5 feet of foam (not snow) looks like.
h/t McGillicutty
7 comments:
Crud!! Some of my most fond Childhood memories are of fishing the Possum Kingdom Dam. Different fish seem to be biting every time, Drum, Stripers, Trout they stocked. I pray for relief.
It's Pres Bush's fault.
I saw a bunch of that stuff on a pond off Silver Creek Road south of Azle this afternoon - not heaped up over the road, but still very noticeable.
Actually if algal biofuel production were farther along, we could have an energy windfall on our hands.
From WikiPedia: One biofuels company has claimed that algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two car garage than a football field of soybeans, because almost the entire algal organism can use sunlight to produce lipids, or oil.[7] The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (40,000 km2).[8] This is less than 1⁄7 the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000.[9]
I recognize that crossing. I used to work a few miles away from there as bouncer at The Old Corral Club.
Those Cedarhackers are some tough hombres!
The other downside to all that pond scum (besides killing the fish) is that, inevitably, some of it will get elected to Congress...
Is that bridge the one between the fish hatchery and The Cliffs? I was out there today, but of course it looked nothing like this.
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