![]() ![]() The cyanotoxins they can produce can be hazardous to human health. They usually appear bright green, or milky blue when they start to decay. Priority is granted to heavily recreated water bodies affected by cyanobacterial blooms, but she said frequent monitoring is difficult due to staff limitations, and the tendency for blooms to migrate and dissipate rapidly.Ĭyanobacteria blooms are easy to spot. The division’s interactive map of state blooms has recorded six cyanobacteria blooms in the Albemarle so far in May and June.Īccording to Sarah Young Perkins at the DWR, follow-up monitoring on blooms is dependent on resources such as staff time, bloom types, and public use of the waterbodies. Staff from the state Division of Water Resources (DWR) regularly monitor and map elevated algal densities and blooms. Identifying nutrient hotspots and sources is the key to combating algal blooms. “That’s the formula for them to dominate the system and that is what’s happening in the Chowan and Albemarle.” ![]() “That’s pretty much the formula,” said Paerl who’s been studying blooms in North Carolina and around the world for more than 40 years. Wet winters and springs, followed by warm summers with droughts and stagnant water, combine with increased nutrient inputs to create the perfect storm for the maximum bloom, Paerl explained. ”Human nutrient over-enrichment has been identified as pretty much the basic cause of blooms.” “So in order to generate that much biomass you need sufficient nutrients. “A bloom, in simple terms, means excessive growth of algae to the point when you can almost see it, and it’s a visible phenomena because of the high biomass of organisms in the water,” Paerl said. According to Paerl, these excess nutrient inputs are precursors to these excessive blooms. Paerl is an aquatic microbial ecologist at the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences. These enter waterways through stormwater runoff, which carries them from lawns, roads, septic systems and agricultural fields. The sources of blooms often narrow down to two culprits: nitrogen and phosphorus. Researchers agree 2015 had the worst blooms the sound had seen since the late 1970s, and 2019 is continuing a pattern of blooms starting earlier, even before the heat of the summer creates the prime conditions for blooms to occur.īlooms thrive on warm temperatures, sunlight and nutrient-rich waters. Since their return in 2015, these annual summer blooms in and around the sound have triggered advisories for swimming and eating fish. Counties affected so far include Bertie, Chowan, Pasquotank and Perquimans. State health officials are encouraging the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and asking the public to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom. ![]() The algae contributing to the blooms are cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, some species of which can produce harmful toxins called cyanotoxins. “Environmental conditions controlling toxin production by cyanobacteria are not well understood and can change rapidly over time and location,” the report said, but advised people in the area, especially those with children and pets, to avoid the water, wash with soap after any contact, and not to handle dead fish from affected waters.Īnother harmful algae bloom had been reported that same day, in Dances Bay on Little River, the next in a series of alerts that have been issued throughout the spring and into the summer.Īlgae blooms have lingered in the area since May 14 and have been observed in parts of the Perquimans, Pasquotank and Chowan rivers. Department of Heatlh and Human Services officials released a report urging the public to stay out of the east side of Chowan River, near Arrowhead Beach, north of Edenton.Ī bloom of cyanobacteria, after about a week of monitoring, was producing the toxin microcystin at levels officials consider “a high risk for acute health effects during recreational exposure.” Division of Water Resources continue to urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Albemarle Sound and adjoining waterbodies, due to an algal bloom that has lingered in the area since May 14, 2019. Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Resources re-issued a warning to the public to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Albemarle Sound and adjoining water bodies in the far northeastern regions of the state. ![]()
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