With the restart of water releases from Lake Okeechobee to the east and west, concerns mount that an already troublesome algae crisis could get worst in Southwest Florida.
“Even before the releases resumed,” Sanibel Island’s Director of Natural Resources James Evans explained, “we were seeing algae washing up on the bayside of Sanibel.”
The blue-green algae spans the 75 miles of the Caloosahatchee River and estuary from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.
“One of the solutions to battle this blue-green algae, which is predominately a freshwater species, is to drive the salinity up higher into the estuary so that it can slow the growth of the algae within the estuary,” Evans explained on Friday after seeing additional spots of the potentially toxic algae along causeway island beaches. “We really would like to see the flows discontinued so that the salinities are allowed to go back up, rather than depressing those salinities and providing perfect conditions for this algae to grow.”
Evans explained that the algae growth won’t survive the salinity levels in the open water of the Gulf of Mexico, but it doesn’t make them less of a concern. The dead algae is still filled with nutrients, offering other harmful blooms to feed off of it, including the already problematic red tide.
“Dead blue-green algae will contribute to other issues in the estuary that will not be good for the ecology of our waters as well as our beaches,” Evans explained.
Recent satellite images lead to estimates of blue-green algae covering more than 80 percent of Lake Okeechobee.
Leaders on Sanibel Island said they’re hopeful the Army Corps of Engineers will adaptive management plans to adjust pulse releases if measurements reveal significantly higher flows than proposed.
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