Toxic Golden Alga Bloom, Lake Brazos, Waco, Texas

[Ian David]

GLIDE Number: BH-20070301-10129-USA
Date / time: 01/03/2007 07:19:51
Event: Biological Hazard
Area: North-America
Country: USA
State/County: State of Texas
City: Waco
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor

Description:
This sight has become familiar in the section of Lake Brazos that runs through campus. According to Joan Glass from Texas Parks and Wildlife, a golden alga bloom is responsible for the large fish kill affecting Lake Brazos in Waco. The outbreak of golden alga was first reported on Feb. 18, and since then about 4,000 shad fish and many more game fish have been killed, Glass said. Golden alga is an external toxin, one-celled plant that lives 6-inches to 5-feet beneath the surface of the water. According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, this silent fish killer is common in Texas' winter season when water temperatures reach lower than 60 degrees Fahrenheit and in the summer when waters reach higher than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. While the alga is deadly to fish, Glass said that it does not pose a threat to humans. Parks and Wildlife worked with the Waco Health Department in the past during golden alga outbreaks, most recently in 2005, and determined that the alga did not harm humans or other animals, such as pets and birds. Glass said it is still safe to fish in the Brazos, but people should only eat fish that have been caught fresh on a hook. She said not to pick up or eat floating dead fish because they could have died from a bacterial infection, not alga. "I don't know which is which until I test it in the lab," she said. The golden alga still remains in the Brazos ecosystem. "There isn't anything we can do on natural waters," Glass said. There is a treatment to get rid of the alga, but its cost, $2,000 per 50 acres, makes it unrealistic for a body of water as big as Lake Brazos, she said. While Texas Parks and Wildlife deals with issues such as fish kills, Baylor students and the environmental studies department help keep the area clean.

Dr. Susan Bratton, chairwoman of the environmental studies department, said the last major clean-up, which about 70 people attended, was in the fall. "I think students do a pretty good job of not littering," said Rachel Suter, president of the Environmental Concern Organization. Suter, a senior from the Woodlands, said she had not noticed the recent fish deaths, but has noticed a lot of trash in the river. Bratton said when a fish kill happens the state usually intervenes, and the environmental studies department would need to get permits to pick up or study the fish. She did say there have been "obviously hundreds" of dead fish in the portion of Lake Brazos that runs through the campus. Bratton said Lake Brazos provides students with the opportunity to fish, boat and study many different aquatic species from diamondback water snakes, to red ear turtles, and blue herons. "It (Brazos) adds a lot to campus life," she said. Until the golden alga outbreak clears out of Lake Brazos, students will just have to overlook the dead fish that litter this Baylor landmark.

More:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?lang=eng&id=10129