Ohio professor studying similar algae problems in Lake Erie

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Algae cleanup in a canal on Aug. 8, 2018 at Waterway Estates in North Fort Myers.

Right now crews are taking on the algae in Southwest Florida by pumping it out of the water and releasing micro-organisms to get rid of it.

Now we know that Southwest Florida isn’t the only area affected by the green gunk.

One expert is studying algae in Lake Erie, 18 hours away, and he says they are dealing with the exact same problem.

“What I’ve been doing in the past is trying to determine just how big the bloom is,” said University of Toledo Professor, Tom Bridgeman. “It’s not just Florida, it’s the Great Lakes. It’s becoming a world-wide problem.”

Bridgeman has studied harmful algal blooms on Lake Erie for almost 18 years and he thinks the reason they are seeing the blooms is the same reason we have them in our own backyard.

“Agricultural fertilizers, manure application, when those run off the land and into the waters and tributaries and into the lake, that causes the blooms,” he said.

But knowing the cause is one thing, now the question is how do we get rid of it?

The answer might be hard to hear.

“Unfortunately once you have blooms in the coastal areas or in the rivers, I don’t think there’s anything you can really do about it,” Bridgeman said. “Prevention is the best method.”

And what about the cleanup options we’ve tried?

“Any solution that you try to apply you have to remember that during the growing season, these algae can double every day, so whatever treatment you apply you might have to come back the next day and start all over again,” he said.

So even 1200 miles away, we have more in common than we may prefer.

“It probably took a while to get into this situation, it’ll probably take a while to get out of it again,” he said.

Researchers in Southwest Florida have echoed a similar sentiment, saying it will probably be months before we see the algae dissipate.

Everyone agrees that we need to focus on the many man-made roots of our algae problem like fertilizers sewage and runoff.

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