Wall Street Journal Article on Algae Blooms

I dont know if you mean putting carp into a lake to control algae or not. What i can tell you is that we have seen this done time and time again and it always turns bad for the lakes. Caney lake was breaking the state record every year until smart people thought they could play god and introduced carp to the lake for grass and algae control. The lake did not fair well, the lake was once a pretty big tourist atraction for people from all around trying to catch double digit fish and the community of Chatham Louisiana was benifiting from this. As a small logging town they needed and need all of the help they can get. Back to the lake it was about 7 years of bad luck fishing and i mean horrible. But with slot fish management and a bounty on the carp the lake has come back and now people are catching great bags of fish. Most of the BassCat owners in this area have fished the thursday nighters there and now you had best bring your a-game because it is not uncommon to see three fish weighing in the upper teen they need to let nature run it cours in my opinion or find a different avanue of approach to control grass, I sincerely appologize for the rant.

Perhaps Mr Jeremy can add on to this from a biologists perspective.

We have seen this algae broom here in our deserts time and time again. It had destoyed a few of our fisheries a few years back. We have now after restocking hundreds of thousands of large and small mouth bass back into our lakes over the past last few years we are finally getting a few of our fisheries back. If you consider a three pound sack a fishery. Mr. Jeremy, the beginning of our decline of the fisheries and the overwhelming growth of our algae bloom seemed to go hand and hand with one of our worst desert fires. Now my question is this… Is it the influx of the nutrients from the fire debris or is it true that the fire retardent used to put out the fires has a fertalizer in it that help the growth in the algae bloom, or a combination of both. The fires at the time came fairly close to our lake and eventually during the rains the retardent and debris worked its way into our rivers and streams that feed the lakes. Here is a link to the folks that put the effort and helped fund the Az Game and Fish stocking project… http://www.unitedazanglers.org We also built over a quarter mile of habitat while one of our lakes was down for a dam inspection. Just local anglers and the AZ G&F Here is a video of the work of Az G&F and the UAAF in stocking our lakes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI3GrqawAVADESERTDWELLER.COM “GET YOUR BASS IN THE BOAT”

I wasnt very familiar with the issue of harmful algal blooms in Arizona, so I did a little research. Apparently, the organism responsible for this problem is Prymnesium parvum, which is a species of golden algae. This species produces a toxin that affects gilled organisms such as fish (for this reason carp would not be an effective control method). These harmful algal blooms seem to be more common in winter and in waters with higher salinity. Several states have been affected by golden alga, including Arizona and Texas. There are several state agencies and other organizations that are researching golden alga. Texas Parks and Wildlife has a copy of a literature review on their website that compiles quite a bit of research on this subject. Here is a link to the article: a literature review of golden alga. AzDesDweller, both fire debris and fire retardant could potentially lead to elevated nutrient levels in lakes. Modern fire retardants contain chemicals that act as fertilizers, so it is possible that the influx of fire debris and fire retardant chemicals could trigger an algal bloom. However, I believe that there are other chemical and environmental factors that are the root cause of the problem (I am not an expert on golden alga so could be wrong; though, I am not sure if anyone else really knows the answer either). I checked out the link you posted and it looks like you guys have done a lot of work to improve your lakes. I hope that all of your efforts are successful in restoring your fisheries. By the way, who is this Mr. Jeremy that everyone keeps referring to.

LiveFuels, San Carlos, Calif., is testing out carp, tilapia and members of the sardine family at a fish farm in Rio Hondo, Texas, near the Mexican border. Once it figures out a good fish mix, LiveFuels wants to release them in Louisiana bays — more than 25,000 pounds of fish per acre — to feast on the algae blooms. “This is the sea equivalent of traveling goats: you have algae, well bring the fish,” she says. Nancy Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is doubtful of the plan. “There are several groups looking at phytoplankton as a biomass. But my sense is there is not enough on a continual basis to make it economically feasible,” she said. She is right, unless they do it closer to the equator. This is an old discussion that the Wall Street Journal is just recycling. One of my buddies, Mark, is a M.S. fisheries biologist from Auburn and he always goes back to the idea that raising the fish is an unnecessary step. He tells me there are algae subspecies that have very high lipid (fat) content. The higher fat content, and easy of processing, make the algae a better fuel source than fish. Exxon, who is mentioned in the story, has been looking at this for years. One of the experts I use is a partner in one of the primary Exxon projects that is actually in limited production right now. He tells me that the lipid content in the type of algae they are using is significantly higher than the general algae mix you find, so they preferentially raise the good one. The interesting thing about it is they harvest by just sucking it up and filtering the water. They dont have any other costs when they grow them other than collection. Apparently the biggest challenge is how to hold them in one place, they have tested in big tanks and havevnt figured out open water yet. Mark tells me that the cheap way to do it is just filter a bunch of water and take advantage of the naturally high algae levels. Mark is an interesting guy, his thesis project involved raising largemouth in a hatchery. He will tell you that the fish farming business is tough. Besides, if they figure it all out, what will I do for a living? Permit algae farms?