With the huge inputs of water that we had this past March-May, it seemed inevitable that there would be an abundance of the freshwater algae limiting nutrient, phosphorus, which would trigger a huge algae bloom.
But turbulent spring weather has until recently kept the lake rather turbid, reducing sunlight penetration.
This delayed most early, widespread algae blooms. With the recent period of little rain or wind, the lake has cleared up dramatically and is now allowing light penetration to stimulate algae production.
I saw blooms of blue-green algae along the central basin coastline at Ashtubula (7/4) and Geneva (7/9), and by looking at the satellite images, it appears that Maumee Bay, Sandusky Bay, Catawba-Marblehead and places in-between are firing up algae blooms. This time of year, odds are that they are blue-green species, which do best in warmer water.
There was a report released in June from Lake Erie phosphorus researchers that listed their thoughts on some of the causes and solutions of phosphorus loading and can be viewed at go.osu.edu/phosphorus
