When runaway algae killed fish and fouled beaches in the Great Lakes region decades ago, governments ordered cutbacks of phosphorus
from laundry detergents and sewage treatment plants
It worked, for a while, but
there are no simple solutions for a recent algae outbreak that is littering shorelines with stinky muck, and it may be responsible for die-offs of loons and other water birds
on phosphorus from sources such as livestock farms and urban lawn fertilizer would help, he said. But there's a catch. While areas near shore have too much phosphorus, some deeper waters don't have enough to support plankton, a crucial link in the food chain. So fish are going hungry
"We have almost two ecosystems in the lake," Bootsma said
we don't have one nice, handy management strategy
An even bigger complication is the presence of zebra mussels and their cousins, quagga mussels
Shoreline algae, known as cladophora, fastens itself to mussel shells and feeds on their waste
clipped from: www.mail.com