Algae Bloom GreenBay

Only seen a few dead drum so far by bay shore. Seems like the bloom is pretty bad this year. Just wondering if the dnr are trying to do anything about. Ik there’s regs on farms and lake front houses.

I love when the algae blooms hit the first response is blame the farmers. Fertilizer is expensive so the last thing they want to do is just waste it by having runoff. Farming practices and technology has vastly improved the last 10 years and the amount of fertilizer they use is down drastically.  Improvements in timing and placement of fertilizer has led to decrease in leaching through the soil. Same goes for manure applications. 

I know someone will come on and roast me saying all the contamination in wells is their fault, which yes it does occur sometimes but its not as widespread a problem as everyone thinks. Farmers have become great stewardship of the land they make a living off.

Does anyone ever notice the nice grren lush lawns on most waterfront properties? How do they get that way? Fertilizer? And when it rains it only needs to go a few feet to be in the water verses miles across farmland.

Front page story in the Green Bay Press Gannet had an article about toxic bloom, then showed a picture that plainly showed a close up of common duckweed. It's not toxic at all. The East River has a bunch of duckweed this year but I haven't seen a blue/green algae bloom there. The Fox is a different story. Bago seems to have it in places like at High Cliff park area. I haven't heard of any "dead zone" in Green Bay yet. Hope with all the water going thru the system, we dodge that bullet this year.

The algae bloom on Green Bay has little to nothing to do with runoff from farms or anything being discharged by locals.  It has everything to do with being inundated with more rain than normal.  Last year, in late August, we entered into this current weather pattern.  Algae bloom in September and even mid October was near constant.

Algae Bloom is a condition that exists because an ecosystem is trying to attain balance, also known as good health.  Algae bloom occurs for several reasons:  runoff, agriculture enrichment, large amounts of rain, just to name a few.  In this case, we are about 8" above normal for precipitation in 2019, plus we were 6" above normal for 2018.  With the flooding that's occurred this year, and the continued rain events, the Bay is constantly trying to achieve balance.  The solution?  Turnover would help. Less rain would help.  In 2017, our fall walleye fishing in the lower bay was incredibly good.  Last year it was below average, because the algae bloom decay created very cloudy water.  I suspect this year will be the same.  Capt Jerry.