Bay of Bengal - Visakhapatanam - Dwindling catch, marine pollution worry fishermen

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/dwindling-catch-marine-pollution-worry-fishermen/article7880131.ece

Dwindling catch, marine pollution worry fishermen

SANTOSH PATNAIK

• 
  Fishermen removing garbage that entered the net along with the catch, in Visakhapatnam. —PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK
• 

n estimated 3.25 lakh fishermen living in 133 hamlets in Visakhapatnam district are seething with anger due to dwindling catch and marine pollution causing fish-kill.

There is phenomenal increase in incidents of fish-kill as well as fishing areas becoming ‘dead zones’ due to rapid industrialisation and urbanisation leading to less extent of fishing area in the territorial waters within two km area from the shore and discharge of sewage by GVMC and effluents by the industries.

The number of fishing days has been reduced to 270 in a year on account of annual fishing holiday and formation of various systems in the Bay. In reality, fishermen just have 120 fishing days.

The sea used to be very clean two decades ago. Now it is muddy due to changing climate and rise in industrial pollution. According to unofficial estimates fish catch has come down from 1.35 lakh tonne per annum 15 to 20 years ago to 85,000 tonne. Overexploitation following increase in number of boats is also said to be one of the factors for falling catch.

Enquiries with GVMC have revealed that the city is generating an estimated 220 million gallons per day of sewage (170 in 2001) of which 96 MLD of ‘treated’ sewage is discharged into sea.

The rest goes into the sea through storm water drainage without any treatment. GVMC is building a sewage treatment plant at Narava with a capacity of 104 MLD.

An official of AP Pollution Control Board has said 425 MLD water used by various industries is discharged into sea through pipelines in addition to five MLD of industrial effluents under its ‘vigilant eye’. “Guard ponds (where testing is done to ensure compliance to emission standards), are being set up for RINL and HPCL which discharge an estimated six MLD of effluents, by December 31 as per the directive of Central Pollution Control Board,” he says.

Fishermen say due to NTPC Simhadri, Pharma City and other industries, 30-km area near Mutyalammapalem and Tikkavanipalem has become a dead zone for fishing. Similarly, due to steel plant and a private power plant, Appikonda, which used to be a major fishing landing centre, has become a dead zone.

“Pudimadaka, which has a population of 15,000, used to be a major hub for fishing a decade ago. Now fishermen here are struggling to meet their both ends meet after Brandix India Apparel City laid a pipeline into the sea to discharge the effluents by the garment plants that came at Atchutapuram,” says Arjili Dasu, a fishermen activist.

Former IAS officer and social activist E.A.S. Sarma says: “Visakhapatnam’s coastline sustains the livelihood of thousands of traditional fisherfolk, dependent on it for generations. Of late, despite rigorous environment laws in force, due to official apathy and connivance, the laws are violated and industries cause toxic pollution and other commercial establishments let out untreated sewage effluents.”

Shrinking shoreline a cause for concern

The coastline in Visakhapatnam district has effectively come down from 136 to 66 km due to establishment of various projects either on the shore or nearer to it.

Some of the major projects which have become operational on the coastline include NTPC Simhadri Super Thermal Power Project, Hinduja National Power Corporation, Brandix India Apparel City, Naval Alternative Operations Base, Hetero Drugs and a string of hatcheries in and around Payakaraopeta.

The shoreline has also shrunk by half a km, which experts from National Institute of Oceanography attribute to coastal erosion, massive constructions on the beach road as part of concrete jungle culture.

“We used to capture fish 50 to 60 metres from shore and now we have to go deep,” says Ch. Satyanarayana Murthy, a boat owner from Visakhapatnam.

http://www.dailytownsman.com/breaking_news/222971371.html

Koocanusa algae bloom kills thousands of salmon

Two weeks ago there was a mass die-off of Kokanee Salmon in Lake Koocanusa. Thousands of fish floated on the surface near the Canada-US border.

Area B Director Heath Slee brought up the subject at the Regional District of East Kootenay meeting Friday, Sept. 6.

"Some of the local people complained that they saw all these carcasses of kokanee salmon floating upside down on the lake and in the reservoir," Slee said. That was the first thing he's heard about it happening two weeks ago.

He found that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists attributed the die-off to a blue-green algae bloom.

The kokanee, 8-10 inches in size, came to the surface because of the long stretch of hot, dry weather this summer on Koocanusa.

"The two-year-old salmon came up to feed on this algae, which they typically do, and once they ingest this algae, it affects their bladder and so they are not able to dive down into the cooler waters again,"

he said, adding that unless they can reach those cooler depths, they cannot thrive.

"So consequently there was a huge die-off. It hasn't affected the over-species, from what I've been told, it's not harmful, it's not going to affect the wildlife," Slee said, adding that if you're out there fishing and catching salmon there's also no concern about eating the salmon.

Slee said it has happened before and biologists believe it is the algae that caused it.

The salmon would be becoming mature and spawning in the fall of 2014, so it may have an effect on future stock.

"Unfortunately a lot of those salmon have died," Slee said. "I don't know what the end result will be or how it will affect the salmon fishery next summer, but it has been a major die-off at this stage and it has hurt in the past."

According to an article in the Tobacco Valley News, Montana biologist Mike Hensley estimated that 10,000 juvenile kokanee were dead as a result of the algae bloom.

Slee said he hadn't heard of any local biologists looking into the situation, but said they were probably aware of the die-off.

The kokanee were introduced into Koocanusa a number of years ago and this year's salmon will begin spawning in the creeks and rivers in the next few weeks.

Scientists say fish kill expected on Gulf Coast for a few more days

http://www.kvue.com/news/state/214089171.html

Scientists say this fish kill may last a few more days, but has lessened.

This is the first incident of the summer.

Redondo Beach, California Fish Kill

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-fishy-sardine.html

Nothing fishy about sardine kill

April 5, 2011 By Pamela J. Johnson

e

Doctoral candidate Beth Stauffer (left), research technician Alyssa Gellene, and Astrid Schnetzer, assistant research professor, all of David Caron's laboratory use an EcoMapper to measure the oxygen level and other water data toward the end of the cleanup effort at King Harbor. Credit: Carl Oberg

Algal bloom specialist David Caron knows exactly what caused the death of 2.5 million sardines at King Harbor and is producing a paper on his research. The city of Redondo Beach gave him

The few million silvery sardines that recently went belly up at Redondo Beach have been removed and the rotten egg smell has nearly dissipated.

But the fish kill story at King Harbor is not over.

“We’re going to have one of the best documented events of this kind that has ever been done probably anywhere in the world,” said David Caron, professor of biological sciences in USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

“Our sensor equipment was in the water before, during and after it happened; luckily we had one right at ground zero,” Caron said. “And we physically got there the day it happened.”

Caron and his team are compiling their research on the March phenomenon in which more than 2 million — 175 tons — of sardines swam into the marina and died. An expert in aquatic ecosystems, Caron and his researchers are working closely with the city of Redondo Beach and King Harbor in finding answers about what caused the phenomenon and how such a fish kill may be prevented. They are also monitoring what is being done with the fish corpses.

Instruments suspended in the harbor throughout the event revealed that the fish were killed by a lack of oxygen in the harbor water — not toxins from an algal bloom which some news outlets had erroneously reported. Caron’s team also used an EcoMapper to help characterize water quality. The EcoMapper is a self-propelled device that traverses the water with a scanning sonar, mapping the ocean floor and collecting real-time water quality data.

“The fish were jammed in a small space in the harbor and ran out of oxygen,” Caron said. Although not the cause of death, the stomachs in the dead fish contained algae that produced domoic acid, a heterocyclic amino acid associated with harmful algal blooms. They ate the toxins before crowding into the harbor and running out of oxygen, Caron said, adding that a significant toxic algal bloom did exist in the coastal waters off the Palos Verdes Peninsula at the time of the event.

Caron and his researchers have been studying King Harbor since a fish kill occurred there in 2005. In 2006, they began taking weekly water samples and the next year, installed sensors that measure in part the temperature, salinity, chlorophyll and plant pigment in the water. Their sensors record the measurements every half hour, detecting any algal blooms and toxic algae that may be present.

“This allows us to have a finger on the pulse on what’s going on out there,” Caron said. “This most recent event happened virtually overnight.”

Early March 8, Caron received a call from one of the marinas about the dead fish, which had started perishing overnight. Several of Caron’s researchers were dispatched right away. Astrid Schnetzer, research assistant professor, was one who arrived the first day, then returned to collect samples and measurements for several consecutive days with engineering technician Carl Oberg, lab technician Alyssa Gellene and Ph.D. candidates Beth Stauffer and Erica Seubert.

“It became so packed with sardines you couldn’t see the water,” Schnetzer recounted, adding that in some places a 3-foot-thick layer of fish had settled along the harbor floor. “Fish corpses were everywhere. It looked as if you could walk between the boats across the sardines.”

After a few days, it got worse.

“The smell made me nauseous,” she said. “People were complaining that it made their eyes burn. It was the most rotten straightforward smell you can imagine.”
All their effort was worth it.

“We’ve been there waiting for something like this to happen for five years,” Caron said. “When these events usually happen, we’re basically chasing the ambulance. By the time we get there it’s over. In this case, we were there before it happened.”

Caron and his team have also been honored by the city of Redondo Beach, which acknowledged their assistance and expertise involving handing the fish and the inquiries surrounding the event. Caron has given many interviews on the science behind what occurred, has worked with the city on cleanup and is still monitoring the aftermath.

Right now, Caron is ensuring that all toxins in the fish are removed before they are turned into compost.

“The composting process should take care of any toxins,” he said, holding up a coin medallion engraved with King Harbor that Redondo Beach City Council members gave him during a recent public meeting to symbolize their appreciation. “No one has ever looked at the toxins [from a fish-die] during the composting process before.

“We know that in toxic blooms, the toxins don’t stay around forever, they get degraded by bacteria, light and increased temperatures. In the sea, there is a chemical and biological degradation of toxins, that we know. We don’t know if that applies to composting, but we’re about to find out.”

He’s not a fish behaviorist, so cannot say definitively what drove so many fish into the harbor at once. It could have been that predators chased the schools into the harbor, he said. Or possibly the domoic acid they ate caused the fish to become disoriented and swim erratically.

“You can speculate all sorts of things, but in fact nobody really knows what toxins will do to behavior in fish,” Caron said. “In the past, people have suggested it might cause swimming abnormalities but most recent evidence suggests that it probably doesn’t.”

Larger mammals such as sea lions who feed on toxic blooms do develop distinct neurological symptoms — resulting from nausea to convulsions and seizures to death, he said.

“There were thousands of birds feeding on the dead fish,” Caron said. “And we haven’t seen an abnormal increase in the mortality of birds or marine mammals, so that’s a good sign.”

Caron and his team’s research will also help Redondo Beach come up with solutions that may help the city avoid a similar situation in the future such as possibly putting an oxygenation system in place at the harbor. The Redondo Beach Patch reported that cleanup would cost the city at least $300,000.

“They may use it only once every three years or so,” Caron said of the aeration scheme, one of many possible solutions. "But they are going to avoid a costly problem.”

Provided by University of Southern California (news : web)

http://www.newtondailynews.com/articles/2011/03/27/r_ywoapkzeq5upkd6b8o3ya/index.xml

Melting ice reveals several winter fish kills in Iowa’s lakes, ponds.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has received numerous reports of dead fish in lakes and ponds across Iowa as the ice cover disappears for another year.

These winter fish kills have been reported at Swan Lake (Carroll), Badger Creek Lake (Madison), Clark Lake (Cerro Gordo), Kuhn Wildlife Pond (Cerro Gordo), Pilot Knob Pond (Winnebago), Alice Wyth Lake (Black Hawk), Middle Sabula and Green Island lakes (Jackson), Credit Island Lagoon (Scott), and a storm water retention pond in Guttenberg.

Fisheries staff are also watching lakes and ponds with low oxygen levels that are at risk of having a winter fish kill. Many north Iowa lakes and ponds are still under ice, so additional winter kills are likely.

Winter kills happen when a combination of ice and snow blocks sunlight from reaching aquatic plants, which in turn, stop producing oxygen. The longer the snow and ice cover lasts, the less oxygen is in the water.

“Winter kills are rarely complete kills. We get a lot of calls from farm pond owners who think they lost all of their fish in their pond to winter kill. Our advice to them is to fish the pond in the spring, note the species, number and size of what you catch and talk to their local fisheries biologist about the health of the pond,” said Joe Larscheid, chief of the fisheries bureau for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“What is important to understand it that this is a natural phenomenon and has been occurring in lakes, ponds and river backwaters throughout our history,” Larscheid said. “On the positive side, winter kills create a surplus of food that allows the remaining fish to experience rapid growth over the following year or two.”

Winter kills are visible shortly after ice out when fish that died during the winter float and are blown to shore. In certain lakes, like Rathbun, Black Hawk, Storm and Coralville, these dead fish are often a source of food for channel catfish that will go on a feeding spree. Many anglers see this as an early season fishing opportunity for trophy sized channel catfish.

“Channel catfish are attracted to food that gives off a strong odor and these dead fish put off an odor that will bring in catfish from across the lake. We tell anglers to fish on the windblown shore this time of year because the dead fish will be there, followed closely by the catfish. This can be some of the best fishing of the year,” Larscheid said.

While Mother Nature may be responsible for many fish kills discovered after ice out, the Iowa DNR would like to make sure some other factor is not to blame.

“If in doubt, give your local fisheries biologist a call so we can discuss your situation,” Larscheid said.

Fish Kill near Jones Park, Mississippi - Video

http://www.corexit.com/red-alert-fish-are-dying-as-a-result-of-corexit-matt-simmons-murdered-before-it-explodes

RED ALERT Fish are dying

I

Gulf oil spill: Has it caused a new fish kill?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/08/gulf-oil-spill-dead-fish-kill-mississippi.html

Gulf oil spill: Has it caused a new fish kill? (UPDATED)

August 23, 2010 | 4:47 pm

Louisiana state biologists Monday were investigating whether a large fish kill at the mouth of the Mississippi River was caused by oil or dispersants from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf also contains a vast dead zone created by agricultural runoff along the river.

"By our estimates, there were thousands, and I'm talking about 5,000 to 15,000 dead fish," St. Bernard Parish President Crag Taffaro said in a news release Monday. "Different species were found dead, including crabs, sting rays, eel, drum, speckled trout, red fish, you name it, included in that kill."

The fish were found floating at the top of the water, collected along plastic booms that were placed to contain millions of gallons of oil from the spill that was touched off by the April 20 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The oil flowed into the gulf until July 15 when the gusher was capped.

A half-mile long swirl of thick substance with several tar balls and a strong smell of diesel was discovered Monday around Louisiana's Grassy Island, St. Bernard Parish officials announced. Skimmers were collecting the scum.

"There is what we believe to be some recoverable oil in the area," Taffaro said. "We will be sampling that and recovering what we can. We don't want to jump to any conclusions because we've had some oxygen issues by the Bayou La Loutre Dam from time to time.

"The Marine Division of Wildlife and Fisheries is on it ... It does point to the need for us to continue to monitor our waters."

According to St. Bernard Parish spokeswoman Karen Bazile, the fish were found in the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a 76-mile shipping shortcut from the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans that was dug by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960s. "It is blamed for massive wetlands loss and is widely believed to have worsened the flooding from Hurricane Katrina," she said in an e-mail. "Since that storm, the federal government has paid for a rock structure across the channel at Bayou La Loutre to stop the flow of salt water, also putting an end to shipping in the channel."

UPDATE: On Monday evening, St. Bernard Parish oil disaster information officer, Jennifer Belson, said that preliminary testing by the state's Wildife & Fisheries indicated that the cause of the fish kill was "hypoxia" or lack of oxygen. "But we don't have the final testing back," she said. Hypoxia is most often caused by an excess of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertilizer or human waste, but it can also be caused by chemical dispersants, which were used extensively after the oil spill.

Ralph Portier, an environmental scientist at Louisiana State University, cautioned in an interview that, "A lot of things can explain a fish kill, which is not uncommon during the hot summer weather in Louisiana. It could be the nutrient-rich environment with a lot of heat. It could be rainfall. It could be changes in salinity or upwelling from disturbed sediment."

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, he noted, is "like a dead end canal with water that does not mix as much as you would like it to." If oil were the cause, he said, he would expect a more gradual, rather than a sudden fish kill.

But he said he could not rule out that the fish kill could be related to the oil spill. Fresh water, which has been diverted into the marshes since the spill, can change salinity levels and affect fish, he noted. The fish kill announcement, he said, "goes to show how sensitive the (oil spill) issue is. You can imagine the angst of a lot of people in the sea food industry when they hear about a fish kill now."

-- Margot Roosevelt

Fish Kills 2010

USA

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Second-Fish-Kill-Baffles-Residents-Garfield-Park-Lagoon-Bloomingdale-Chicago-Asian-Carp-98199204.html

Two local ponds have been plagued by scores of dead fish in recent days -- leaving residents and wildlife officials speculating as to what happened.

The first fish kill was reported Friday in Garfield Park, where fishermen were upset by the stench left by hundreds of fish corpses -- including two huge Asian carp.

The second kill happened in Bloomingdale, near Westlake Park. Local resident Kirk Steinbruecker described what he saw Friday to the Daily Herald.

http://wvgazette.com/ap/ApTopStories/201007120191

July 12, 2010

Cause sought for W.Va. fish kill

By AP Writer, Contributor

The Associated Press

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - State regulators are looking for the cause of a fish kill in a tributary of Dunkard Creek in Monongalia County.

Biologist Frank Jernejcic (Jur-nay-sic) with the Division of Natural Resources says 6,000 to 7,000 fish died on July 1 over 1 mile of the North Fork of the West Virginia Fork of Dunkard Creek

Phillipines

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/266383/bfar-probes-mysterious-fish-kill-ifugao

BFAR probes mysterious fish kill in Ifugao

By DEXTER A. SEE

July 12, 2010, 9:10am

LAMUT, Ifugao – The Cordillera office of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is conducting an investigation on the cause of a fish kill that resulted in over P10 million worth of losses.

An initial report from the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) and the Provincial Agriculture Office showed that over 40 hectares of fish ponds in the lowland towns of Lamut, Aguinaldo, Alfonso Lista and Lagawe were affected.

The report showed that the fish kill began last April and affected numerous fish ponds in the different parts of the province.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/biologists_investigate_substan.html

On Mobile Bay's Eastern Shore on Tuesday, marine biologists investigated what was described as a substantial kill of small menhaden in a canal off Weeks Bay's western shore near Bay Haven Drive in the Barnwell Community.

Nicole Shaffer, a marine biologist with Alabama's Marine Resources Division said she collected water at the site where several thousand juvenile menhaden up to an inch long floated. The cause of the kill won't be known until results of tests on those samples are complete.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/09/china.green.pioneers.wu.lihong/?fbid=9ClEUmOeDaK

China's third largest freshwater body of water, Lake Tai, is at once placid and majestic, until it reveals its dirty secret. Lake Tai, or Tai Hu in Chinese, was once considered an ecological treasure in the heart of eastern China's land of fish and rice cultivation in Jiangsu province. Today, the lake is lined with green algae, dead fish and industrial waste, unmistakable consequences of more than 20 years of heavy factory production along its perimeter. It is a story of environmental disintegration that Wu Lihong, an environmental activist recently freed from prison, has been trying to tell for decades.

Fish Kills in USA – 2009.

A list of a few of the Fish Kills in USA in 2009 are given below.
There were many more but I saved the links of only a few.

http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/washington_county_tenn._residents_concerned_about_large_fish_kill/32321/

http://www.newbernsj.com/news/fish-47907-kill-million.html

http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-sewage-spill-090915,0,2090997.story

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/lake-elsinore/article_570f8965-a1d9-54b2-8847-e35ddd737738.html - LAKE ELSINORE: Fish kill strikes Lake Elsinore once again


Atlanta-http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/Volunteers_Work_to_Clear_Park_Fish_Kill_081209

Big Eau Pleine Reservoir - http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/53066207.html

Black River -http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20090812/NEWS05/90812006/Official++Fish+kill+is++quite+sad+

http://www.bnd.com/sports/story/838374.html - High heat causes fish kill at Baldwin Lake

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-fish-kill-102709,0,183607.story – Cherry Creek, Denver.

Yadkin River, North Carolina.
http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/102809-high-rock-fish-kill -

Apollo Beach's Southshore Falls
http://southshore2.tbo.com/content/2009/oct/28/ss-southshore-falls-fish-kill-probed/ -

Freshwater Harmful Algal Bloom

http://www.freshwaterhablegislation.com/

Welcome to www.FreshwaterHABLegislation.com

This website supports advancement of the proposed Freshwater Harmful Algal Bloom Research and Control Act (FHAB Act) in the 111th U.S. Congress. An informal coalition of freshwater researchers and managers, and other interested parties, is attempting to provide the public support needed by the U.S. Senate’s Environment & Public Works Committee (Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair) and the U.S. House of Representative’s Science & Technology Committee’s (Rep. Bart Gordon, Chair) Subcommittee on Energy and Environment (Rep. Brian Baird, Chair) for introduction and enactment of the FHAB Act. The coalition is led by Drs. H. Kenneth Hudnell and Wayne Carmichael.

Cyanobacteria (a.k.a. blue-green algae) are the predominant FHAB organisms. Their populations rapidly expand during appropriate conditions of nutrients, warmth, sunlight and quiescent or stagnant water. Dozens of cyanobacteria species produce some of the most potent toxins known. These toxins, cyanotoxins, cause lethal, sub-lethal and chronic effects in humans and other organisms. Cyanotoxins occur in finished drinking water, as well as in recreational waters. Bloom biomasses adversely impact aquatic biota, including massive fish kills caused by hypoxia and/or toxin secretions when the cells die and decay. There is widespread agreement among scientists and water quality managers that the incidence of blooms in freshwater bodies is increasing in the U.S. and worldwide. Every year FHABs occur where they were not observed previously, and FHAB durations increase. Global climate change, rising freshwater usage demand, excessive nutrient inputs to freshwater and poor water management practices are driving much of the increase. The economic costs of FHABs and eutrophication in U.S. freshwaters are conservatively estimated to be $2.2-4.6 billion annually.

The FHAB Act is needed to mandate that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establish a National Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms Research Plan (FHABRP) so that Federal policy can be developed. The EPA has purview over all U.S. freshwater bodies, but has not made regulatory determinations or established guidelines for FHABs due to the lack of sufficient scientific information on FHAB occurrence, dose-response health effects and control methodology. The Agency has not established the FHABRP because of the lack of a clear Congressional directive. The World Health Organization and a number of other countries have established regulations or guidelines. The FHAB Act is needed if we are to protect human health, aquatic ecosystems and the U.S. economy from the looming crisis posed by FHABs.

The EPA listed Microcystins, Cylindrospermopsin and Anatoxin-a as highest priority cyanotoxins, and Saxitoxin and Anatoxin-a(s) as medium to high priority. Research is needed to assess the frequency and concentrations with which cyanobacteria and these cyanotoxins occur in recreational and finished drinking waters. Health research is needed to obtain cyanotoxin dose-response data for establishing Reference Doses (ingested compounds), Reference Concentrations (inhaled compounds) and cancer assessments. Risk management research is needed to assess the efficacy and sustainability of ecological and chemical approaches to FHAB control. No Federal research funds currently target this research. The FHAB Act and subsequent fund allocations are needed to establish the FHABRP so the research can be accomplished.

Congress was informed of the need for the FHAB Act through testimony given to the Science & Technology Committee by Dr. Hudnell in July 2008. The FHAB Act is modeled after the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (1998, 2004) that directed the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a research plan for coastal HABs. FHAB Act funds would be administered through the three competitive, research grant programs established by NOAA – ECOHAB, MERHAB & PCM HAB.

This website includes a repository of all Emails sent to coalition members and all letters drafted for submission to Congress. If you would like to join the FHAB legislation coalition, click on the Join Email List button above.

The website is hosted on a SolarBee, Inc. server where additional information on FHABs can be obtained in the Science Office section. For additional information, Email Dr. Hudnell.

Thank you for your support of the FHAB ACT.

Last updated June 1, 2009.

Neuse River fish kill update

Neuse River fish kill grows worse

Oilgae Blog article about Nualgi

Nualgi – Algae Nutrient that Cleans Sewage & Grows Fish
Posted on Friday, October 09, 2009 posted by Ecacofonix @ 5:38 AM

The Oilgae Team had an excellent opportunity a couple of weeks back when we visited Bangalore and the Nualgi team that has done awesome work in the field of sewage pond treatment using algae.

The idea sounds simple once you heard it; in fact you would be led to wonder why no one thought of it earlier.

....

Read the full post at -

http://www.oilgae.com/blog/2009/10/nualgi-algae-nutrient-that-cleans.html

Fish Kill due to Diatom bloom

A rare case of a fish kill due to bloom of Diatoms.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/sep/25/brown-water-dead-fish-wash-naples-beaches/

"Scientists have pegged the brown water affecting the Naples coast on a diatom, a silica-based algae, called Guinardia flaccida."

The cause of the Diatom bloom seems to be a spill of fluorosilicic acid -

"Workers at Stolthaven New Orleans LLC dumped almost half a million gallons of a chemical called fluorosilicic acid into the Mississippi River."

http://nutritionresearchcenter.org/healthnews/keep-your-genitalia-out-of-the-mississippi/

Nualgi results in a controlled bloom of Diatoms and hence is very useful and has no side effects.

Nualgi - Diatom Algae

Nualgi InGreen July 09

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by bhaskarmv | Upload your own presentation

Neuse River fish kill totals more than 50 million

Neuse River fish kill totals more than 50 million

http://www2.wnct.com/nct/news/local/article/neuse_river_fish_kill_totals_more_than_50_million/52492/

By STEPHANIE MOORE
Noon Edition Producer
Published: September 17, 2009

Millions of fish are turning up dead or dying in parts of the Neuse River.
Neuse Riverkeeper Larry Baldwin estimates more than 50 million fish are now floating in the river.
Baldwin says some fish kills do occur naturally on the river, but he claims this is not a natural occurrence.
The Division of Water Quality says there is no evidence that the kill is caused by anything other than low oxygen levels in the water.

Neuse River Fish Kill in Sept 09 - 4 million fish dead

http://www.enctoday.com/news/fish-47794-nbsj-neuse-dead.html

Fish kill total may be up to 4 million, setting record
September 07, 2009 9:48 PM
Sun Journal Staff

Reports of more dead fish on the Neuse River continue to come to waterway observers, increasing estimates from of a fish kill that began as 8,000 fish on Thursday to as many as 4 million.
Larry Baldwin, lower Neuse Riverkeeper for the Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation, said reports of additional dead fish have continued to come from people located several miles upriver from New Bern to areas as far as southeast as Clubfoot Creek.

This “gives a very conservative estimate of at least 4 million dead fish over the last four days,” Baldwin said.

The main species involved is Atlantic Menhaden, an anatropous species or one that moves into rivers from the ocean to breed and one that is very important for the river and the U.S. coast, he said.

“As these fish move back to the open ocean, they are transporting biomass – nutrients they have fed upon that are now part of their bodies - out of the river and into the ocean,” Baldwin said.

In this way their presence cleans the river. When they die before making it back to the ocean, however, the nutrients stay in the river and threaten to overload it.
Although Menhaden are no longer processed in North Carolina, the species remains an important commercial fishing resource. It is still fished from areas of the N.C. coast for domestic plants in Virginia and Louisiana.

Baldwin and a spokesman for the N.C. Division of Water Quality attributed the kill to natural causes that precipitated a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water column.
This has been a fairly common late-summer event for the last 20 years, but Baldwin said a major upwelling of this magnitude did not exist prior to the late 1980s.
“Numerous scientific studies have made a direct connection to the impacts of pollution from large animal operations, stormwater, industrial and municipal influences to the decline in water quality in the Neuse River,” he said.

This is the ninth Neuse River fish kill reported in 2009 and now appears to be the largest. In an Aug. 21 kill, an estimated 3.9 million fish died. No sores or lesions were reported on fish in either event.

Neuse River Fish Kill

http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/57350752.html

Clean-up from fish kill costs thousands

News about cost of fish kill due to fertilizer run off.

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20090724/NEWS01/907240315

Clean-up from fish kill costs thousands
ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT • JULY 24, 2009

COLUMBUS -- A fish kill caused by runoff of corn syrup and manure cost one Licking County farmer's insurance company more than $20,000 in restitution.

Ron Rodgers, a law-enforcement supervisor with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, said Larry Cooperrider applied a mixture of manure and about 530,000 gallons of corn-syrup material, a byproduct of ethanol production, to his field as fertilizer.

Before the mixture was incorporated into the soil, a large rainfall washed it into three nearby waterways: Otter Fork Creek, East Fork Rattlesnake Creek and the North Fork of the Licking River.

The runoff temporarily depleted oxygen levels in the water and killed about 49,000 aquatic inhabitants, including fish, in August 2008.

The farmer's insurance company agreed to pay $20,213.24 in restitution to the Division of Wildlife.

"These byproducts from ethanol production are a relatively recent product," Rodgers said. "I don't think he will do it again."

Fish Kills in North Dakota

"Significant" Winter Fish Kills Reported in Area Lakes
By North Dakota Game and Fish Department
May 11, 2009, 10:01


BISMARCK - A long winter caused a prolonged ice pack, and coupled with near-record snowfall throughout much of the state, resulted in conditions that made it difficult for fish in some lakes to receive enough oxygen to survive.

Scott Gangl, fisheries management section leader for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said 37 winterkills have been confirmed so far. The majority were in the western half of the state, where lake water levels were very low going into winter.

“The winter of 2008-09 was on par with the epic winter of 1996-97, when 46 lakes experienced winterkill,” Gangl said. “Similar to that winter, all is not lost.”

Fisheries personnel have already started restocking efforts on some lakes that experienced winterkill. “We are stocking with hatchery raised fish, or fish transported from another lake with an abundance of the preferred species,” Gangl said. “These fish may take a while to grow to catchable size, but in two to three years there should be populations of fish for anglers to catch.”

The severity of a die-off may vary by lake, but usually there are some fish left in the lake. “Most of the lakes that experienced winterkill are prone to die-offs,” Gangl said. “So while there was some disappointment in losing good fisheries, there weren’t many surprises.”

Fisheries biologists are in the process of sampling suspected winterkill lakes to document the severity of the die-offs. Biologists use three levels to describe the severity of a fish kill: total, where all fish died; significant, where the game fish population is greatly reduced; or partial, where dead fish were observed but game fish are still present.

Confirmed lakes with winterkill are listed by fisheries management districts. Anglers can contact the local Game and Fish Department fisheries supervisor to get more information on the status of these lakes, or to report fish kills that may not be on the list.



North Central – Jason Lee, Riverdale, 654-7475

·North Carlson Lake, Ward County – significant

·Coal Mine Lake, Sheridan County – significant

·Cottonwood Lake, McHenry County – significant

·Crooked Lake, McLean County – significant

·South Carlson Lake, Ward County – partial



Northeast – Randy Hiltner, Devils Lake, 662-3617

·Harvey Dam, Wells County – significant

·Island Lake, Rolette County – significant

·School Section Lake, Rolette County – significant

·Sykeston Dam, Wells County - significant



Northwest – Fred Ryckman, Williston, 774-4320

·McLeod (Ray) Reservoir, Williams County – significant

·Nelson-Landers Pond, Ward County – total

·Skjermo Lake, Divide County – significant

·Stanley Reservoir, Mountrail County – total

·Tioga Dam, Williams County - total



South Central – Paul Bailey, Bismarck, 328-6688

·Beaver Lake, Logan County – significant

·Braddock Dam, Emmons County – significant

·Cherry Lake, Kidder County – significant

·Dollinger-Schnabel Lake, McIntosh County – significant

·Fresh Lake, Kidder County – significant

·Lake No. 5, Kidder County - significant



Southeast – Gene Van Eeckhout, Jamestown, 253-6480

·Crystal Springs, Stutsman County – partial

·Bisek Slough, Richland County – significant

·Boom (Marion) Lake, LaMoure County – significant



Southwest – Jeff Hendrickson, Dickinson, 227-7431

·BarZ Dam, Dunn County – total

·Cedar Lake, Slope County – significant

·Danzig Dam, Morton County – significant

·Dickinson Reservoir (Patterson Lake), Stark County – significant

·Gascoyne Lake, Bowman County – significant

·Holocek Dam, Bowman County – total

·Mirror Lake, Adams County – significant

·Odland Dam, Golden Valley County - partial

In addition, East Spring Lake Pond in Williams County, Watford City Park Pond in McKenzie County, Beach City Pond in Golden Valley County, Belfield Pond and Dickinson Dike in Stark County, and Gaebe Pond in Morton County suffered fish kills this winter. However, those ponds are stocked with catchable size fish, typically consisting of trout, sunfish or catfish. Anglers visiting these ponds may notice some dead fish, but there are recently stocked fish to catch.

http://www.ksjbam.com/artman/publish/article_1791.shtml

Hundreds of dead fish surface in Amber Lake, Hyderabad

Hundreds of dead fish surface in Amber Lake
Staff Reporter
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During Nizam’s rule lake meant for potable water
Death of fish due to lack of dissolved oxygen
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Eco crisis?: Dead fish afloat on the shores of the lake on Friday.



HYDERABAD: The very mention of Amber Lake in Pragatinagar, Kukatpally reminds one of palatial villas, duplex apartments and plush independent houses.

But, the lake also known as Shamshiguda lake had transformed into an unusual sight for many residents since Wednesday as hundreds of dead fish were found floating along the shoreline of lake. The place was crammed with inquisitive locals, trying to glean reasons behind the phenomenon.

“It was really a pitiable sight. Even big fish were dead and floating. We request officials concerned to take necessary steps to address the problem,” said M. Sree Harshini, an assistant manager with an MNC and resident of Pragatinagar.

Apathy

The lake served drinking water needs of people of Shamshiguda, Kukatpally and surrounding areas during erstwhile Nizam’s rule and now it became polluted owing dumping of industrial waste and sewerage and alleged official apathy to the problem.

Residents explained that they had never witnessed this phenomenon earlier. “It’s still a mystery to us as to how the fish died. Initially, we suspected that unidentified persons might have contaminated water with some chemical substance,” said a washerman T. Subba Rao of Sriramnagar Colony.

Environmentalists attributed the sudden death of fish to lack of dissolved oxygen so vital for survival of fish. Another factor would be effluents directly released from nearby industries and sewerage from colonies, into the lake.

“There are many reasons for fish deaths but exact causes can be ascertained only after testing water samples,” said environmentalist P. Anuradha Reddy.

Pragathinagar Grama Panchayat Upa Sarpanch Ch. Sudhir Reddy said, a representation was given to the Chief Minister two years ago requesting construction of a water treatment plant.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/11/stories/2009041161250600.htm