Florida's algae crisis: Toxic algae haters show up in droves at Cape Coral meeting

Chad Gillis
The News-Press
This is what the algae bloom looked like Friday morning at Rosen Park Marina in Cape Coral. Will Zariske looks at how concentrated the algae has become at the end of the Marina.

It was standing room only Tuesday night as nearly 200 boaters and concerned residents met at the Cape Coral Yacht Club to discuss the ongoing algae problems in the Caloosahatchee River and a red tide that's lingered off the coast since November. 

The Caloosahatchee Marching and Chowder Society held a panel discussion with experts from Captains for Clean Water, the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation and Calusa Waterkeeper. 

"We know how to fix this," said Chris Wittman with Captains for Clean Water. "We changed the system and manipulated the natural flow of water, and the way you fix it is to return it as to as close to the natural delivery of water as you can."

Algal blooms erupted in the Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers in June, after the wettest May on record. 

The Caloosahatchee seems to have gotten the worst part of the deal, with mats of blue-green algae floating in area canals and at water control structures. 

Wittman told the crowd that he and others are focused on Everglades restoration projects like the Caloosahatchee and Everglades Agriculture Area, or EAA reservoir. 

He said Floridians need to be persistent if the problem is ever going to be solved. 

"We're all in this room tonight became we've got lime green water but you' guys have to stay engaged when the algae goes away because the threat is still there," he said. "We can't get complacent. We're working to fix these projects realistically for our children and grandchildren."

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Green algae blooms were visible along the canals of the Cape Coral Yacht Club Marina on this photograph taken Wednesday July 11, 2018.

Nutrients from Lake Okeechobee and washing off the Caloosahachee River watershed over the past two months have fed the bloom, which now extends from the lake to the mouth of the Caloosahatchee near the Sanibel Causeway. 

The algae is producing a toxin, and health concerns include headaches, sore throat, vomiting, dry cough, diarrhea and pneumonia. 

Long-term exposure to these types of algal blooms can increase the risks for liver caner as well as neurological diseases like ALS and Alzheimer's, experts say. 

Green algae blooms were visible along the canals of the Cape Coral Yacht Club Marina on this photograph taken Wednesday July 11, 2018.

Some in the crowd argued that more water needs to be send south from Lake Okeechobee. 

Panelists agreed. 

"The solution to that problem is Everglades restoration," said panelist Daniel Andrews, also with Captains for Clean Water. " We currently don't have the infrastructure (to send large volumes of water south)."

Local guide David Menist said the crowd seemed too cheerful and relaxed, that people should be mad. 

"There's a lot of smiles and a lot of clapping going on here and what maybe some of you folks aren't recognizing that this is just not a fishing issue but an economic collapse," Menist said. "This is something that's being taken away from my son. We cry about it everyday. We don't go out on paddleboards and mope about it in the sun. We do it from the shore."

Green algae blooms were visible along the canals of the Cape Coral Yacht Club Marina on this photograph taken Wednesday July 11, 2018.

The algae thrives in hot, stagnant water and is found naturally in the system. 

It becomes problematic when the algae explode in numbers, which allows them to gather in large numbers at the surface and create the ugly, smelly, poisonous conditions seen here for the past six or seven weeks. 

Green algae blooms were visible along the canals of the Cape Coral Yacht Club Marina on this photograph taken Wednesday July 11, 2018.

This is the third straight year the system has experienced water quality issues. 

El Nino driven rains in January of 2016 dumped more than a foot of rain across South Florida during the middle of tourism season. 

More:Environmentalists battle sugar cane industry over reservoir land in South Florida

More:What we know about the toxic algae bloom in the Caloosahatchee River

Heavy rains fell last summer, and Hurricane Irma topped off the wettest wet season on record. 

Irma stirred up nutrients that sat at the bottoms of Lake Okeechobee and rivers and lakes to the north that drain into Okeechobee. 

Similar conditions were seen in 2005, the year after Hurricane Wilma made landfall. 

Eric Milbrandt with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation said the issue is not solely about high water flows. 

"We were asking for freshwater during the dry period throughout this year and we were not given the water we needed and I think that's contributed to the situation where the lake was too high and they had to start releasing June 1."

More:Pair paddles through northern Everglades over nine days, 134 watery miles

Connect with this reporter: Chad Gillis on Twitter.