Fueled by heat and pollution, algae splotches waterways

NORFOLK

From 2,000 feet in the air, the Elizabeth River on Friday looked like a really bad piece of modern art, its drab-green canvas streaked wildly with black lines and unruly brown swirls.

"It looks like aliens are attacking," said Andrea Moran, a spokeswoman for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, as she gazed down upon the ugly stew through the window of a chartered airplane. "It's kind of scary."

What Moran actually was viewing is this summer's onslaught of algae blooms in local rivers and creeks. The excessive growth of algae, also known as a red tide or mahogany tide, is a modern phenomenon linked to warm water temperatures and nutrient pollution.

Too much nitrogen and phosphorus from lawn fertilizers, auto exhaust, city streets, farm fields, construction sites and myriad other sources, cooks in the summer heat, then dies, then sucks oxygen from an affected waterway. It sometimes creates "dead zones" where aquatic life is difficult to sustain.

By any name, the blooms are appearing in patches and smears throughout the Chesapeake Bay, from Baltimore to Virginia Beach, according to scientific reports. They threaten water quality, pose risks to fish and shellfish, mark rivers with strange colors and odors, frighten some swimmers, and cause concern among environmentalists.

"It's pretty crazy out there now," said Margaret Mulholland, an expert in harmful algae blooms and an associate professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

She and her students have been monitoring and sampling tainted waters in Hampton Roads for several weeks now. They think the activity started in early August in the Elizabeth and Lafayette rivers in Norfolk, then spread to other waterways in the lower Chesapeake Bay.

Mulholland and other experts expect the blooms to remain active for weeks ahead, until cooler weather sends them into remission.

So far this season, the algae aren't amassing the way they did last summer, when scientists recorded one of the worst seasons locally in decades.

Still, scientists describe this year's growth as heavy, unpredictable and spotty. For example, the Bay foundation heard about a major bloom in the York River about two weeks ago, but when officials chartered a plane the next day, they discovered the algae had nearly vanished.

While the blooms this summer are not thick enough to be considered a public health problem, "I certainly wouldn't swim through one of those patches," Mulholland said. "It's way too gross."

Red tides, blue-green tides and mahogany tides have become common sights in the Bay each summer. So much so that scientists now provide a forecast each spring for the coming algae season.

Last year, they predicted an average abundance; it turned out to be much worse. This year, they predicted a moderate-to-heavy abundance; so far, it has been better than that.

Fred Bashara has flown scientists in his private Cessna plane over algae blooms in coastal Virginia for five years now. On Friday, his mission was clear: scout for growth in the Elizabeth, Lafayette, Nansemond and lower James rivers.

During the hour-long flight, it was obvious that all of the waterways were streaked with red, brown or black masses. The color, experts say, often reflects the density of a bloom - the thicker the algae, the darker the hue.

Just east of the James River Bridge, the water was flecked with strands of red, as if suffering from a bad rash. In downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth, the Elizabeth River was inky black, as if an oil spill had just occurred.

Bashara steered his four-seater to the east, buzzing over Old Dominion University and the Lafayette River. "Oh, my," he said, "look at that!"

Below were swirling twines of black and brown algae, like giant licorice sticks, often stretching from shore to shore. "That's not a good sign," he said.

Afterward, he summed up the trip by saying the blooms were about 60 percent of what they were last year.

But, he noted, the weather has been cooler recently, and little rain has fallen. If it gets hotter and it rains hard again, the algae will likely increase. That's because rain washes nutrients off the land and into waterways, where they become food for excessive algae growth.

Chris Moore, a science advocate for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Norfolk, said the summer blooms are an obvious sign that the Bay's ecosystem remains out of whack.

Reduce nutrients entering the Bay, he said, and the blooms will dissipate. Water quality will improve, underwater grasses should revive, and crabs and fishes will have a place to hide and feed.

"Each summer we see what's wrong with the Bay and what needs to be improved," Moore said.