NORFOLK
As the plane banked east over the Chesapeake Bay, the waters along Willoughby Spit and Ocean View suddenly turned brown, streaked by long dark strands of something foreign swirling toward shore.
"Look at the Bay out there!" said pilot Fred Bashara, pointing out the window of his Cessna as it flew beyond the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. "Good grief!"
What appeared to be an oil spill or some industrial accident actually was this summer's onslaught of algae blooms, which typically form in spotty waves throughout the Bay and hang around like unwelcome house guests until fall.
This excessive growth of algae, also known as a red tide or mahogany tide, is a modern problem linked to high water temperatures and nutrient pollution from everyday sources such as fertilizers, lawn chemicals, auto exhaust and dirt.
When the algae die, they sink to the bottom and steal oxygen from the water, sometimes creating "dead zones" where aquatic life struggles to survive. The blooms also mark rivers and creeks with odd colors and smells, frighten some swimmers and fishermen, and cause concern among environmentalists.
While the concentrations seen so far this year seem less severe than in previous summers, the red tides still represent an unhealthy but treatable sickness, environmentalists say.
"It's a great, visible reminder of how poor the water quality really is," said Christy Everett, regional director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Hampton Roads. "You definitely can see that something's terribly out of balance."
After a massive bloom in 2007, which included some forms of algae that turned toxic and killed fish and oysters, this summer's event appears to only be getting started.
"It was somewhat low in June and July, but boy, August has really taken off," said Kim Reece, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science who has studied harmful algae blooms for the past 15 years.
Reece said her lab is analyzing algae samples recently taken from the Potomac, Rappa-hannock, York and James rivers, trying to determine their potential harm and genetic makeup in hopes of better understanding them.
She said she has received few reports of fish dying from the blooms but remains anxious about several species thought to be establishing a permanent presence in the Bay. During the winter, Reece explained, some forms will spawn a hard cyst around themselves, sink to the bottom, and hibernate until the weather warms again.
Bashara, who grew up in Norfolk, has taken scientists and reporters on algae-seeing flights for the past six years. He describes the blooms this way: "It's a total disaster."
When growing up in Ocean View, "we hardly ever heard or saw red tides," Bashara said after Tuesday's tour. "But now, it's becoming commonplace."
From 2,000 feet in the air, the Elizabeth River looked like a web of black and brown streaks, especially in waters near Craney Island. The streaks cut along waterfront homes on the Lafayette River in Norfolk and stretched into the middle of the James River.
In front of the Hermitage Foundation estate on the Lafayette, a pocket of black strings gathered like an ominous cloud. The waters near the Norfolk Yacht Club looked similarly afflicted.
Although the blooms so far this summer are not dense enough to be considered a health hazard, scientists suggest staying clear of dark waters when swimming, fishing or water skiing.
The swirls of algae appeared thicker and darker Tuesday near the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and into the Bay. Long lines of red, brown and black growth stretched from Willoughby Spit north to Fort Monroe on the Peninsula. Hampton Creek "is totally full," Bashara said.
Heading east toward Cape Henry and the Atlantic Ocean, the blooms faded in the deep waters of the Bay, but closer to shore, along Chesapeake Beach and near First Landing State Park, a long ribbon of black was seen along the shore.
"They tend to grow like that," Reece said. "It's weird to see, the shapes and patterns they develop into."
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says the timing of this summer's onslaught is remarkable. This week, the state is closing its public comment period and will begin deliberating over proposed regulations of storm water from building and development sites.
Such storm water, known as urban runoff, is a major contributor to nutrient pollution and a big reason algae blooms have become so prevalent in recent decades.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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Best WAy to Prevent Red Tides
In all his articles on the pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Scott Harper has not once mentioned marsh restoration by pipeline dredge as the most economical, most efficient means of countering same. Pipeline dredging for navigational channel maintenance produces the most important commodity for estuary restoration: sediment. Harper apparently is unaware that by placing this silt and course sand seaward of existing bulkheads and eroding shorelines, on long gentle, intertidal slopes, vibrant new salt marsh can be created. In less than a year’s time.
A vibrant stand of spartina is the cheapest, most efficient means of removing raw sewage, sediment, heavy metals, PCBs, nitrogen, phosphorus, algae and coliform bacteria from an estuary.
Pipeline dredge fringe marsh restoration is much more effective than those other hare-brained estuary restoration projects promoted by your newspaper. Oyster reefs. Bacterra Storm Water Filters. Rain barrels. Asian oysters. And any of a number of estuary restoration scams recommended by the Corps of Engineers and other flim flam artists.
Blame Sprawl
I am truly disheartened at the near total lack of the effect of harmful sprawl in the article. Luckily, this publication has a few readers that are appropiately educated. Sprawl growth, specifically the type that pops up miles outside of city centers in fields that use to grow crops, raise livestock, or simply (God forbid) exist as open space, has created the gulf between the Bay that the parents of the Baby Boomers knew and the one photographed for this story. The uncontrolled sprawl of the post-war era began to kill our waterways and the plethora of natural resources they provided. Hard work and first wave environmentalism provided some respite and limited improvements in the 1970s. Growth has outpaced restoration efforts over the two/three decades since then and we are now truly beginning to see the effect. Increased commutes put more nitrogen into the air. Impervious surface supplies local streams and rivers with water carrying pollutants at a faster speed and higher temperature. More lawns supply more fertilizer into water tables and storm drains. The suburban utopia is killing the bay.
Until we grow in the right way in the right places we stand no chance of restoring the
What bay?
Eat more chicken.
Algae blooms spreading in Chesapeake Bay
I have been an avid boater on the Chesapeake Bay since the late 60's. Although we have a long way to go, anyone who thinks the bay is worse today than it was then is mistaken. At least the water is no longer chocolate brown and the amount of waste floating in the water has diminished. Continued investment in retention ponds, enforcement of existing laws and rules concerning building on or adjacent to the bay need to continue as does municipal investment in discharges of all kinds that are entering the bay. We need to be in this for the long haul and let science and the art of the possible guide us not short term thinking headlines and emotion.
Gulf Coast Problem for Decades
Red tides, harmful algae blooms have been a feature of the mid-Florida gulf coast for decades. You have not lived unless one has been in the water at the same time as floating, floundering fish gasping for breath prior to death. Even the water has a certain feel and smell, and a color of abnormal. Why blooms here? How many discharges from the HRSD enter into local waters and in what volumes. Local sewer discharges are loaded with nutrients, some removed, some not. Maybe the future will see more reductions but the service provider may believe they are not a cause of concern for the Bay or local waters. Recent intense storm events may be to blame for the millions of gallons of untreated sewage being released from street collection structures and the treatment plants themselves - one known source of algae growth pollutants. Next comes the local homeowners with manicured lawns. Next comes the farmers both distant and nearby. We all flush nutrients down the toilet and have a part to play in protecting local waters. Embrace the red tide, it documents our part in the process.
Clean Water Action!
I say it's time to oxygenate the bottoms of the rivers and Bay! Where are the devices that move oxygenated surface waters to bottom? I've seen piles designed to move the currents downward in the water column to bring O2 to the bottom. I also feel it's time to demand that lawn and farm fertilizer products be not as harmful and introduce slow release fertilizers. What happened to the phosphate ban proposed for dishwashing detergents that HRSD can't handle in their waste water treatment plant discharges? Seems that we've allowed man-made impacts to the Bay go unabated, while engineering solutions have been ignored or not implemented or lack of will to go up against powerful chemical manufacturers.
ORF Normal
ORF Normal says that the Algae blooms are nothing to worry about. Without trying to "hype" the problem a little common sense is in order. Algae is normal. Dead Zones created by the massive proliferation of algae are the new normal. We should be prudent stewards of the earth God gave us. Mankind has the intelligence to return the bay and our waterways to their previous healthy condition. It will require hard work and certain practices need to be restricted or curtailed altogether. We are continuing to pollute the rivers, bay and ocean with industrial wastes, agricultural runoff of pesticides and chicken manure etc. The pollution has exacted a tremendous cost in terms of destroying a valuable food source for our region. Talk to commercial and sport fisherman. Dead zones are not "normal" and when I was a child the bay was clean, vibrant and full of crabs, oysters, rockfish and healthy aquatic life.
The Bay Is Daed
These blooms have been going on for over a week in the Chesapeake Bay near Ocean View.
"While the blooms so far this summer are not dense enough to be considered a health hazard, scientists suggest staying clear of dark waters when swimming, fishing or water skiing."
Not In Norfolk. People are still swimming in the water with its reds, browns and blacks. Fishing on the OV Pier too. Vibrio anyone?
You would think the city lifeguards would ask questions of the city health department. Not in Norfolk.
If you want see something awful, just go to the Ocean View beaches and watch people swimming in the death bay.
Remember, you're on your own. It is not the governments job to protect you.
Nothing will change. The bay is already dead.
Death Bay?
The Bay is far from dead. Algae are a vital part of any aquatic ecosystem, including that of the Chesapeake Bay. Algae are fed on by invertebrates which are eaten by fish. The potential problem occurs when algae growth occurs very rapidly in a short period of time, and outgrows the animals which are grazing on it. When nutrients are high, such as following a big storm, we're going to see a lot of algae growth. This is nothing new to this area. We've seen these blooms this time of year for more than a decade. It'll pass. While some types of algae are toxic to fish and humans, this particular type is not. This has nothing to do with vibrio, the government protecting you, the city of Norfolk, or any other political angle you are trying to put on it. Next time, try and separate the hype from reality.
Algae
Actually this bloom is caused by an algae called Cochlodinium, a dinoflagelate, and while it does not produce a toxin, it does form a thick mucus substance that has the potential of clogging the gills of fish and shellfish. Bioassays have shown that within 4 hours of exposure to bloom water, there was 100% mortality of juvenile fish and within 48 hours of exposure there was 50% mortality in juvenile american oysters. Control groups showed 0% mortality. While algae are a normal component of the bay and are essential to the ecosystem, algae blooms are not. By better controling stormwater run off, limiting fertilizer use and decreasing nutrients additions from waste water treatment, we can decrease the occurance of these blooms.