Cape Coral canals help researchers find what works
CAPE CORAL — Scientists and officials are using Cape Coral’s cyanobacteria slicks as a living laboratory to test ways to fight freshwater algae blooms with potentially global impact.
A team including city staff and nationally prominent researchers have deployed a variety of algaefighting measures in several canals, lakes and ponds on and around the Palmetto Pine Country Club’s golf course.
They’re testing floating barriers, sheets of absorbent foam and clay as ways to knock back the algae, about which Lee County’s health department has issued several warnings, including one Friday.
Though cyanobacteria is a naturally occurring microorganism, sometimes conditions conspire to create huge proliferations called blooms that can create problems that range from obnoxious to toxic.
Some species have been linked to health problems including liver and neurodegenerative diseases. Children and pets are more vulnerable, so keeping them away from the water during a bloom is especially important, the health department warns.
This summer, three Cape Coral canals - Makai, Boris and Highlander - have been severely affected by the blooms.
As the Earth’s climate changes, blooms have become more frequent and severe, and the hunt for solutions has intensified, said algae scholar Don Anderson, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, where he’s been studying those solutions for decades.
The sprayed clay technique, called flocculation, was most recently used by Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory in 2018 to combat saltwater red tide, which is also caused by a toxin-producing microorganism.
The idea is to mix dry, powdered clay with water, then spray it into the affected canals or ponds, where it captures and sinks the algae. Instead of remaining in the water column, they become trapped in a layer on the bottom.
“This whole idea of flocculation for water purification (and) clarification is used in many different ways in countries like Korea and China,” Anderson said. “They use it routinely over very large areas for bloom control. Those large areas are in some cases 40 or 50 square miles. Korea has like seven ships that are used to disperse this around fish farms and other areas in the ocean. China has some big operations as well. And they’ve been doing this for 10 or 20 years in these Asian countries, but we are trying to make it work here in the U.S. The technology is sound, but we just have different environmental restrictions.”
FGCU professor and algae scholar Barry Rosen calls it a “good idea . It’ll precipitate everything out, and that’s great.” Rosen also appreciates the singular research opportunity.
Palmetto Pine course manager Gerald Karlen said the goal is to make the course’s lake water as clear as rainwater.
“You can see where we’re pumping in from the Makai, it’s green,” Karlen said. After the treatment, “Hopefully within a week, (the ponds) will be clear and you’ll be able to see the bottom.”