NOAA Lake Erie Bulletin: 2017 Bloom Analysis
Experimental Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin
7 November 2017, Bulletin 35, Seasonal Assessment
The toxic algae that spread across Lake Erie this summer roughly matched its third-most severe bloom in 15 years, government researchers said Tuesday, November 7, 2017. The Microcystis cyanobacteria bloom in 2017 had a severity index (SI) of 8,which is a severe bloom .
The algae outbreak on the shallowest of the Great Lakes had two peaks this year in August and again in mid-September, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Researchers said it was roughly equal to the one in 2013.
It left behind a thick, paint-like scum on the surface that had covered about 280 square miles by September, but the entire bloom was much larger and stretched from Toledo to the shoreline along Ontario, Canada and reached the mouth of the Detroit River, the agency said.
2009-2017 Archives of Harmful Algal Blooms in Lake Erie, Experimental and Operational HAB Bulletin at link.
