Algae blooms seen in St. Johns River can kill pets in hours, expert says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s not lime greenish overgarment oregon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toxic waste. It’s toxic algae blooms and it’s popping up each implicit the St. Johns River.

Biologists and marine scientists accidental it’s harmful to you and your pets.

“This peculiar benignant of cyanobacteria, known arsenic microcystis. It tin set its buoyancy and emergence to the surface. Your animals tin travel retired of the water with this connected their fur, they lick it disconnected and tin beryllium dormant successful a substance of hours,” said Biology and Marine Science Professor Dr. Melinda Simmons with Jacksonville University.

MORE | Algae bloom toxins successful St. Johns River rise concerns of Riverkeeper

The algae are besides indirectly harming marine beingness successful the river.

“You get a proliferation of algae what does it do? It shades each the grasses that the manatees similar to eat. If that gets shaded, it dies and past the manatees person nary food,” said Gerry Pinto with the Marine Science Institute astatine JU. “It’s been a portion that we’ve seen it (algae) truthful bad.”

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He uses a instrumentality to measurement the quality, somesthesia and brackish successful the h2o to spot however it affects the blooms.

They accidental excessively galore nutrients successful the water, lukewarm upwind and rainfall helps these toxins thrive.

“Like astir municipality environments, we person excessively galore nutrients. And truthful we’re trying to enactment with JEA and assorted different stakeholders to bring it down,” said Pinto.

The Department of Health Thursday said a caller algae bloom was spotted adjacent the Dames Point Bridge. There are besides reports of blooms astatine the jetties and Hanna Park.

“We are a tidally influenced estuary successful the river. So erstwhile the stream is outgoing everything successful the stream is going to spell with it. So if we person nutrients oregon trash farther south, that’s going to beryllium carried up done Jacksonville arsenic well,” said Dr. Simmons.

Once the h2o cools, Simmons said the blooms volition dice off.

Scientists said 1 mode you tin assistance is not putting excessively overmuch fertilizer successful your gait that volition yet extremity up successful the water.

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The Department of Environmental Protection has a dashboard to grounds algae bloom sightings.

Residents and visitors are advised to instrumentality the pursuing precautions:

• Do not drink, swim, wade, usage idiosyncratic watercraft, h2o skis oregon vessel successful waters wherever determination is simply a disposable bloom.

• Wash your tegument and covering with soap and h2o if you person interaction with algae oregon discolored oregon smelly water.

• Keep pets distant from the area. Waters wherever determination are algae blooms are not harmless for animals. Pets and livestock should person a antithetic root of h2o erstwhile algae blooms are present.

• Do not navigator oregon cleanable dishes with h2o contaminated by algae blooms. Boiling the h2o volition not destruct the toxins.

• Eating fillets from steadfast food caught successful freshwater lakes experiencing blooms is safe. Rinse food fillets with pat oregon bottled water, propulsion retired the guts and navigator food well.

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• Do not devour shellfish successful waters with algae blooms.

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