The Reflecting Pool Is Weirdly Indicative of a Greater Environmental Problem

3 min readAs long as we're talking about algae ... From the Portland Press-Herald:September’s algae bloom has faded from the waters of Casco Bay, but harvesters and growers in Harpswell are still taking stock of the damage. Some of the most vulnerable species, like worms and soft-shell clams, appear to have been wiped out in certain areas, while hard clams and oysters mostly survived. But with the bloom happening just before winter, growers and harvesters say they will have to wait till spring to know if the stress and lack of nutrients will lead to more losses. Clam diggers and others started seeing signs of the bloom around September 8–9. Dead and dying shellfish and worms were found on mudflats at the head of Middle Bay, in Long Cove, and in other areas, while some places in Harpswell saw no impacts at all. Maine’s Department of Marine Resources and other authorities soon confirmed that the bloom was spreading from Casco Bay as far south as New Hampshire and Massachusetts.This is obviously a brutal whack at local economies and, in the way of these things, it's the people at the industry's most basic level that are hurt the worst.A more immediate concern for many in the aquaculture and harvesting industries is the immediate loss of income. [Oyster farmer Seth] White said that when oyster farms decided to take a break from their usual schedule of harvesting and handling oysters to give the shellfish a better chance of surviving the bloom, farm workers saw their hours cut. He knew of a dozen or more people at the end of September who hadn’t had any work to do. At Mere Point Oyster Company, [general manager Kat] Lipp had a similar message. “The folks out there really being affected by this are the diggers, the farmers, the wild harvesters—the individuals, not the companies,” she said. It will likely be months more before the full effect on workers is known.The president blamed imaginary vandals for all the problems that bedeviled this particular vanity project. However, the president and his administration are the primary vandals when it comes to environmental damage, large and small. The study of algal blooms has suffered under this administration the same way so many environmental programs have. From The New Republic:The government’s newfound war on algae contrasts starkly with its repeated attempts to defund the experts who protect the public against harmful algal blooms not appearing on Washington, D.C., landmarks. The Trump administration’s cuts to research funding and federal agencies like NOAA have already undermined the federal government’s essential role in monitoring, responding to, and understanding harmful algal blooms. Deeper cuts outlined in next year’s federal budget would lower the public’s defenses against those blooms just as climate change helps them proliferate.Trump’s talk of vandals and knives notwithstanding, you don’t need conspiracy theories to explain how algal blooms happen. Experts suspect that the Reflecting Pool algal bloom began as a cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. Those generally grow thanks to abundant nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, warm temperatures, and calm waters. “The Reflecting Pool has those three ingredients,” Dick said. There’s no official definition for what constitutes a harmful algal bloom, and the one in the Reflecting Pool hasn’t received that designation. But they tend to give off a foul smell and are known to kill birds. Cyanobacteria produce a toxin called microcystin that can fatally poison animals and cause nausea, vomiting, and skin rashes in humans. A 2014 microcystin outbreak in Lake Erie left nearly half a million people in the greater Toledo area without running water for three days. ... Unlike Lake Superior, the Reflecting Pool has long hosted algae. As Washington’s summers become increasingly swamplike, eliminating the algae altogether may well prove impossible.Swamplike, eh? What a handy metaphor that has turned out to be.