An tremendous algae bloom change by reversal Florida ’s Treasure Coast agnarly shade of dark-green last calendar week , and now we know just what that goopy incubus front like from space . On July 2nd , NASA’sLandsat 8 satellitesnapped some weirdly impressionist image of Florida ’s Lake Okeechobee , in which you could see billions of green germ breed like mad .
Fueled by agricultural pollutants from upstream farm , the blue - green algae bloom of youth was first noticed in Lake Okeechobee in other May . Since then , it ’s grown toan estimated 239 square miles , blanket roughly a third of the lake . Downstream coastal communities in Martin , St. Lucie , Palm Beach , and Lee Counties started seeing blooms of their own several weeks back , after the US Army Corps of Engineers began discharging lake water through special duct lock chamber to forestall towns and sugar farm to the southward from flood .
Coastal residents are pissed , and they have a rightfulness to be . Not only are the blooms causing outside to sense like wet drivel , some expertsworry they could be composed of microcystis , which is toxic to animals and humans .
Because of the acquire public call , the Army Corps recently gibe to start reducing the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee . But if all that green goo winds up spilling southward , somebody else is sound to be dealing with this mess .
[ NASA Earth Observatory ]
FloridaScience
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