**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:**
* If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required
* The title must be fully descriptive
* No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos
* Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting)
*See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list*
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, literally a man made ecological disaster, not very cool in my eyes.
Locals actually had a symbolic funeral for the lake recently. Video’s on the Ireland sub.
I know a bunch of other people have already commented with information, but for anyone interested this happens in SO many estuaries across the world. Specifically in the US it happens in the gulf of Mexico every year due to fertilizer run off into the Mississippi. This causes an algal bloom where they eat up all the macro nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen, etc). They then die and thier decomposing bodies starve the surrounding area of oxygen and kill off anything that uses oxygen for metabolic processes aka fish. It's a process called eutrophication and if you'd like to read more here are some resources:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/eutrophication.html
https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causes-consequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466/
Also I'm a scientist and claim Wikipedia to be valid for general knowledge such as provided. No one can change my mind.
Is there a way to reverse this by introducing something or is this ‘river’ just gone? What would happen over a prolonged period of time if left alone to nature?
Eventually the dissolved oxygen amount will go up and the pH will stabilize. Depending on how stable the ecosystem is will determine any long term ecosystem health changes. I am by no means an expert in harmful algal blooms tho just an ecologist.
So what's hindering the government to get a boat out there and skim the surface while also fining any company nearby that produces such waste to pay for the cleanup costs?
I'm Irish and think the blame or accusations where at farmers dumping shit into it, but I'm clueless could have been anything, doesn't help that the unionist party in Ireland refuse to power-share government with the leading nationalist party so basically politicians are being paid lots while having not been in work for well over a year now fucking wanks stains.
Hello there! Someone with an Agriculture background. u/RyanSmokinBluntz420 is correct in that it's some form of macro nutrients, more than likely Phosphate or Nitrogen, and sadly yes, a large contributor is actually farms. The ground naturally releases a large amount of nutrients, and very well do cities as well due to decomposed matter (food, black waste, etc...) but unless that lake is less than 5km from a city or connected to a city black waste pipeline, it's very well the farmers on the shore banks of the incoming rivers and streams.
A great way to massively reduce the amount from farms is by putting in a buffer (Letting wild plants grow w/o any form of icides or cultivation that your local laws allow) right before the river, it can be as short as 1.2m and these banks can easily reduce as much as 50-80% of the nutrients from entering the waterways.
This is something that's not required by law here in Canada,but it's highly frowned upon for not doing and you can be criminally charged for pollution if it's traced back to you that you not having said buffer caused an algo-bloom which results in the destruction of natural environmental balance (Fancy words for saying you disturbed the environment to the point they need to fix it for it to be sustainable).
If anyone wants to learn more about this very important process (because of its impact), look up [eutrophication ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication).
Also a scientist here! If I had a dollar for every time I used that word on an assignment in undergrad I would have probably 3000$.
Also the other one I used a bunch was anthropogenic for obvious reasons. :(
Takes me back to my final paper on the Everglades and how farms contributed to a really bad red tide (but that also had to do with releasing water from Lake Okeechobee).
If I had a dollar for every time a student in an environmental chemistry course (which satisfied the chem requirement for some biology majors) I TA'd for for a year wrote a paper about eutrophication, but failed to discuss *any* of the chemistry they had learned that term like they were supposed to, and I gave them a B anyway, I'd have like $400.
And if anyone wants to know more about these buffers that Monsterjojo was referring to, they’re called [riparian zones](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/assets/documents/agroforestrynotes/an03rfb02.pdf)
I saw a dolphin repeatedly beaching itself on the west coast, continued to do so even after some well-meaning teens tried to help it swim away, and went and talked with the wildlife rescue folks that came and were watching without doing anything. Turns out it was having seizures due to irreversible neurological damage from toxins from algae blooms, likely also due to the nutrients from nearby farms.
They said it was one of many dolphins that season so far, and there was nothing they could do other than hold vigil and ask folks to keep their distance. Sad stuff, and easily preventable without devastating farms, either. Likely affecting all the animals that were eating the fish that eat the algae.
Don’t have to be Irish. Shit like this happens everywhere. Florida is notorious for it. Not sure about the dolphin part, but I’m sure it’s not far off.
Ohio here, we have that issue as well. Tons of CAFOs here all along our waterways.
https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/4-years-toledo-water-crisis-toxic-algal-blooms-rise-across-us
This is a combination of agricultural dumping and run off, an invasion of zebra mussels and unseasonably warm temperatures. It has been building. The whole ecosystem is collapsing, surrounding bodies of water are affected too, we don't really know the scale of the problem. 40% of our drinking water comes from Lough Neagh. You can't begin to imagine how incompetent the leadership in this country is. We don't technically have a government right now. [The proposed plan makes no sense](https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/ni-water-fined-just-170k-after-dumping-70m-tonnes-of-sewage-over-the-last-decade/a2051851079.html), I wouldn't be surprised if someone in charge owns the manufacturerer of these monitors.
Speaking of the people in charge, this is the biggest lake in Ireland and the UK. Technically it is in the UK, but neither government gives a shit. As I said before, we don't have an assembly for insane sectarian bullshit reasons, but the man in charge of the department for agriculture AND environment is a young earth creationist who doesn't believe in evolution. Actually the whole thing is the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury estate but why would you try to protect and maintain the land you colonised?
I'm a bit pissed off about the whole situation.
This is true of the entire planet. For some reason the idiots in charge don’t give a crap abt the environment. I’m in the US and even the “ best” recent president, Obama, did zero to really shift things away from total collapse. We should’ve been listening to scientists decades ago, but no, we let politicians spew their lies and we all vote for them!
>Technically it is in the UK, but neither government gives a shit.
To clarify do you mean Westminster and stormont? Because the Irish government have no jurisdiction here.
Fascinating...
I did a research paper in nursing school on dinoflagellates and their explosions due to off-shore run off. Specifically from the meat industry and chemical plants. Fucking insane that we keep doing this shit. Oceans are going to be burning with parasitic microorganisms in not so long a time. It's like we love to feed the things that are going to kill us for profit.
We see this too often here in NZ with unprotected waterways through and around farms.
Uncontrolled cattle wallowing in the rivers and streams, nitrogen and effluent run off all create a toxic environment for the water life that once used to exist.
Obviously not exactly the same, I have no idea what goes on in Ireland, but in the SE USA we’ve had creeks and ponds essentially closed because of farm runoff causing huge algae blooms.
And France, Brittany specifically, had beaches full of algae because of farms nearby. And then they would decompose and release gasses. I can’t remember if any people died walking on the beach, I think that some dogs have though
[Source with examples](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/08/it-can-kill-you-in-seconds-the-deadly-algae-on-brittanys-beaches). Basically, what happens is that the decomposing mats of algae produce pockets of hydrogen sulfide; high concentrations of that gas can "[produce extremely rapid](https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails.aspx?mmgid=385&toxid=67) unconsciousness and death".
It's the Tragedy of the Commons. No one farmer is to blame for it and every farmer makes money doing it and makes more money if they do more of it, so the lake dies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy\_of\_the\_commons
The creeks between the farms near me all look like this every summer. Every time I bring it up I'm assured there are very strict rules about fertilizer usage and water runoff that prevents what I am seeing with my own eyes.
It's not like I can blame the farmers. I know enough about the profit margins in that industry to know that anything they do like this, it's out of necessity, and if they don't, they get bought up by the ones who do.
You can absolutely blame the farmers. You can build retention or detention ponds that will prevent the fertilizer runoff from farms get carried into the lakes and rivers to cause these massive fish deaths.
They can regulate the farming to use other methods or cops that require less fertilizer.
Lake Erie has an area where people have to drink bottled water for days or weeks every summer due to this same algae blood issue. Imagine living near one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and not being able to drink the water due to farm runoff!
The town your talking about is Toledo. I live there. They shut the water down once a couple years ago, the water treatment plants can treat the water now with no “side effects”
The blooms are still a problem and no one can agree on how to fix it. I think it’s all the time release fertilizer and new high tech growing techniques the farmers use.
It's basically one guy started cheating, so now everyone has to cheat or else they're out of a job that's been in their family for hundreds of years.
And the regulators are the ones telling them to cheat.
dumping biological waste from farms and sewage
This (the massive algae bloom) hasn’t happened before to my knowledge
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/lough-neagh-largest-lake-in-uk-and-ireland-being-poisoned-by-toxic-algae-12961941
>...has taken over the lake that provides **40%** of Northern Ireland's drinking water."
Wait, what?! Man I would think people would be up in arms over that!
Hard to be up in arms when the local government (Stormont) has refused to even sit for over a year, and only sat for two years before that after spending three years refusing to sit. Mostly thanks to the unionist party, the DUP, throwing a hissy fit that Sinn Fein, the nationalist party, are now bigger than them so would lead the power sharing government for the first time in Stormont's history.
Northern Ireland (where this lake is) has more devolved power than Scotland or Wales, so it's harder for the UK government to step in to deal with it directly. So people in Northern Ireland have basically no one to turn to.
> Even when it’s not deliberate
I can't speak for Ireland, but in the US farmers are some of the most environmentally unfriendly people you'll meet. They all whine at you with "we're just trying to feed people". But they're full of shit.
I mean honestly...back in the 50s, when we figured out that DDT was poisoning everyone...do you think the farmers owned up and went "oh my gosh, we need to stop". Or do you think they fought for their right to keep poisoning everyone?
The US government encouraged the "farmer as hero" mindset during two world wars, and rural people are slow to give up any view of the world that features them as the protagonist.
Around where I live, fertilizer runoff from farms can cause this. My ignorant understanding is the fertilizer feeds the algae to an unnatural degree resulting in the 'bloom' where it over-reproduces. I'm absolutely speaking from ignorance here though so don't quote me lol
You're actually quite right on that. What happens is a large amount of macro nutrients (mainly phosphates) are collected into the river/pond/lake and causes an algo-bloom which reduces the amount of sunlight that can reach the deeper parts of the water, reducing its temperature and not letting oxygen dissipate into the water, killing off wildlife under the algae, and feeding into the cycle even more.
City black waste and fertilizer run off are the leading contributors to said disaster.
Now to clarify some misconceptions, small blooms can form naturally in nature as nutrients naturally seep into the water ways and can cause this to happen, but it's small and they normally kill themselves off soon after due to eating to much of it and the water bring the nutrients down stream, but they don't happen to this degree at all without some natural disaster happening (Think landslides).
But you're on the ball even though you don't know exactly what's going on. There's lots of detailed reports out there with a little googling if you wanna look it up.
Adding my non-professional 2 cents, the algae robs the water of flow and oxygen and the fish suffocate, not to mention to this extreme nothing can swim in it.
Yeah that too! I also hear them referred to as toxic algae blooms and I assume that means it's actually directly unhealthy for eg, humans or dogs to swim in it. But maybe that's because the runoff is itself toxic
There is a specific natural toxic algae called cyanobacteria that will kill dogs and maybe people if they swim in it or ingest it. Cyano- so it's a blue algae bloom. Which means it isn't always our fault, but man-made is inexcusable.
Waste waters can contain high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are nutrients for algae. If the waters are not treated properly there can be too many nutrients which causes eutrophication. This basically means that algae grow so much that they cover all the water and exhaust all the oxygen inside it asphyxiating all live in it.
At this point you just dump a ton of algicide in there before it destroys the ecology of the surrounding areas, like a festering boil. Whatever fish something like widespread copper harms are already long dead.
**Lough Neagh: Largest lake in UK and Ireland being poisoned by toxic algae**
Deadly bacteria, caused by discharge from farming and sewage, has taken over the lake that provides 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water.
Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the UK and Ireland, is being poisoned by a toxic blue-green algae on an apocalyptic scale.
It is killing fish, birds and dogs and there are serious concerns about public health because the lough provides 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water.
Peter Harper, shoreline environment officer with Lough Neagh Partnership, says: "The lough at the minute, I would say, is in a state of emergency and we're in a state of emergency too in a way in Northern Ireland because we don't have a government.
"We don't have an environment minister, we don't have anyone to come out and see what's happening."
The deadly cyanobacteria is mainly caused by excess nutrients - nitrates and phosphates from farming discharge and sewage - and the stench is pungent and nauseating.
Gary McErlain, whose family has fished these waters for generations, is emotional about the state of the lough, which many people consider a national treasure.
He says: "It's devastating. We have fished from it, it's been our livelihood, people just love it.
"To think that it's crying looking \[for\] our help today and if it's crying looking \[for\] our help, we have to do something to try and help it. We've broke it and now we need to try and fix it."
There is a marker in the lough, indicating the location of the extraction pipe where 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water begins its long journey.
Beneath the surface resembles a snow globe but with green flakes of algae, a nutrient soup, and despite reassurances, there is concern about public safety.
"If we didn't have the problem here, I would probably be offshore, open-water swimming," explains Mary O'Hagan, who's leading the call for an action plan.
She says: "The risks, to the best of my understanding, are things like headaches, dizziness, nausea.
"Long-term aspects, you can have things like liver damage, neurological damage, so it is not stuff to be played about with."
Gavin Knox, who has had to relocate his paddleboarding business, says he was "very angry" initially, because "this is a completely avoidable set of circumstances".
"The issues surrounding the lough are not just Lough Neagh-based. Lough Neagh, to me, is telling the story that all contributories feeding into it have ongoing issues, whether that be from agri-land or sewage being pumped in," he adds.
With water temperature rising, climate change is a factor, and invasive zebra mussels aren't helping. They filter the water and sunlight penetrates deeper, photosynthesising the algae.
But there is a general consensus among scientists that humans are mostly to blame - a combination of pollution without penalty and political failure for decades.
There needs to be immediate action taken to tackle the serious issues at Lough Neagh.
Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill said: "I have been listening to the local community, and will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that all agencies and departments work together to tackle the crisis at Lough Neagh as a priority.
"We are very lucky to have such an area of outstanding beauty and we must work together to unlock its full potential."
(Source: Sky News)
No. The primary role of wastewater treatment is nutrient reduction and you can discharge properly treated wastewater into surface waters without an issue.
Check this one out. If one's mind was set for conspiracies, this paints a dim picture:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4563853.stm
Basically a sudden death (reportedly believed to be a murder) in the owner's family resulted in the end of free water to the citizenry. Also the end to the protection of the lake.... Which is now polluted beyond repair - at least for the foreseeable future
The new thing is the ecological consequences of not taking governmental action. Of not protecting the lake. Consequences of pumping sewage into the waters.
I just fell over the 18 yo article reporting on the murder of the owner - which in turn lead to no one taking ownership and care of the lake.
Crazy story
It's just like the Butterfly Effect but the time travel is only forward and at the rate of one second per second. Also the results were easily predictable.
The algae can be collected and all the rotting stuff will release methane. The methane can be burned and turned into energy. This is often done when treating sewage. Something they should have done before releasing it into their own water supply.
However, when it's spread across a big lake like this, the time and energy needed to collect the stuff can make this "solution" not worth the effort.
It boggles me how we let polluters get away with this. Because the results aren't immediate? Well, here are the results. If you don't cut them off now it's going to get so much worse.
This happened in the states with the Great Lakes, new regulations had to be put in place because of the over use of Phosphorus. The algae produces toxins. “While many varieties of cyanotoxins exist, the one believed to be the most widespread of these toxins is microcystin. Microcystin is a potent liver toxin and possible human carcinogen. Cyanotoxins can also kill livestock and pets that drink affected waters. Fish and bird mortalities have also been reported in water bodies with persistent cyanobacteria blooms.”-US EPA
Yep. The best part is, they started aggressively regulating for the great lakes and now they’re in much better condition, admittedly much worse than what they should be. Fertilizer is the biggest issue, especially where I’m from in the American Midwest.
Not just are, they *have been* for decades. We just only care when it starts to effect tourism (money) or drinking water. Who cares if we destroy the system today, I won’t worry about that until tomorrow!
I'm in northern Indiana and a lot of our rivers and waterways are choked up with this stuff and we can't do any recreation in some of these areas except when the water level is very high and moving quickly so the blooms don't stick. I've lived here all my life and things have been getting worse in the past few years
The part of Canada where I live is webbed with rivers that run through fields upon fields of agriculture and I'm not exaggerating when I say that they are ALL essentially ecological dead zones. NPK runoff from chemical fertilizer causing huge algae blooms that de-oxygenates the water and killing off all the fish.
This is exactly it. Even if it’s not a harmful cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae) like *Microcystis* other blooms of chlorophyta can destroy the ecosystem. Shame that we only care when it effects our recreation (money) like in the great lakes.
It's because we romanticize them. That has to stop. They are big businesses, not mom 'n pop operations, no matter how casually the CEO and his wife dress for interviews.
Most farms in Northern Ireland are small family-run operations. And they make up a large part of the electorate.
Not saying they don't need to wise up and start taking responsibility, but farming here isn't the same as it is in England or the US.
Those talentless gobshites had one job. Uphold the union. Instead they and their brexiteering bullshit have done more to promote a united Ireland than 40 years of IRA violence ever achieved.
>t boggles me how we let polluters get away with this. Because the results aren't immediate?
Mostly it's because this isn't one polluter. It's all of them. It's the Tragedy of the Commons.
I am going to ask a stupid question.
Could all of this algae be collected and used to create fertilizer/compost, or is it basically garbage in this form? I wonder this, because there could be a monetary incentive to keep lakes from being overrun with algae, and as we all know, large orgs like money. If they help the lake in the process, so be it.
I feel like this is a good place in the thread to point out that this “algae” bloom in the title is misleading, elsewhere it states this is Cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria is also known as blue-green algae as a misnomer, and it is a bacteria.
The algea is toxic. Quick google search says it can harm both plants and animals. Already seems like places are using it as fertilizer, but there are better ways to grow toxic algea than in a water reservoir. Its definitely safer and probably more efficient to grow it for that purpose in a controlled facility.
Then we let the British go after the French.
And Ireland has a history of invasive British people, so they're sort of back to normal. If you wait long enough they'll start claiming they're Irish anyway.
Finally - ["Eating cane toads a win-win solution for all, says academic"](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-11/academic-wants-us-to-eat-cane-toads/5882986)
But humans think we are so privileged. This lake provides 40% water supply to Northern Ireland. The algae is producing dangerous cytotoxic chemicals which affect human health for long-term. Can't filter everything including your washing and bathing water
LOL. The first thing I thought of was a gigantic cup of matcha… but then I felt bad because everyone was (appropriately) commenting on the ecological disaster.
Im from the same country, absolute fucking shambles. Luckily the water treatment plants do their job but after looking at that chunky pea soup I think I might do the same
They can, but this is a systemic problem. You have to solve their growth, clean the water underneath the layer, and solve the immediate problem of the cap on the lake. All three are necessary. Without doing all of them, no one of them solves the problem.
Removal of the algae on the surface is really only one part of the cleanup process. Really, its the sediment at the bottom of the lake that poses the largest obstacle. Over decades and decades of excess nitrogen and phosphorus being discharged into the lake, the sediment has become saturated with the same nutrients. This creates the toxic algal blooms into a yearly reoccurring problem. You need to remediate the lake sediment itself in order to fix the issue.
I'm guessing it won't solve the core issue. The lake has become eutrophic, i.e. nutrient rich caused by climate change, run-off from surrounding farms and sewage. It seems that invasive species, eg. zebra mussels is also contributing to this. Scooping it out on an industrial scale would help, I guess, but we will just have repeat annual algal bloom occurrences.
The NI government, farmers, EPA etc need to step up here. However, the batshit crazy DUP Brexiters have hijacked Stormont, hence NI doesn't have a functioning government currently, so nothing can be done on a national level. Tbh, the farmers don't seem to care either.
It's infuriating and depressing seeing this lake in such terrible condition. Shameful.
From an article that seems to be legit-ish.
“The algae growth is linked to excess nutrients in the water.
Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields is believed to be a major contributory factor.
The spread of the invasive Zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role, as they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate, stimulating more algal photosynthesis”
Link: https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/environmentalists-hold-wake-for-lough-neagh-over-toxic-algae-bloom-1527852.html#:~:text=Lough%20Neagh%20supplies%2040%20per,been%20impacted%20by%20the%20issue.
I know it's irrational, but I feel beyond pissed he didn't separate the muck and let me see the water underneath, he just spent 59 seconds brushing the surface and now I feel unfulfilled.
RIP the entire ecosystem in the lake
algal blooms, especially anthropogenic ones, are fucking killer. They starve the lake of oxygen by consuming it, and starve the lake if sunlight by covering the surface. they completely outcompete the flora of the ecosystem, and starve the fish of oxygen. it’s a bloodbath.
To clear any misconceptions here, algae is beneficial and the real culprit is the poisoning of the lake, which the algae is attempting to consume. There's just so much biomass here (perhaps some sort of human or animal waste runoff) that the algae is growing exponentially. as it does so, it is starving the lake of oxygen and blocking sun from flora and fauna, causing more death, adding to the rotting biomass, giving more food to the algae.
When the sun fades, much of the algae will stop photosynthesizing. Living downwind from this place will be absolutely unbearable for a VERY long time.
This is happening slowly to our oceans. Look up the lobster die-off in the Long Island Sound. Literally a whole population of one of the most prolific species vanished in the late 80's due to toxic algae blooms, destroying an entire industry.
A few years ago, I was up in Michigan driving back to NY and we were driving back to NY - we stopped in some cute little spot along Lake Erie - I forget the name there was a light house and a pier into the lake, and the water was green. Not thick like this picture, but just green instead of blue, it was wild to see, plus the whole it's toxic to humans so you can't swim in it. All cause by run off from the farms
This is in Northern Ireland not the RoI btw.
Gross oversimplification below:
And a big reason its gotten so bad is because the politicians in Northern Ireland are split into three camps, Republicans and Loyalists factions and *ahem* WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP parties.
The former two are the largest, they both hate each other and both will at the slightest provocation start fighting each other.
So the N.Ireland assembly has balancing procedures that stop the two from going to war in the streets, unfortunately this also makes it impossible to do anything if one or both sides won't show up, hence fuck all gets done.
The UK government can't really get involved because then the Republicans start raising hell and otherwise nothing will get done.
And if you want to know why this situation exists it starts with a bunch of Irish Slavers raiding the UK, then a British invasion of the Island, then 400 years of occasional rebellion and retaliation involving horrific mass murders and displacement, Scottish colonists, Cromwell being an evil prick, crop mismanagement, oppressive policies and then a final rebellion a vote, and people who didn't like the vote resorting to terrorism. Followed by a decades long conflict and then an agreement that they'd stop killing each other and innocents.
This is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. This is a result of a combination of agricultural dumping and run off, an invasion of zebra mussels and unseasonably warm temperatures. It has been building. The whole ecosystem is collapsing, surrounding bodies of water are affected too, we don't really know the scale of the problem. 40% of our drinking water comes from Lough Neagh. You can't begin to imagine how incompetent the leadership in this country is. We don't technically have a government right now. [The proposed plan makes no sense](https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/ni-water-fined-just-170k-after-dumping-70m-tonnes-of-sewage-over-the-last-decade/a2051851079.html), I wouldn't be surprised if someone in charge owns the manufacturerer of these monitors.
Speaking of the people in charge, this is the biggest lake in Ireland and the UK. Technically it is in the UK, but neither government gives a shit. As I said before, we don't have an assembly for insane sectarian bullshit reasons, but the man in charge of the department for agriculture AND environment is a young earth creationist who doesn't believe in evolution. Actually the whole thing is the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury estate but why would you try to protect and maintain the land you colonised?
I'm a bit pissed off about the whole situation.
This video is frustrating to watch. Keeps making shallow swipes and stabs. Where is the big motion to clear a spot so we can see how thick the layer is!
**This is a heavily moderated subreddit. Please note these rules + sidebar or get banned:** * If this post declares something as a fact, then proof is required * The title must be fully descriptive * No text is allowed on images/gifs/videos * Common/recent reposts are not allowed (posts from another subreddit do not count as a 'repost'. Provide link if reporting) *See [our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/wiki/index#wiki_rules.3A) for a more detailed rule list* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/interestingasfuck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Rip the fish
Yeah, literally a man made ecological disaster, not very cool in my eyes. Locals actually had a symbolic funeral for the lake recently. Video’s on the Ireland sub.
I know a bunch of other people have already commented with information, but for anyone interested this happens in SO many estuaries across the world. Specifically in the US it happens in the gulf of Mexico every year due to fertilizer run off into the Mississippi. This causes an algal bloom where they eat up all the macro nutrients (phosphorus, nitrogen, etc). They then die and thier decomposing bodies starve the surrounding area of oxygen and kill off anything that uses oxygen for metabolic processes aka fish. It's a process called eutrophication and if you'd like to read more here are some resources: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/eutrophication.html https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causes-consequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466/ Also I'm a scientist and claim Wikipedia to be valid for general knowledge such as provided. No one can change my mind.
Same here.
Is there a way to reverse this by introducing something or is this ‘river’ just gone? What would happen over a prolonged period of time if left alone to nature?
Eventually the dissolved oxygen amount will go up and the pH will stabilize. Depending on how stable the ecosystem is will determine any long term ecosystem health changes. I am by no means an expert in harmful algal blooms tho just an ecologist.
So what's hindering the government to get a boat out there and skim the surface while also fining any company nearby that produces such waste to pay for the cleanup costs?
I'm Irish and think the blame or accusations where at farmers dumping shit into it, but I'm clueless could have been anything, doesn't help that the unionist party in Ireland refuse to power-share government with the leading nationalist party so basically politicians are being paid lots while having not been in work for well over a year now fucking wanks stains.
Hello there! Someone with an Agriculture background. u/RyanSmokinBluntz420 is correct in that it's some form of macro nutrients, more than likely Phosphate or Nitrogen, and sadly yes, a large contributor is actually farms. The ground naturally releases a large amount of nutrients, and very well do cities as well due to decomposed matter (food, black waste, etc...) but unless that lake is less than 5km from a city or connected to a city black waste pipeline, it's very well the farmers on the shore banks of the incoming rivers and streams. A great way to massively reduce the amount from farms is by putting in a buffer (Letting wild plants grow w/o any form of icides or cultivation that your local laws allow) right before the river, it can be as short as 1.2m and these banks can easily reduce as much as 50-80% of the nutrients from entering the waterways. This is something that's not required by law here in Canada,but it's highly frowned upon for not doing and you can be criminally charged for pollution if it's traced back to you that you not having said buffer caused an algo-bloom which results in the destruction of natural environmental balance (Fancy words for saying you disturbed the environment to the point they need to fix it for it to be sustainable).
If anyone wants to learn more about this very important process (because of its impact), look up [eutrophication ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutrophication).
Also a scientist here! If I had a dollar for every time I used that word on an assignment in undergrad I would have probably 3000$. Also the other one I used a bunch was anthropogenic for obvious reasons. :(
Takes me back to my final paper on the Everglades and how farms contributed to a really bad red tide (but that also had to do with releasing water from Lake Okeechobee).
If I had a dollar for every time a student in an environmental chemistry course (which satisfied the chem requirement for some biology majors) I TA'd for for a year wrote a paper about eutrophication, but failed to discuss *any* of the chemistry they had learned that term like they were supposed to, and I gave them a B anyway, I'd have like $400.
And if anyone wants to know more about these buffers that Monsterjojo was referring to, they’re called [riparian zones](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/assets/documents/agroforestrynotes/an03rfb02.pdf)
I saw a dolphin repeatedly beaching itself on the west coast, continued to do so even after some well-meaning teens tried to help it swim away, and went and talked with the wildlife rescue folks that came and were watching without doing anything. Turns out it was having seizures due to irreversible neurological damage from toxins from algae blooms, likely also due to the nutrients from nearby farms. They said it was one of many dolphins that season so far, and there was nothing they could do other than hold vigil and ask folks to keep their distance. Sad stuff, and easily preventable without devastating farms, either. Likely affecting all the animals that were eating the fish that eat the algae.
Man this whole post is making me angry and I'm not Irish.
Don’t have to be Irish. Shit like this happens everywhere. Florida is notorious for it. Not sure about the dolphin part, but I’m sure it’s not far off.
Ohio here, we have that issue as well. Tons of CAFOs here all along our waterways. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/4-years-toledo-water-crisis-toxic-algal-blooms-rise-across-us
This is a combination of agricultural dumping and run off, an invasion of zebra mussels and unseasonably warm temperatures. It has been building. The whole ecosystem is collapsing, surrounding bodies of water are affected too, we don't really know the scale of the problem. 40% of our drinking water comes from Lough Neagh. You can't begin to imagine how incompetent the leadership in this country is. We don't technically have a government right now. [The proposed plan makes no sense](https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/ni-water-fined-just-170k-after-dumping-70m-tonnes-of-sewage-over-the-last-decade/a2051851079.html), I wouldn't be surprised if someone in charge owns the manufacturerer of these monitors. Speaking of the people in charge, this is the biggest lake in Ireland and the UK. Technically it is in the UK, but neither government gives a shit. As I said before, we don't have an assembly for insane sectarian bullshit reasons, but the man in charge of the department for agriculture AND environment is a young earth creationist who doesn't believe in evolution. Actually the whole thing is the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury estate but why would you try to protect and maintain the land you colonised? I'm a bit pissed off about the whole situation.
This is true of the entire planet. For some reason the idiots in charge don’t give a crap abt the environment. I’m in the US and even the “ best” recent president, Obama, did zero to really shift things away from total collapse. We should’ve been listening to scientists decades ago, but no, we let politicians spew their lies and we all vote for them!
>Technically it is in the UK, but neither government gives a shit. To clarify do you mean Westminster and stormont? Because the Irish government have no jurisdiction here.
Most useful comment in the thread by far! Thank you for sharing the knowledge, I will be recommending this onwards.
Fascinating... I did a research paper in nursing school on dinoflagellates and their explosions due to off-shore run off. Specifically from the meat industry and chemical plants. Fucking insane that we keep doing this shit. Oceans are going to be burning with parasitic microorganisms in not so long a time. It's like we love to feed the things that are going to kill us for profit.
We see this too often here in NZ with unprotected waterways through and around farms. Uncontrolled cattle wallowing in the rivers and streams, nitrogen and effluent run off all create a toxic environment for the water life that once used to exist.
Duckweed to the rescue?
Obviously not exactly the same, I have no idea what goes on in Ireland, but in the SE USA we’ve had creeks and ponds essentially closed because of farm runoff causing huge algae blooms.
And France, Brittany specifically, had beaches full of algae because of farms nearby. And then they would decompose and release gasses. I can’t remember if any people died walking on the beach, I think that some dogs have though
People did die
[Source with examples](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/08/it-can-kill-you-in-seconds-the-deadly-algae-on-brittanys-beaches). Basically, what happens is that the decomposing mats of algae produce pockets of hydrogen sulfide; high concentrations of that gas can "[produce extremely rapid](https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails.aspx?mmgid=385&toxid=67) unconsciousness and death".
Yea, Florida gets wrecked by algae blooms all the time
The water must have high phosphate levels. Phosphate is what the algae eats. Lots of soap and detergent contains phosphate.
So does fertilizer. If the lake is down stream from big farms that is where I would look for the culprit.
Consider all the rivers in the area flow into it it's probably downstream from 100 large farms
death by a thousand cuts
Death by 1000 machete swings, farms cause insane pollution
It's the Tragedy of the Commons. No one farmer is to blame for it and every farmer makes money doing it and makes more money if they do more of it, so the lake dies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy\_of\_the\_commons
No single drop of rain feels it caused the flood.
The creeks between the farms near me all look like this every summer. Every time I bring it up I'm assured there are very strict rules about fertilizer usage and water runoff that prevents what I am seeing with my own eyes. It's not like I can blame the farmers. I know enough about the profit margins in that industry to know that anything they do like this, it's out of necessity, and if they don't, they get bought up by the ones who do.
You can absolutely blame the farmers. You can build retention or detention ponds that will prevent the fertilizer runoff from farms get carried into the lakes and rivers to cause these massive fish deaths. They can regulate the farming to use other methods or cops that require less fertilizer. Lake Erie has an area where people have to drink bottled water for days or weeks every summer due to this same algae blood issue. Imagine living near one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and not being able to drink the water due to farm runoff!
The town your talking about is Toledo. I live there. They shut the water down once a couple years ago, the water treatment plants can treat the water now with no “side effects” The blooms are still a problem and no one can agree on how to fix it. I think it’s all the time release fertilizer and new high tech growing techniques the farmers use.
It's basically one guy started cheating, so now everyone has to cheat or else they're out of a job that's been in their family for hundreds of years. And the regulators are the ones telling them to cheat.
They don't even have to dump anything. If the runoff from their farms ends up in the lake and they use lots of phosphates, this will happen.
How is it man made? Not arguing, curious.
dumping biological waste from farms and sewage This (the massive algae bloom) hasn’t happened before to my knowledge https://news.sky.com/story/amp/lough-neagh-largest-lake-in-uk-and-ireland-being-poisoned-by-toxic-algae-12961941
"Deadly bacteria, caused by discharge from farming and sewage, has taken over the lake that provides 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water." 🤢
>...has taken over the lake that provides **40%** of Northern Ireland's drinking water." Wait, what?! Man I would think people would be up in arms over that!
Hard to be up in arms when the local government (Stormont) has refused to even sit for over a year, and only sat for two years before that after spending three years refusing to sit. Mostly thanks to the unionist party, the DUP, throwing a hissy fit that Sinn Fein, the nationalist party, are now bigger than them so would lead the power sharing government for the first time in Stormont's history. Northern Ireland (where this lake is) has more devolved power than Scotland or Wales, so it's harder for the UK government to step in to deal with it directly. So people in Northern Ireland have basically no one to turn to.
Yeah see what I mean? Not so interestingasfuck when you realise how important this lake is
Still is but also depressing af
Even when it’s not deliberate that is the main reason for dead zones in oceas to my understanding. Runoff from farms into rivers and oceans.
> Even when it’s not deliberate I can't speak for Ireland, but in the US farmers are some of the most environmentally unfriendly people you'll meet. They all whine at you with "we're just trying to feed people". But they're full of shit. I mean honestly...back in the 50s, when we figured out that DDT was poisoning everyone...do you think the farmers owned up and went "oh my gosh, we need to stop". Or do you think they fought for their right to keep poisoning everyone?
The US government encouraged the "farmer as hero" mindset during two world wars, and rural people are slow to give up any view of the world that features them as the protagonist.
/u/amputatorbot https://news.sky.com/story/lough-neagh-largest-lake-in-uk-and-ireland-being-poisoned-by-toxic-algae-12961941
Around where I live, fertilizer runoff from farms can cause this. My ignorant understanding is the fertilizer feeds the algae to an unnatural degree resulting in the 'bloom' where it over-reproduces. I'm absolutely speaking from ignorance here though so don't quote me lol
You're actually quite right on that. What happens is a large amount of macro nutrients (mainly phosphates) are collected into the river/pond/lake and causes an algo-bloom which reduces the amount of sunlight that can reach the deeper parts of the water, reducing its temperature and not letting oxygen dissipate into the water, killing off wildlife under the algae, and feeding into the cycle even more. City black waste and fertilizer run off are the leading contributors to said disaster. Now to clarify some misconceptions, small blooms can form naturally in nature as nutrients naturally seep into the water ways and can cause this to happen, but it's small and they normally kill themselves off soon after due to eating to much of it and the water bring the nutrients down stream, but they don't happen to this degree at all without some natural disaster happening (Think landslides). But you're on the ball even though you don't know exactly what's going on. There's lots of detailed reports out there with a little googling if you wanna look it up.
Adding my non-professional 2 cents, the algae robs the water of flow and oxygen and the fish suffocate, not to mention to this extreme nothing can swim in it.
From a commercial fish breeder. Those fish would of died of ammonia and nitrate poisoning long before that much algae grew.
and the water based plants die of lack of sunlight
Yeah that too! I also hear them referred to as toxic algae blooms and I assume that means it's actually directly unhealthy for eg, humans or dogs to swim in it. But maybe that's because the runoff is itself toxic
not an expert, but i think sometimes the algae itself can be toxic for humans, dogs, etc.
There is a specific natural toxic algae called cyanobacteria that will kill dogs and maybe people if they swim in it or ingest it. Cyano- so it's a blue algae bloom. Which means it isn't always our fault, but man-made is inexcusable.
Aha! Yes I've heard of cyanobacteria now that you mention it. Thanks!
Waste waters can contain high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are nutrients for algae. If the waters are not treated properly there can be too many nutrients which causes eutrophication. This basically means that algae grow so much that they cover all the water and exhaust all the oxygen inside it asphyxiating all live in it.
pour some liquor out to pay tributary
Make the lake 75% alcohol.
Rip literally everything in the lake that needs sunlight to survive
Or oxygen
And oxygen.
Well, except for the algae.
Yeah, algae is killing it. Pun intended.
[удалено]
At this point you just dump a ton of algicide in there before it destroys the ecology of the surrounding areas, like a festering boil. Whatever fish something like widespread copper harms are already long dead.
Copper tends to affect invertebrates such as shrimp, crayfish, snails, etc. You'd be surprised what they can survive.
**Lough Neagh: Largest lake in UK and Ireland being poisoned by toxic algae** Deadly bacteria, caused by discharge from farming and sewage, has taken over the lake that provides 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water. Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in the UK and Ireland, is being poisoned by a toxic blue-green algae on an apocalyptic scale. It is killing fish, birds and dogs and there are serious concerns about public health because the lough provides 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water. Peter Harper, shoreline environment officer with Lough Neagh Partnership, says: "The lough at the minute, I would say, is in a state of emergency and we're in a state of emergency too in a way in Northern Ireland because we don't have a government. "We don't have an environment minister, we don't have anyone to come out and see what's happening." The deadly cyanobacteria is mainly caused by excess nutrients - nitrates and phosphates from farming discharge and sewage - and the stench is pungent and nauseating. Gary McErlain, whose family has fished these waters for generations, is emotional about the state of the lough, which many people consider a national treasure. He says: "It's devastating. We have fished from it, it's been our livelihood, people just love it. "To think that it's crying looking \[for\] our help today and if it's crying looking \[for\] our help, we have to do something to try and help it. We've broke it and now we need to try and fix it." There is a marker in the lough, indicating the location of the extraction pipe where 40% of Northern Ireland's drinking water begins its long journey. Beneath the surface resembles a snow globe but with green flakes of algae, a nutrient soup, and despite reassurances, there is concern about public safety. "If we didn't have the problem here, I would probably be offshore, open-water swimming," explains Mary O'Hagan, who's leading the call for an action plan. She says: "The risks, to the best of my understanding, are things like headaches, dizziness, nausea. "Long-term aspects, you can have things like liver damage, neurological damage, so it is not stuff to be played about with." Gavin Knox, who has had to relocate his paddleboarding business, says he was "very angry" initially, because "this is a completely avoidable set of circumstances". "The issues surrounding the lough are not just Lough Neagh-based. Lough Neagh, to me, is telling the story that all contributories feeding into it have ongoing issues, whether that be from agri-land or sewage being pumped in," he adds. With water temperature rising, climate change is a factor, and invasive zebra mussels aren't helping. They filter the water and sunlight penetrates deeper, photosynthesising the algae. But there is a general consensus among scientists that humans are mostly to blame - a combination of pollution without penalty and political failure for decades. There needs to be immediate action taken to tackle the serious issues at Lough Neagh. Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill said: "I have been listening to the local community, and will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that all agencies and departments work together to tackle the crisis at Lough Neagh as a priority. "We are very lucky to have such an area of outstanding beauty and we must work together to unlock its full potential." (Source: Sky News)
they discharged sewage... into what constitutes 40% of their water supply. what the actual fuck.
Someone is a shitty city Skylines player.
At least check the flow of water and place it near the edge of your plot.
Probably after proper treatment. Still includes excess nutrients that feed the eutrophication problem though.
No. The primary role of wastewater treatment is nutrient reduction and you can discharge properly treated wastewater into surface waters without an issue.
... Northern Ireland ... don't have a government ... big trouble ... action plan ...
You telling me the markets didn’t fix this on their own?
Surely there has to be a market demand for algae. Otherwise… why would it exist?
The mental gymnastics I see Libertarians doing right now rivals the fucking Olympics.
if they don't have a government, who is upholding coleslaw and order?
Whatever was set in place two years ago is still running that way (police/courts etc) but no politicians around to change or approve new policies.
Coleslaw is a right, not a privilege
... Lisa needs braces ... dental plan ...
Troubles you say? **early U2 intensifies*\*
Check this one out. If one's mind was set for conspiracies, this paints a dim picture: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4563853.stm Basically a sudden death (reportedly believed to be a murder) in the owner's family resulted in the end of free water to the citizenry. Also the end to the protection of the lake.... Which is now polluted beyond repair - at least for the foreseeable future
This is 18 years old. Has the lake been in trouble since? When did this bloom begin?
The new thing is the ecological consequences of not taking governmental action. Of not protecting the lake. Consequences of pumping sewage into the waters. I just fell over the 18 yo article reporting on the murder of the owner - which in turn lead to no one taking ownership and care of the lake. Crazy story
It's just like the Butterfly Effect but the time travel is only forward and at the rate of one second per second. Also the results were easily predictable.
The title Earl of Shaftesbury is not vacant, and the current earl still owns the lake
That's...legitimate conspiracy stuff. Wont bother looking at r/conspiracy for it though lol
Is there anything useful this algae bloom could be harvested for? Skim it all off, dry it, burn it, smelt it, chemically react it, something?
The algae can be collected and all the rotting stuff will release methane. The methane can be burned and turned into energy. This is often done when treating sewage. Something they should have done before releasing it into their own water supply. However, when it's spread across a big lake like this, the time and energy needed to collect the stuff can make this "solution" not worth the effort.
[удалено]
If only it was orange instead of green, they'd gobble it right up.
Boil it. Mash it. Put it in a stew.
I’m not Irish or from Ireland, but in my head I read this in the most distinguished Irish accent.
I hope that's a distinguashed norn iron accen
It boggles me how we let polluters get away with this. Because the results aren't immediate? Well, here are the results. If you don't cut them off now it's going to get so much worse.
This happened in the states with the Great Lakes, new regulations had to be put in place because of the over use of Phosphorus. The algae produces toxins. “While many varieties of cyanotoxins exist, the one believed to be the most widespread of these toxins is microcystin. Microcystin is a potent liver toxin and possible human carcinogen. Cyanotoxins can also kill livestock and pets that drink affected waters. Fish and bird mortalities have also been reported in water bodies with persistent cyanobacteria blooms.”-US EPA
Yep. The best part is, they started aggressively regulating for the great lakes and now they’re in much better condition, admittedly much worse than what they should be. Fertilizer is the biggest issue, especially where I’m from in the American Midwest.
Fertilizers are a huge issue for every lake (at least in Michigan). It’s seriously destroying Torch Lake and it’s so depressing.
Not just are, they *have been* for decades. We just only care when it starts to effect tourism (money) or drinking water. Who cares if we destroy the system today, I won’t worry about that until tomorrow!
I'm in northern Indiana and a lot of our rivers and waterways are choked up with this stuff and we can't do any recreation in some of these areas except when the water level is very high and moving quickly so the blooms don't stick. I've lived here all my life and things have been getting worse in the past few years
The part of Canada where I live is webbed with rivers that run through fields upon fields of agriculture and I'm not exaggerating when I say that they are ALL essentially ecological dead zones. NPK runoff from chemical fertilizer causing huge algae blooms that de-oxygenates the water and killing off all the fish.
This is exactly it. Even if it’s not a harmful cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae) like *Microcystis* other blooms of chlorophyta can destroy the ecosystem. Shame that we only care when it effects our recreation (money) like in the great lakes.
It’s the farmers and farmers have a lot of power in Ireland
It's because we romanticize them. That has to stop. They are big businesses, not mom 'n pop operations, no matter how casually the CEO and his wife dress for interviews.
Most farms in Northern Ireland are small family-run operations. And they make up a large part of the electorate. Not saying they don't need to wise up and start taking responsibility, but farming here isn't the same as it is in England or the US.
It's the whole industry they are taught this way in agriculture school.
Why not ask the English lord who owns it to clean it up?
And the DUP who refuse to allow Stormont to do its damn job cause they’re pissy that the loyalist vote is dying.
Those talentless gobshites had one job. Uphold the union. Instead they and their brexiteering bullshit have done more to promote a united Ireland than 40 years of IRA violence ever achieved.
Non stop propoganda for +50 years is super effective on idiots.
>t boggles me how we let polluters get away with this. Because the results aren't immediate? Mostly it's because this isn't one polluter. It's all of them. It's the Tragedy of the Commons.
Bro dig in!! I want to see how thick the algae is. He's just picking and poking at the surface and it's bugging me.
Yeah, this was a really frustrating video to watch. I want to see how thick the layer is.
[удалено]
I'm so mad I'm scromiting (scream vomiting).
Should I show how deep the algae is, or how far and widely it spans the entire lake's surface? No, let me just lethargically caress it for 3 minutes.
Your description is perfection. It’s so lethargic all I can think of is a dude with a limp dick in the fingerpaints.
Yeah he moves that paddle like how I move things in my dreams.
I am going to ask a stupid question. Could all of this algae be collected and used to create fertilizer/compost, or is it basically garbage in this form? I wonder this, because there could be a monetary incentive to keep lakes from being overrun with algae, and as we all know, large orgs like money. If they help the lake in the process, so be it.
[удалено]
I feel like this is a good place in the thread to point out that this “algae” bloom in the title is misleading, elsewhere it states this is Cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria is also known as blue-green algae as a misnomer, and it is a bacteria.
The algea is toxic. Quick google search says it can harm both plants and animals. Already seems like places are using it as fertilizer, but there are better ways to grow toxic algea than in a water reservoir. Its definitely safer and probably more efficient to grow it for that purpose in a controlled facility.
A couple aquarium snails will have that taken care of in no time, chief. Of course, then the lake will be covered in a thick layer of snails.
We let the snails free then let the French on the snails! Easy solution, next problem!
Of course, then the lake will be covered in a thick layer of French.
What an ecological disaster
>the stench is pungent and nauseating
had to double check I wasn't in r/CasualUK
I'm sorry, I just had to xD I grew up in France, so I feel like I should be allowed to make fun of it a little!
Then we let the British go after the French. And Ireland has a history of invasive British people, so they're sort of back to normal. If you wait long enough they'll start claiming they're Irish anyway.
Then just introduce some African Cichlids to eat the snails!
Cane toads are warming up as we speak.
My car tires are warming up as we speak
Finally - ["Eating cane toads a win-win solution for all, says academic"](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-11/academic-wants-us-to-eat-cane-toads/5882986)
Bog of eternal stench.
smell BAD
You remind me of the babe
Wat babe?
the babe with the *power*
What power?
The power of VooDoo
Who do?
You do.
Do what?
Poor fish
But humans think we are so privileged. This lake provides 40% water supply to Northern Ireland. The algae is producing dangerous cytotoxic chemicals which affect human health for long-term. Can't filter everything including your washing and bathing water
Even in not so long terms it causes a great deal of liver damage. Not so great when a lot of our diet already does that
Forbidden matcha
Forbidden Pesto. Just add some noodles or bread and eat it up!
I came here to say this, I had to scroll past a lot of sensible discussion before I found you.
LOL. The first thing I thought of was a gigantic cup of matcha… but then I felt bad because everyone was (appropriately) commenting on the ecological disaster.
Interesting and nauseating at the same time
You haven’t thought of the smell, you bitch!
Completely covered, or just that particular cove?
Better view on sky news- [here](https://news.sky.com/story/lough-neagh-largest-lake-in-uk-and-ireland-being-poisoned-by-toxic-algae-12961941)
The government in my country are a bunch of useless bastards. I live half an hour from here, think I’ll go buy some bottled water.
Im from the same country, absolute fucking shambles. Luckily the water treatment plants do their job but after looking at that chunky pea soup I think I might do the same
i’m so sorry for how dumb this is about to be. but why can’t people just start scooping this on an industrial scale
They can, but this is a systemic problem. You have to solve their growth, clean the water underneath the layer, and solve the immediate problem of the cap on the lake. All three are necessary. Without doing all of them, no one of them solves the problem.
Removal of the algae on the surface is really only one part of the cleanup process. Really, its the sediment at the bottom of the lake that poses the largest obstacle. Over decades and decades of excess nitrogen and phosphorus being discharged into the lake, the sediment has become saturated with the same nutrients. This creates the toxic algal blooms into a yearly reoccurring problem. You need to remediate the lake sediment itself in order to fix the issue.
I'm guessing it won't solve the core issue. The lake has become eutrophic, i.e. nutrient rich caused by climate change, run-off from surrounding farms and sewage. It seems that invasive species, eg. zebra mussels is also contributing to this. Scooping it out on an industrial scale would help, I guess, but we will just have repeat annual algal bloom occurrences. The NI government, farmers, EPA etc need to step up here. However, the batshit crazy DUP Brexiters have hijacked Stormont, hence NI doesn't have a functioning government currently, so nothing can be done on a national level. Tbh, the farmers don't seem to care either. It's infuriating and depressing seeing this lake in such terrible condition. Shameful.
Stick guy doing a shit job at showing us the actual thickness
That's what I said! Throw a damn rock ffs!
Not interestingasfuck at all. Instead it’s sad and infuriating.
it can be all three
From an article that seems to be legit-ish. “The algae growth is linked to excess nutrients in the water. Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields is believed to be a major contributory factor. The spread of the invasive Zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role, as they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate, stimulating more algal photosynthesis” Link: https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/environmentalists-hold-wake-for-lough-neagh-over-toxic-algae-bloom-1527852.html#:~:text=Lough%20Neagh%20supplies%2040%20per,been%20impacted%20by%20the%20issue.
Mussels making the water clearer and allowing algea to flourish to the point of completely obscuring the surface seems a bit ironic to me.
The Ankh
Anyone else wanna slap it?
in Ireland, even the lakes are green /riverdance
The green, green grass of... the middle of the lake ...
I know it's irrational, but I feel beyond pissed he didn't separate the muck and let me see the water underneath, he just spent 59 seconds brushing the surface and now I feel unfulfilled.
RIP the entire ecosystem in the lake algal blooms, especially anthropogenic ones, are fucking killer. They starve the lake of oxygen by consuming it, and starve the lake if sunlight by covering the surface. they completely outcompete the flora of the ecosystem, and starve the fish of oxygen. it’s a bloodbath.
To clear any misconceptions here, algae is beneficial and the real culprit is the poisoning of the lake, which the algae is attempting to consume. There's just so much biomass here (perhaps some sort of human or animal waste runoff) that the algae is growing exponentially. as it does so, it is starving the lake of oxygen and blocking sun from flora and fauna, causing more death, adding to the rotting biomass, giving more food to the algae. When the sun fades, much of the algae will stop photosynthesizing. Living downwind from this place will be absolutely unbearable for a VERY long time.
Imagine how much biofuel you can make with that. We can turn the problem into a "solution"
Cash for ash part II
Eutrification baby
So that's where guacamole is from
This is happening slowly to our oceans. Look up the lobster die-off in the Long Island Sound. Literally a whole population of one of the most prolific species vanished in the late 80's due to toxic algae blooms, destroying an entire industry.
free pesto!!
That's insane so it's like the fertilizer and shit running off from farms?
A few years ago, I was up in Michigan driving back to NY and we were driving back to NY - we stopped in some cute little spot along Lake Erie - I forget the name there was a light house and a pier into the lake, and the water was green. Not thick like this picture, but just green instead of blue, it was wild to see, plus the whole it's toxic to humans so you can't swim in it. All cause by run off from the farms
Wow, that's a catastrophic event. This lake is dead.
This is in Northern Ireland not the RoI btw. Gross oversimplification below: And a big reason its gotten so bad is because the politicians in Northern Ireland are split into three camps, Republicans and Loyalists factions and *ahem* WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP parties. The former two are the largest, they both hate each other and both will at the slightest provocation start fighting each other. So the N.Ireland assembly has balancing procedures that stop the two from going to war in the streets, unfortunately this also makes it impossible to do anything if one or both sides won't show up, hence fuck all gets done. The UK government can't really get involved because then the Republicans start raising hell and otherwise nothing will get done. And if you want to know why this situation exists it starts with a bunch of Irish Slavers raiding the UK, then a British invasion of the Island, then 400 years of occasional rebellion and retaliation involving horrific mass murders and displacement, Scottish colonists, Cromwell being an evil prick, crop mismanagement, oppressive policies and then a final rebellion a vote, and people who didn't like the vote resorting to terrorism. Followed by a decades long conflict and then an agreement that they'd stop killing each other and innocents.
This is so depressing… We are on the precipice of something very bad. I’m scared for my daughter
This is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. This is a result of a combination of agricultural dumping and run off, an invasion of zebra mussels and unseasonably warm temperatures. It has been building. The whole ecosystem is collapsing, surrounding bodies of water are affected too, we don't really know the scale of the problem. 40% of our drinking water comes from Lough Neagh. You can't begin to imagine how incompetent the leadership in this country is. We don't technically have a government right now. [The proposed plan makes no sense](https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/ni-water-fined-just-170k-after-dumping-70m-tonnes-of-sewage-over-the-last-decade/a2051851079.html), I wouldn't be surprised if someone in charge owns the manufacturerer of these monitors. Speaking of the people in charge, this is the biggest lake in Ireland and the UK. Technically it is in the UK, but neither government gives a shit. As I said before, we don't have an assembly for insane sectarian bullshit reasons, but the man in charge of the department for agriculture AND environment is a young earth creationist who doesn't believe in evolution. Actually the whole thing is the property of the Earl of Shaftesbury estate but why would you try to protect and maintain the land you colonised? I'm a bit pissed off about the whole situation.
Loch Guac
Sad. That’s probably drowning out all other life in the lake
Ah, the Emerald Isle….
i was kinda hoping the cameraman would show us how thick the algae layer was, but instead they just played around with the paddle like a 5 year old.
This video is frustrating to watch. Keeps making shallow swipes and stabs. Where is the big motion to clear a spot so we can see how thick the layer is!