Waterway experts say an invasive algae is spreading in Arkansas, and the growth is thriving in one of the state's top trout fishing waterways.
BULL SHOALS, Ark. — Waterway experts say an invasive algae is spreading in Arkansas, and the growth is thriving in one of the state's top trout fishing waterways.
The algae didymosphenia geminata, commonly known as didymo, was spotted in Arkansas in 2003, and it is creating more of a stir because it is spreading in the prime trout fishing area downstream of Beaver Lake Dam. Experts are uncertain how to stop the algae's spread.
Officials in New Zealand have been coping with the algae for years. Many western states have the algae, as do Missouri and Tennessee.
The diatom, one of the most primitive forms of life, is white or brown and looks like wet tissue paper. The algae isn't known to harm trout, but state Trout Unlimited board member Bob Britzke, whose home is along the White River, says the algae gets in the way of anglers.
"This is not a major outbreak yet, but it's a symptom of what's to come," Britzke said. "It's a nuisance. It interferes with fishing, and it looks horrible."
The algae has been reported in Arkansas hanging on low tree branches along a stretch of the White River.
Darrell Bowman, state trout biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said high water brought by releases from the Bull Shoals Dam had submerged the low tree limbs, allowing the algae to cling. When the water levels went down, Bowman said people called to report what appeared to have been the after effects of an overflow from a sewer plant.
But Bowman said the muck in the trees wasn't toilet paper -- it was didymo.
The algae can become thick on river bottoms.
"It started expanding in Colorado 10 years ago, and its at the point where I'm waving my arms and trying to attract attention to it," said Sarah Spaulding, a freshwater ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. "It seems to be showing up in warmer waters and in higher nutrient-concentration waters.
"It used to be water with low nitrogen, low phosphorus and cool temperature waters, but that's not the case anymore."
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality water specialist Erica Shelby has completed a report on the algae's spread at Bull Shoals. She found that the algae is spreading.
"It is important for us to understand and determine the effects of (didymo) on Arkansas trout-supported streams," Shelby said.
The section of the White River below the Bull Shoals Dam is known as a top brown trout fishery. Shelby's report says the algae spread 13 miles downstream last year. It has also been found in an early stage of development on the Little Red River below Greers Ferry Lake.
Bowman says the algae does not necessarily harm trout.
"As far as the trout fishery, the take-home message is we don't know," Bowman said. "We're in the process of trying to get all the information from New Zealand and other places."
"You see a range of things. In New Zealand, its caused the crash of at least two trout fisheries. But my counterparts in Tennessee say didymo got in there a few years ago, and the brown trout flourished."
Experts believe the algae may be spread by anglers who did not clean their hip waders with a 10 percent bleach solution.
"We think it's spread by fishermen and that has something to do with the spread, but it doesn't explain why it wasn't spreading 20 years ago," Spaulding said. "It's not that they have such different fishing patterns now."
Source: Associated Press
Contact Info:
