Bacterial Bloom

Our Three Musketeers walking group did something radical this morning—we went to a different place! Normally we walk along the ocean cliffs with views of the wharf and the lighthouse and the never ending construction projects, but, daring creatures that we are, today we took a different route and explored the park bordered by Schwan Lake. It’s a lovely undeveloped piece of land with several paths and views of the water, and energetic trees that always seem to be dancing. The special treat today was seeing the bacterial bloom on the water—that neon color isn’t water or reflection, but a concentration of blue-green algae.

Well, we call it algae, but in a front page newspaper article this morning it was made clear that this green stuff is cyanobacteria, which periodically multiplies here in the lake and just as quickly disappears. From certain angles the water seems to be covered with ice: it looks like you could easily walk across the lagoon without getting your feet wet. That gorgeous jade also reminds me of a layer of fat, come to the top of whatever you’re cooking. Ducks swim through it, barely leaving a wake. You can rhapsodize about that stunning color, but don’t drink the water, and don’t let your pets play in it. 

Update: a letter writer in the following day’s paper insists that the green surface of the water is caused by Lemna, or duckweed, the world’s tiniest flowering plant. “Lemna has a high concentration of a protein called rubisco…it is being cultivated and studied intensively by the food industry.”. So you pays your money and you takes your choice, but I think I will abstain for now…