Algal Bloom Treatment using Enzymes

Algal or Algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in fresh or marine water systems and is often recognized by the discolouration in the water from their pigments such as red, blue-green and golden. The term algae encompass many types of aquatic photosynthetic organisms, both macroscopic, organisms like seaweed and microscopic, unicellular organisms like cyanobacteria. Algal bloom commonly refers to the rapid growth of microscopic, unicellular algae that poses a severe risk to aquatic, animal, and human life.

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Algal blooms are the result of a nutrient, like nitrogen or phosphorus from fertilizer runoff, entering the aquatic system and causing excessive growth of algae. An algal bloom affects the whole ecosystem. Consequences range from the benign feeding of higher trophic levels to more harmful effects like blocking sunlight from reaching other organisms, causing a depletion of oxygen levels in the water, and, depending on the organism, secreting toxins into the water.

 

The process of the oversupply of nutrients leading to algae growth and oxygen depletion is called eutrophication. Blooms that can injure animals or the ecology are called "harmful algal blooms" (HAB), and can lead to fish die-offs, cities cutting off water to residents, or states having to close fisheries. According to many experts, there are links to climate change and the presence of warmer temperatures are playing a role in the size and frequency of formations.

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The effects can be devastating. As algal blooms grow, they can last from a few days to many months depleting the oxygen in the water and blocking sunlight from reaching fish and plants. With a reduction in light, plants beneath the bloom can die and fish can starve. When the algae die off and decompose, even more oxygen is consumed, which in turn causes more fish to die or not be present at all. When oxygen continues to be depleted this leads to dead zones or the term hypoxia, where neither fish nor plants can survive. This phenomenon occurs in aquatic environments as dissolved oxygen leads to a reduced concentration to a point where it becomes detrimental to aquatic organisms
 

The negative impact on fish can be even more severe when bred in fish farms. A fish farm in British Columbia lost 260 tons of salmon and in 2016 a farm in Chile lost 23 million salmon after an algal bloom. 

Generally, algae do not usually pose a direct threat to health, however, the toxins which they produce when ingested are considered dangerous to humans, land animals, sea mammals, birds, and fish. These neurotoxins can destroy nerve tissue which can affect the nervous system, brain, and liver, and ultimately lead to death.

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ALGAL BLOOM SOLUTION

 

CUSTOM E ALGAE has been specially formulated utilizing the latest in biotechnology to eradicate HABs from ALL our waterways without the need for harsh and harmful chemicals. No longer does our ecosystem have to suffer from excessive pollution that causes our water to become toxic and dangerous.

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