Significant Algal Bloom Forecast for Western Lake Erie

Significant harmful algal bloom forecast for western Lake Erie this summer: NOAA

Western Lake Erie will have a significant bloom of cyanobacteria, a toxic blue-green algae, this summer, NOAA and its research partners have predicted. The harmful algal bloom (HAB) season is expected to be larger than last year, but less than the record-setting 2011 bloom.

“This annual forecast and NOAA’s weekly bulletins provide the most advanced ecological information possible to Great Lakes businesses and resource managers so they can save time and money on the things they do that drive recreational activities and the economy,” said NOAA’s assistant administrator for the National Ocean Service.

Satellite image of record-breaking 2011 bloom. Credit: MERIS et al., – processed by NOAA

Related Links and Images

• Fish Mass Die-off Near Galveston, Texas  August 14, 2012
• 2011 Disaster Calendar – November November 7, 2011
• Red Tide Kills Millions of Fish Along Texas Coast  November 4, 2011
• Massive ecosystem collapses occurring in Great Lakes  October 5, 2011
• 2011 Disaster Calendar – October  October 3, 2011

• Significant ‘Red Tide’ to Plague New England in 2010 February 25, 2010
• World’s beaches turned killing fields  August 25, 2009
• Hundreds of Dead Animals Litter NZ Beaches August 7, 2009
• Our Dead Zone Largest Ever This Year!  July 16, 2008
• Oceans, Where Life Started, Are Dying – Part II  March 16, 2008
• Who needs Chesapeake crabs? March 5, 2009

Sea Sponges Use ‘Optical Fibers’ to Transmit Light

Why Sea Sponges Beam Light Deep Inside Their Bodies

An orange puffball sponge Tethya aurantia – Photo credit: Steve Lonhart / SIMoN NOAA.

Sponges grow large by feeding on carbon, nitrogen and other metabolites, which are provided by smaller organisms including algae and cyanobacteria. However, algae and similar organisms require light to survive.

So, how do they survive deep inside the sponges without any apparent access to light?

That mystery now seems to have been solved. A team of researchers at the University of Stuttgart have discovered that sponges use glass-rod structures, like optical fibers, called spicules to beam light deep inside their bodies.

The researchers placed light sensitive paper deep inside living sponges of species Tethya aurantium in a darkened seawater tank and then shone light on the surface of the sponges. When they recovered the  paper, they discovered dark spots corresponding exactly to the end of each spicule, where the light had exited.

The researchers tested another sponge that grew without the specules, in a control experiment. They confirmed that the light did not transmit without the spicules.

Porifera: Skeletons

Sponges, like all animals, possess some sort of a skeleton that gives their bodies shape.

As a whole, poriferans have diverse skeletal elements including calcareous laminae, organic filaments, and siliceous and calcareous spicules.

The skeletons of each of the major poriferan groups are distinctive and have been used to reconstruct their evolutionary relationships.

Spicules come in an array of beautiful shapes, as seen in the SEM images to the right.

These images were obtained using UCMP’s Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope.

Spicules are often categorized by size, the larger being megascleres and the smaller microscleres.

Some spicules are formed of the mineralized substances calcium carbonate and silica, while others are made of an organic substance called spongin.

Spongin skeletons were and are used as scrubbers in bathtubs, though they are fairly expensive. The ubiquitous bathtub accessory called a lufa is NOT a sponge, but a plant. The mineralized forms are considerably more hard and are not as frequently used for commercial purposes. Image and Caption: UCMP.

Outbreak of Dangerous Group A Streptococcus Bacterium in NZ

[New Zealand Death Syndrome (NZDS), Health Bulletin # 12. Outbreak of Dangerous Group A Streptococcus Bacterium, June 17, 2008]

Urgent Visitor Health Warning: Keep Your Kids OUT of New Zealand!

Health workers revealed an outbreak of group A streptococcus bacterium, which causes rheumatic fever and can lead arthritis and heart damage, had infected at least 32 children in Kaikohe, New Zealand.

Original Entry Blocked by Google:

Urgent Health Warning: Outbreak of Dangerous Group A Streptococcus Bacterium

Photomicrograph of Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria, 675x Mag. A pus specimen, viewed using Pappenheim’s stain. Last century, infections by S. pyogenes claimed many lives especially since the organism was the most important cause of puerperal fever and scarlet fever. This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #2110.

News Links:

• High levels of dangerous bacterium in Kaikohe
• Baby died after infection breakout
• Stuff New Zealand

Previous Visitor Health Warnings for New Zealand:

• Health Bulletin # 11. Outbreak of Staphylococcus Aureus, June 12, 2008

• Health Bulletin # 10. Outbreak of mystery bacterium, June 4, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 9. Outbreak of Viral Gastroenteritis, May 30, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 8. Outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka, April 4, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 7. Don’t Take Your Children To New Zealand, March 27, 2008
  
• Health Bulletin # 6. New Zealand Emergency Health Warnings: Toxic Honey Poisoning March 22, 2008
  
• Health Bulletin # 5. Food infected with Listeria, March 8, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 4. Sewage contaminated beaches, Feb. 16, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 3. Toxic blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), Feb. 13, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 2. Exposure to Compound 1080 Feb. 10, 2008
• Health Bulletin # 1. Exposure to Bromoethane Feb. 6, 2008

Related Links:

• Truth About ‘100% Pure New Zealand’
• The Poisoning of New Zealand
• Hermaphrodite Lamb Born With Seven Legs
• Toxic Sludge
• Toxic Country – Diseased Food
• 1080
• NZ indiscriminate aerial applications of the potent poison 1080