There were two ponds, at the fringes of where I travel to fish that had what I think may have be golden algae blooms last year. Both resulted in fish kills. Now this algae isn't cyanobacteria but can and does produce toxins that have been problematic in Texas particularly. One thing I will say about each of these ponds is that each receives large loads of fertilizer and herbicides. One is fed from tiles underlying many acres of soccer fields, the other is in a public park which receives drain from a large subdivision which had strict rules for lawns which includes the control of nuisance vegetation.

Though blooms of various kinds can happen and might possibly be unpreventable, it might also be that we have much more to learn. Where we humans have smaller impact, these problems are much rarer. Pristine waters tend to have diverse assemblages of algae and blue green algae where all contribute to the greater good of the system. The enemy is less the algae and much more our ignorance and complicity.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers