Rock Snot – Didymosphenia Geminata
Posted by Slobokan @ 01:19 · 210 words · print
When we were up in the North Georgia mountains a couple of weeks ago, I noticed the rocks in the stream had a bit more "snot" on them. I'm not sure it's the same thing, but it was definitely ugly.
It looks like a clump of soiled sheep's wool, a cottony green or white mass that's turning up on rocks and river bottoms, snarling waterways. Already a scourge in New Zealand and parts of the American South and West, the aquatic algae called "rock snot" is creeping into New England, where it is turning up in pristine rivers and alarming fishermen and wildlife biologists.
"It scares me," said Lawton Weber, a fly fishing guide, who first spotted it on the Connecticut River in northern Vermont in June. "It's an aesthetic eyesore when it's in full bloom mode and its impact on the trout population is going to be significant."
Over the past 10 years, the algae with a scientific name of Didymosphenia geminata, or didymo, has turned up in California, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, the Dakotas, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.
Do we have any rock snot experts out there? I'll take another trip to the mountains to check it out, hint hint.
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