Many problems start occurring due to the algae outbreak in Lake Eire. The perch population started to decline after thirty years of the algae outbreak. Furthermore, when the algae started to decay it took the oxygen from the water suffocating and causing them to die. The algae that outbreak was the cladophora species that usually reside at the bottom of the lake. The scientist discovered what was causing this algae growth to cover the lake making it impossible for visibility. The cause was phosphorous which was impossible to eliminate from the waters, but there was a skyrocket phosphorous in 1940. The phosphorous was coming from sewage treatment plants, household detergents, and farmers’ fertilizer; all flowing into the Lake Eire. This cause great concern with how Lake Eire conditions were going to improve if you couldn’t eliminate phosphorous. The issue of the excess phosphorous brought the politicians together to aid a deal to protect the environment called the Clean Water Act. Billions of dollars was spent on cleaning waters and resurrecting it. This brought …show more content…
The lake was introduce unintentionally to zebra mussels that were dumped into the lake in 1988. The zebra mussels eventually covered 90% of the life on the bottom of the lake after ten years, removing algae and nutrients. The fishermen couldn’t gather as many yellow perch due to the cuts made because the population was being affected by the zebra mussels. The fishermen had to settle for gathering pickerel that move close to or pass the American water borders of Lake Eire. The fishermen had a hard time constantly being inspected and stop by American Coast Guard. However, in the American waters they were experiencing toxic algae outbreak that wasn’t cause by phosphorous. This algae was known as blue green algae which the scientist believe may be caused by zebra mussels who consume algae but they reject the toxic