I was at the Esplanade in Boston, and I noticed something very weird in the water. By the Fairfield St. entrance, the water under the bridge and by the shore (on both sides, river and 'canal') was bright green, as if someone had dumped dye or paint in the water. When I got real close and then fished out some of the green water, I noticed that it wasn't die or paint at all, but tiny (<1mm) algal colonies (I think). I have no idea what kind of algae they were (sorry, I didn't have my dissecting microscope handy). If there are any other Bostonian readers, have you seen this? And whom does one contact about this--both to alert someone and to find out more information?
- Log in to post comments
More like this
(Click to embiggen)
Don't worry, I'm not describing Boston Mayor Menino's latest harebrained scheme. Esplanade Magazine, which is some great architecture/real estate porn (and it's free!), describes an effort in 1907, during the heyday of the City Beautiful Movement, to build an island in the…
We spent the past day at Nihoa. Even from afar, its jagged shape seems somewhat ominous. It blows my mind to think that people used to live on this island! There seems to be no source of fresh water, and the only source of food is the blue depths off shore, which are patrolled by territorial beasts…
The Kennedy School of Government had banned all smoking within the building, but had not yet banned smoking just outside the doors facing the Charles River, to the south of the complex. An African American woman, about fifty years of age, took a light from me, and we stood in the falling snow…
The adventures continue. It's like Steve Irwin, but without the cameras.
Last Leg
(of Shennongjia)
27 August
Watched some made-for-TV movie (in English!!) with the chick from the TV series "Weird Science" and the movie "King Pin." My plan for the next few days was to go to Pinqian for 3 or 4 days…
I used to see this all the time, particularly near the place where the Muddy River meets the Charles just east of Kenmore Square. They've done some kind of construction in that area under the overpass, though, and I think there was some clean-up involved.
I'm not sure who you'd call about it, though. There's always CityofBoston.gov, I suppose.
I saw it too at the Mass Ave bridge. It was as thick as paint.
It looked like long, flowy bright green hair. It also smelled a bit like gasoline, I thought. Did you notice it too?
My wife and I tried to sail dingies down at Community Boating this morning and were told that we could not do so due to the algae bloom. Apparently, sun and the confluence of other random elements (such as hot weather) have caused this phenomon. One side effect of the algae is that it produces some sort of toxin that caused eye and skin irritation and if it is present in high enough concentrations, liver damage(!). According to the literature that Community Boating showed us from the MA Dept of Health, rain and cooler temperatures should halt and then disperse the algae.
Try the Charles River Watershed Association:
http://www.crwa.org/