Source: Jodi Helmer, CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS, 2/4/22



In the fall, Jill Howell spent four days kayaking down the Tar-Pamlico River and its tributaries. She spent most of the trip paddling through blue-green sludge and dead fish, telltale signs of harmful algae blooms impacting the health of the waterways. “Large-scale algal blooms shouldn’t be happening,” explains Howell, Tar-Pamlico riverkeeper with Sound Rivers, a nonprofit focused on protecting the health of the Neuse and Tam-Pamlico river basins. “(Algal blooms) are a big sign that waters are in distress.” While comprehensive long-term data about the presence of algae blooms in North Carolina waterways is lacking, the telltale blue-green sludge has been reported in lakes, rivers, streams, ponds and ocean shorelines across the state, including the Pamlico, Pasquotank and Perquimans rivers in Eastern North Carolina, Lake Wylie near Charlotte and Beaver Lake in Asheville.

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