H2O: Ideas & Action for Canada's Water

Loughbrickland Lake in Northern Ireland is the latest casualty of toxic blue-green algae blooms. I came across this news a few days ago announcing that the lake has been closed to the public, including fishing due to the algae bloom in the lake. Apparently it has happened there before and their public health officials are warning the public not to eat fish coming from the lake.

No Fishing Sign in Northern Ireland

We don’t see that type of warning in Manitoba, related to fish coming from lakes with blue-green algae blooms, and I hope that we don’t. It is clear that we need more ongoing research here on Lake Winnipeg to determine what toxins, if any, may be accumulating in our fish. We have a multi-million dollar fishing industry that provides a living to a thousand Manitobans. It would be terrible to have anything threaten that industry and having up-to-date reliable data on what is happening here may be the best defence.