Watsonville sits between the Santa Cruz mountains and Monterrey Bay. Its flat fields are known for their abundant strawberry crops. In the algal community, Watsonville is known as one of the toxic algae hotspots in California because of the algae blooms that develop in Pinto Lake. The toxic algae feeds off the tremendous amounts of nutrients that lie in the lake's sediments, deposited there by decades of agricultural runoff. When toxic algal blooms form it closes the lake to human recreation and degrades the ecological health of the lake.
Northern California public radio station KQED just broadcast a nice overview of the situation in Pinto lake and how managers are hoping to control the toxic algae.
The professor I collaborate with at UC Santa Cruz has been monitoring toxins in Pinto Lake and was involved in the research that linked the Pinto Lake cyanotoxins to deaths of sea otters in the Monterrey Bay.
Enjoy!
