Urinating Swimmers Dead Fish---Urinating Swimmers Blamed for Dead Fish: Urinating swimmers, A fishing group is pointing to swimmers' urine as the reason that 500 fish recently turned up dead in Eichbaum Lake, near Hamburg, Germany. The group, Hamburger Angling Association, has reportedly long battled swimmers who share the waters with anglers, and skeptics have discounted the urine theory, saying that these types of recreationalists are more likely responsible for killing the fish.The deaths have occurred in Eichbaum Lake, in the port city of Hamburg.
A spokesman for the local Angling Association said: "Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate. We're calculating half a litre/0.15 gal. of urine per swimmer per day." Applying anti-phosphate products to the water has been expensive and hasn't worked, fuelling a long-standing feud between fishermen and bathers in the lake.
Swimming in the lake has now been banned until the algae outbreak has been addressed, but the city's Urban Development and Environment Authority is hoping to re-open it to bathers before the summer. It's asking the local university to help test the urine-related fish death theory.
In fact according to a report in the Local, the BSU believes that the fish deaths may have been caused not by swimmers peeing in the water, but by a combination of natural causes and ice skating. "The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation", a BSU spokesperson said.
"Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon." Although the fish have only been found in the past two weeks, the level of decomposition suggests they have been dead for some time.
Another report in Bild says that water tests have shown the lake is very alkaline, with a pH level of 8.7. Scientists have reportedly also found anabaena algae blooms, unusual at this time of year, which produce anatoxin-a.
This causes ammonium in the lake to change into the poisonous ammonia, restricting the fish's breathing. German researchers have come to believe that a significant amount of human urine may be responsible for an algae bloom that poisoned over 500 fish at Eichbaum Lake in northern Germany. “Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate” that can contribute to algae blooms, a spokesman for the Hamburger Angling Association told Bild newspaper. “We’re calculating half a liter of urine per swimmer per day.”
The Angling Association has been in a long-standing feud with the lake’s swimmers, according to The Local, so that number may be suspiciously high. Bathers are currently banned from the lake due to the high levels of algae, but the city’s Urban Development and Environment Authority (BSU) is working to re-open the lake for swimmers before the summer season starts. To help resolve the whodunit, the BSU is calling in the local university to test the pee-death theory.
According to The Local, the BSU believes that the fish deaths were caused by a combination of natural causes and something far less taboo than public urination: ice skating. “The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation,” BSU spokeswoman Kerstin Graupner told the Local. “Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon.” Their bodies are only now being found. For those questioning whether or not human urine could be responsible for fish death, the answer is yes.
According to i09, the phosphates in human urine act like a fertilizer that can promote algae growth. Algae blooms deplete the oxygen available to fish, causing them to suffocate. Additionally, the scientists in Hamburg believe the algae that has bloomed in the lake is particularly aggressive, releasing a toxin that changes the lakes natural ammonium to the far more deadly ammonia, which restricts the fish’s breathing.
German fishermen have blamed local swimmers for the death of 500 fish in a lake, saying swimmers urinating in the water are causing fish to be poisoned. ‘Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate; we’re calculating half a litre of urine per swimmer per day’ Said Manfred Siedler, a spokesman for an angler’s group.
Local residents who enjoy swimming in the lake have been long feuding with the fisherman and have questioned if their urine statement is true. ‘Can anything as natural as peeing in a lake kill the fish?’ said on resident. According to research, urine can have a harmful effect on fish. It firstly acts as a fertilizer for the green algae in the water, once they have consumed all the fertilizer, the algae continue sucking up available oxygen in the water.
When the algae die and start to decompose, they further use up oxygen, that’s when the fish start to die. Local authorities have already poured more than half a million dollars of an anti-phosphate agent into the lake in question, which so far has made no difference. Local environmental agencies have blamed the death of fish on natural causes and ice-skaters. ‘The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation.
Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon.’ said Kerstin Graupner. The lake has temporarily been closed to swimmers due to algae. It seems the German lake isn’t the only place where officials worry about swimmers urinating in the water. Signs at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia ask swimmers not to urinate in the water as it kills the coral.
There’s an old joke about the silent ‘p’ in swimming pools (think about it), but it turns out that urinating in a lake may be far from funny. German researches have come to believe that a significant amount of human urine may be responsible for an algae bloom that poisoned over 500 fish at Eichbaum Lake in northern Germany. “Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate” that can contribute to algae blooms, a spokesman for the Hamburger Angling Association told Bild newspaper. “We’re calculating half a liter of urine per swimmer per day.”
The Angling Association has been in a long-standing feud with the lake’s swimmers, according to The Local, so that number may be suspiciously high. Bathers are currently banned from the lake due to the high levels of algae, but the city’s Urban Development and Environment Authority (BSU) is working to re-open the lake for swimmers before the summer season starts. To help resolve the whodunit, the BSU is calling in the local university to test the pee-death theory.
According to The Local, the BSU believes that the fish deaths were caused by a combination of natural causes and something far less taboo than public urination: ice skating. “The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation,” BSU spokeswoman Kerstin Graupner told the Local. “Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon.”
Their bodies are only now being found. For those questioning whether or not human urine could be responsible for fish death, the answer is yes. According to i09, the phosphates in human urine act like a fertilizer that can promote algae growth. Algae blooms deplete the oxygen available to fish, causing them to suffocate.
Additionally, the scientists in Hamburg believe the algae that has bloomed in the lake is particularly aggressive, releasing a toxin that changes the lakes natural ammonium to the far more deadly ammonia, which restricts the fish’s breathing. Eichbaum Lake is not the first natural wonder to receive a pee ban. Ecologists warn visitors not to pee when they visit Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for fear that algae blooms will kill the coral.
A spokesman for the local Angling Association said: "Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate. We're calculating half a litre/0.15 gal. of urine per swimmer per day." Applying anti-phosphate products to the water has been expensive and hasn't worked, fuelling a long-standing feud between fishermen and bathers in the lake.
Swimming in the lake has now been banned until the algae outbreak has been addressed, but the city's Urban Development and Environment Authority is hoping to re-open it to bathers before the summer. It's asking the local university to help test the urine-related fish death theory.
In fact according to a report in the Local, the BSU believes that the fish deaths may have been caused not by swimmers peeing in the water, but by a combination of natural causes and ice skating. "The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation", a BSU spokesperson said.
"Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon." Although the fish have only been found in the past two weeks, the level of decomposition suggests they have been dead for some time.
Another report in Bild says that water tests have shown the lake is very alkaline, with a pH level of 8.7. Scientists have reportedly also found anabaena algae blooms, unusual at this time of year, which produce anatoxin-a.
This causes ammonium in the lake to change into the poisonous ammonia, restricting the fish's breathing. German researchers have come to believe that a significant amount of human urine may be responsible for an algae bloom that poisoned over 500 fish at Eichbaum Lake in northern Germany. “Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate” that can contribute to algae blooms, a spokesman for the Hamburger Angling Association told Bild newspaper. “We’re calculating half a liter of urine per swimmer per day.”
The Angling Association has been in a long-standing feud with the lake’s swimmers, according to The Local, so that number may be suspiciously high. Bathers are currently banned from the lake due to the high levels of algae, but the city’s Urban Development and Environment Authority (BSU) is working to re-open the lake for swimmers before the summer season starts. To help resolve the whodunit, the BSU is calling in the local university to test the pee-death theory.
According to The Local, the BSU believes that the fish deaths were caused by a combination of natural causes and something far less taboo than public urination: ice skating. “The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation,” BSU spokeswoman Kerstin Graupner told the Local. “Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon.” Their bodies are only now being found. For those questioning whether or not human urine could be responsible for fish death, the answer is yes.
According to i09, the phosphates in human urine act like a fertilizer that can promote algae growth. Algae blooms deplete the oxygen available to fish, causing them to suffocate. Additionally, the scientists in Hamburg believe the algae that has bloomed in the lake is particularly aggressive, releasing a toxin that changes the lakes natural ammonium to the far more deadly ammonia, which restricts the fish’s breathing.
German fishermen have blamed local swimmers for the death of 500 fish in a lake, saying swimmers urinating in the water are causing fish to be poisoned. ‘Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate; we’re calculating half a litre of urine per swimmer per day’ Said Manfred Siedler, a spokesman for an angler’s group.
Local residents who enjoy swimming in the lake have been long feuding with the fisherman and have questioned if their urine statement is true. ‘Can anything as natural as peeing in a lake kill the fish?’ said on resident. According to research, urine can have a harmful effect on fish. It firstly acts as a fertilizer for the green algae in the water, once they have consumed all the fertilizer, the algae continue sucking up available oxygen in the water.
When the algae die and start to decompose, they further use up oxygen, that’s when the fish start to die. Local authorities have already poured more than half a million dollars of an anti-phosphate agent into the lake in question, which so far has made no difference. Local environmental agencies have blamed the death of fish on natural causes and ice-skaters. ‘The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation.
Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon.’ said Kerstin Graupner. The lake has temporarily been closed to swimmers due to algae. It seems the German lake isn’t the only place where officials worry about swimmers urinating in the water. Signs at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia ask swimmers not to urinate in the water as it kills the coral.
There’s an old joke about the silent ‘p’ in swimming pools (think about it), but it turns out that urinating in a lake may be far from funny. German researches have come to believe that a significant amount of human urine may be responsible for an algae bloom that poisoned over 500 fish at Eichbaum Lake in northern Germany. “Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate” that can contribute to algae blooms, a spokesman for the Hamburger Angling Association told Bild newspaper. “We’re calculating half a liter of urine per swimmer per day.”
The Angling Association has been in a long-standing feud with the lake’s swimmers, according to The Local, so that number may be suspiciously high. Bathers are currently banned from the lake due to the high levels of algae, but the city’s Urban Development and Environment Authority (BSU) is working to re-open the lake for swimmers before the summer season starts. To help resolve the whodunit, the BSU is calling in the local university to test the pee-death theory.
According to The Local, the BSU believes that the fish deaths were caused by a combination of natural causes and something far less taboo than public urination: ice skating. “The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation,” BSU spokeswoman Kerstin Graupner told the Local. “Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon.”
Their bodies are only now being found. For those questioning whether or not human urine could be responsible for fish death, the answer is yes. According to i09, the phosphates in human urine act like a fertilizer that can promote algae growth. Algae blooms deplete the oxygen available to fish, causing them to suffocate.
Additionally, the scientists in Hamburg believe the algae that has bloomed in the lake is particularly aggressive, releasing a toxin that changes the lakes natural ammonium to the far more deadly ammonia, which restricts the fish’s breathing. Eichbaum Lake is not the first natural wonder to receive a pee ban. Ecologists warn visitors not to pee when they visit Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for fear that algae blooms will kill the coral.
