Information on this page was developed for the October 2003 Golden Alga Workshop and was current at that time; additional information (including numbers of fish killed and locations of fish kills due to golden alga) has been gathered. Please see the main Golden Alga page and Current Bloom Status for more updated information.
Golden Alga Workshop
What Do We Not Know?
Photo: Dave Buzan, TPWD
Gizzard Shad with hemorrhaging
from gills mixed with heavy mucus
- How golden alga is distributed in Texas
- If it is native or introduced
- If it is spreading and how (possibilities include transport of water in live wells, bait buckets, and bilge water; through stocking efforts; migratory waterfowl; unregulated baitfish introductions and via atmospheric deposition of sediments)
- What the life cycle of a golden algal bloom is (Beginning: what initiates a bloom, what causes emergence from resting cysts; Middle: what fuels a bloom, what triggers toxicity; End: what causes cessation of a bloom)
- How to predict and/or prevent toxic blooms
- How to control it in natural systems (Controls for aquaculture ponds are not applicable to natural systems.)