Only skin deep? Harmful algal blooms and your health

There’s a good chance you’ve spent some of your time over the summer splashing around in the waters of Lake Erie, or at least spent some time on its beaches. If you go in the later summer months, you may have seen signs warning lakegoers of blue-green algae, and to avoid contact with the water. While blue-green algae is a catch-all name to describe the small organisms contaminating the water, in reality the main culprit is an overgrowth of bacteria called cyanobacteria.