FRESHWATER?: Sampling at Pinto Lake, California, during a toxic algal bloomRAPHAEL KUDELA
Annabelle’s family didn’t know it, but she was dying. Two hours earlier, she had ridden along in a canoe drifting through Middle Foy Lake near their Montana home. As the canoe neared the shore on this autumn day in 2010, Annabelle leapt from the vessel, as an excited Australian Shepherd is prone to do, and swam the rest of the way to the bank. Once ashore, she licked her wet fur—a casual reflex that almost spelled her undoing.
The lake water and her coat were tainted with microcystin, a liver toxin produced by some species of blue-green algae—or cyanobacteria—thriving in the water. Quick thinking, a Google search, and an experimental therapy would ultimately save Annabelle’s life, but her case spotlights a hidden danger that abounds ...
