Spending my childhood on Lake Erie, just off the shore of Sandusky and Port Clinton, there were many days filled with splashing through the water or fishing with grandparents. However, there were years that we could not swim and the fish were gone and that is due to the Algae blooms. 

The reason why some of these toxic algae blooms have been so strong that the local fisherman call those highly polluted areas "dead zones" is because of run-off from farmland. Manure gets washed into creeks and rivers that feed into Lake Erie, feeding the algae and allowing it to bloom as rapid rates during the warmer months of the year. 

Fishermen, who rely on seasonal catches for income, expressed their concerns in 2019 when the bloom was classified as a level 8 on a 10 point severity scale, as recorded by the NOAA. 

This project was my way of bringing the issue of algae blooms to life, demonstrating how it is killing fish or forcing them to migrate to cleaner water for survival, as well as impacting the lives of others who rely on the lake for income, water, etc.