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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#002060">Permit me one bit of levity. I love the argument between swimmers and fishers, as if the fishermen don’t pee in the water. But the real cause for fish dying
is one that this list serve has historically avoided. It has now been identified by
</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#333333">Kerstin Graupner, third paragraph.</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#002060"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#002060"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span class="entry-category4"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:6.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#666666"><a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/category/environment/" title="View all posts in Environment"><span style="color:#CC0000;text-transform:uppercase;text-decoration:none">Environment</span></a></span></b></span><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:6.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<h1 style="line-height:110%;background:white"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:13.0pt;line-height:110%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">Are Urinating Swimmers Killing Fish?</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:13.0pt;line-height:110%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black;font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.0pt;background:white"><span class="meta-prep"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#666666">By
</span></b></span><span class="author3"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#666666"><a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/author/woolyknickers/" title="View all posts by Melissa Locker">Melissa Locker</a></span></b></span><span class="meta-sep5"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#666666">
</span></b></span><b><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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Read more: <a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/14/are-people-peeing-in-lake-killing-fish/#ixzz1v9p0Q41q">
<span style="color:#003399">http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/14/are-people-peeing-in-lake-killing-fish/#ixzz1v9p0Q41q</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.2pt;background:white"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.2pt;background:white"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">“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 <em><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Bild</span></em> 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 <a href="http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20120511-42491.html">
The Local</a>, 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.2pt;background:white"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">To help resolve the whodunit, the BSU is calling in the local university to test the pee-death theory. According to <a href="http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20120511-42491.html">The
Local</a>, 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.2pt;background:white"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">For those questioning whether or not human urine could be responsible for fish death, the answer is yes. According to
<a href="http://io9.com/5909846/can-peeing-in-a-lake-really-kill-fish">i09</a>, 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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height:13.2pt;background:white"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black">Eichbaum Lake is not the first natural wonder to receive a pee ban. Ecologists
<a href="http://www.hottnez.com/to-pee-or-not-to-pee-10-places-you-should-never-pee/">
warn visitors not to pee</a> when they visit Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for fear that algae blooms will kill the coral.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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