NEW ORLEANS — There are floating islands of vegetation in the middle of Lake Pontchartrain just off the Causeway Bridge.
In some areas, you can spot them as far as the eye can see.
“I think it’s just a little bit unusual to see these broken-up plants floating in the lake,” Lake Pontchartrain Executive Director Kristi Trail said. “I’ve just been getting a lot of inquiries, like what is that, I bet you know.”
They are patches of floating water hyacinth.
The invasive species from South America is more typically seen in freshwater bayous and canals that flow into the lake.
Trail explains why the lake is now filled with hyacinth.
“When we get a big storm with heavy winds and storm surge such as (Hurricane) Francine which was last week, it churns it up and breaks it into pieces, and now pieces of it are floating out there in the middle of the lake, right now.”
Causeway Motor Assist Officer Grayson Crespo said he started seeing the floating hyacinth this past Saturday.
“Whenever we get them in the lake we’ll have people call thinking it’s a boat overturned or something floating out there and we’re constantly having to go run down and check it out or having them check on the cameras,” Crespo said.
The floating hyacinth can pose a threat to navigation.
“We’ve heard sometimes from boaters; it can really be a nuisance,” Trail said. “The root system doesn’t typically get that deep. It’s usually just a few inches long, but it does tend to form a pretty thick mat that can sometimes be difficult to navigate through.”
Because of the salinity in the water, experts say floating hyacinth won’t last long in Lake Pontchartrain and will likely be gone by next week.
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