Thanks to Candus Thompson from the Baltimore Sun for her timely reporting on Didymo along the Gunpowder River.

Alex Demetrich, from WJZ13 stopped in last week and spent some time in shop talking about invasives like Whirling disease and Didymo with Backwater Angler Staff members Theaux Le Gardeur and Jason du Pont. Later that night the information was broadcast during “The Environment” segment.

Pat van dem Beemt, of the North County News also wrote a story on Didymo titled, “Rock Snot Reported Below PrettyBoy Dam.”

We’ve also heard about Didymo from a number of Gunpowder regulars:

Roman Kostrubiak, sent us this email in late April that was quite telling…

Theaux,
I was out on the Gunpowder yesterday just above the Masemore Bridge and was quite surprised to see that many rocks along the stream bottom were completely covered with a slimy brown algal growth. In many spots, this appeared to cover the entire stream bed. My concern is what effect is this going to have on the fishery and also on the entire stream ecosystem. Will this destroy the upcoming generation of waterborne insects that require a healthy stream bottom to reproduce? Is this somehow related to the low flow we have seen during this winter or is this perhaps didymo which has been wreaking havoc on other river systems and destroying trout habitat? Is the area involved increasing in size? Can something be done about to remedy or curtail the situation before it spreads to involve the entirety of the watershed?
Roman Kostrubiak

Roman brought up many questions that we’re still wrangling with…
Stay tuned and until then, fish on…and consider an Aquastealth shoe.