BURCHARD, Neb - During the dog days of summer, it’s not uncommon for waters across Nebraska to become impacted by blue-green algae. It often leaves anglers wondering if it’s still safe to fish.

NCN caught up with Nebraska Game and Parks fisheries biologist Daryl Bauer to learn more.

“Nebraska waters are fertile.. Our whole state is fertile and that’s displayed in our waters,” Bauer said. “So there’s a lot of nutrients available, which fuels vegetation growth, which can be rooted vegetation growth or it can be algae.”

Algae blooms can occur year round in Nebraska waters, but become most serious during the summer. As the warmest days of the year come about, the water heats up, causing a blue-green bloom.

“There are a few species in blue-green algae that can produce toxins. Those toxins are harmful to primarily mammals,” Bauer said. “For years, that’s been present, always has been, but we never had the technology to do a quick test like we do today.”

Symptoms of humans being infected by blue-green algae include a skin rash, cold and flu like symptoms, and respiratory issues. For pets, contact with the algae can be fatal. However, for those looking to wet a line, Bauer says it’s still perfectly safe to do so.

“It doesn’t really mean anything for the fisherman,” Bauer said. “You can still fish, you can still use that body of water, can still boat, but you want to avoid contact or swimming or anything where you can ingest water.”

Bauer says it’s also safe to keep what you catch.

“We know that the toxins don’t accumulate in the meat or flesh in the fish,” Bauer said. “So even if you want to harvest fish, take them home for a meal, that’s okay too.”

Bauer does encourage an extra dose of hand washing when handling fish from water where a bloom is present.

As far as a current fishing update for the area, Bauer says it’s been a good summer, but rain is still needed.

“It’s been a good year, but we still need some rain, and thank goodness for the rains we’ve been getting the last several days… Everything looks so much better,” Bauer said. “It is July, so things do slow down a bit, but still good bass fishing, catfish will probably be a bit slow as they finish spawning, but they’ll be picking up here again soon. But, overall, still good bass and panfish this time of year and I’m hearing good reports."

Testing is done by the Nebraska of Energy mostly on waters where swimming is permitted. An updated alert list can be found weekly at NDEE.com.