MANDEVILLE, La. — The conditions in Lake Pontchartrain seem to be improving since the opening of the Bonnet Carre spillway, and Hurricane Barry may have helped.
Surprisingly, Barry also left crabs all along the Mandeville lakefront. The community stepped up to help those crabs get back home.
"There was little ones and big ones," said 6-year-old Marley Berniard.
She, her brother, and two cousins all went with their parents to help the crabs get back to water. They were one of many families to do so.
"They were trying to stay alive," Berniard said. "We put them in the bucket."
They found quite a few.
"We had 98 crabs," said 6-year-old Maddix Dear.
Barry may have sent the crabs on a journey and the tide may have also broken up some algae.
"Tidal forces can help breakup those materials so they're not as concentrated in any one location," said Dr. Brady Skaggs, Water Quality Program Dir., Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.
He explained that tropical events bring in more salt water. That could be what Lake Pontchartrain needed since the opening of the Bonnet Carre spillway. According to Skaggs, recent tests suggest the water quality in the lake is good.
"What we can say is so far from a recreational standpoint, things look good," Skaggs said.
That doesn't mean all the algae is gone.
"We did see some near shore algae yesterday when collecting samples," he said.
If you see algae avoid it, but Skaggs believes especially once the spillway closes, Lake Pontchartrain will be quickly back to normal, crabs and all.