SHORELINE MONITORING SCORECARD
Observation Dates: Thru 7/15/2021
% Zones Monitored: NA
Suspicious Blooms: 0
Confirmed Blooms: 0
Our 120+ volunteers are finishing up training and ready to start the season. Volunteers are monitoring the lake now, but the “official” monitoring period does not start until August 2nd. This year it will run through October 10th, although many volunteers will continue to monitor until October 31st.
Many of you will remember that we did not see many blooms on Seneca Lake last year. There were only 7 days where blooms were observed, and only one day when blooms were found in more than two locations (August 31st). The lack of blooms in September was particularly strange, since that is when we typically have the most blooms.
While Seneca Lake had few blooms, nearby lakes had record years. Given that conditions were basically the same in all the lakes, e.g., dry, warm water, low water level, windy, etc., it is a mystery why Seneca Lake experienced so few blooms. We are confident that we didn’t miss many as our dock-mounted cameras did not detect blooms either. The cyanobacteria continue to surprise us, all the more reason we need to remain vigilant.
Seneca Lake typically sees HABs starting in mid-August, peaking the first 3 weeks of September, then fading into late October as the water gets colder. There could be blooms earlier, but to date, they seem rare. Interestingly, the HABs tend to start just after the surface water temperature peaks.
Pure Waters is updating its HAB website (senecalake.org/Blooms) for 2021. There will be a real-time bloom scorecard that will tell you if there are reported blooms on the lake “today”, “this week”, or “last week”. The 2021 map will be up soon. As always, there is background information and links for more details.
Now that the Cladophora is decaying and the water is clearing up, we can expect HABs to form. Please be alert. The follow up article titled "A change is in the Air", is a repeat from last year about this summertime change in the lake’s biology is from Ian Smith, our Seneca Lake Watershed Steward.
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