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8/17/2024
WT Staff
 August 17, 2024 153 pm PDT
So you are tracking bluegreen algae, what about the toxins, or the concentration? What level of cyanotoxins are safe?
WT HAB Tracker
from the satellite monitoring program of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science(NCCOS) and State sources where available
California: WTCAL connected with Director of EPA for Big Valley Pomo Tribe for an update on Clear Lake. Sarah Ryan has been heading up the cyanotoxin surveillance program at Clear Lake, a popular tourist destination north of San Francisco. Big Valley EPA has been engaged in monitoring for the bluegreen algae, communicating observations with the local population and tourists, communicating with California Water Quality Monitoring Board and directly to the public for more than a decade.
During this time, Big Valley has been investing in regular lab testing for cyanotoxins, acquiring an astute understanding of their water body, including the resident cyanobacteria present at any given time, along with the most critical factor, the levels of various cyanotoxins present. Big Valley tests for specific liver toxins and neurotoxins based on first geno-typing the bloom itself. Access to regular toxin surveillance in Clear Lake makes this one of a very small number of sites for which we can match a visual HAB observation with a toxin level. This work is in progress, more to follow.
Louisiana: The latest upload from the NCCOS was captured August 16 at wind speed 7 mph. This image is clear, showing Lac des Allemands and Bayou Fortier at a new high concentration, 4 to 5 million inside the west bay shoreline and Bayou Fortier north shore. Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas are partially cloud obscured, no HAB visible. Check out the latest satellite image from NCCOS here.
Lake Erie west basin
The latest image from NCCOS was captured August 16 at wind speed 14.6, completely cloud obscured. A prior image captured Aug 15 offers a view of the southwest water between clouds. This visible part of the HAB presents with concentration 1 million cells around the North Maumee Bay to 600 thousand cells per 100 ml north of Monroe. The Aug 14 image is clear and taken at a lower wind speed, revealing the full extent of the HAB with extreme high concentration hot spots up to 6 million cells per 100 ml, see the satellite image here.
Georgia: from Coastal Health Region
No new information has been found pertaining to bluegreen algae reports in Georgia since our last update. Georgia Environmental Protection Division has not responded to our last inquiries on bluegreen, we had no response by publication time. GA EPD does accept reports from the public of suspicious algal blooms. Given the prevalence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins all over North America, it is likely that there are HABs in Georgia as well, these may be under-reported. We encourage anyone with an observation of a suspicious algal bloom to send us an email info@wtga.us.
New York
The latest image of Lake Champlain was captured August 16, a mostly cloud obscured image at unknown wind speed. A previous image August 14 is a clear view of northeast Baie Missisquoi appears full of bluegreen algae at extreme high concentration 1 to 3 million cells per 100 ml on both sides of the international border. This bloom reaches south as far as the channel from North Hero Island to Isle la Motte, the south portion of the bloom at 900 thousand cells per 100 ml. St Albans Bay HAB is partially cloud obscured, we see the inner shoreline edge at 1 million cells per 100 ml. Lake Carmi appears clear with no HAB activity; Shelburne Pond is still rocking 2 million cells concentration in Vermont. See our latest report here.
From the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation: 168 active bluegreen algal blooms are confirmed in New York Saturday afternoon, up from 163 yesterday. First HABs of the season have been confirmed for Hemlock Lake, Barnum Pond and Lake Tonetta, to date 497 HABs have been archived in 2024, including all reports made prior to August 4. See the impacted water bodies list here.
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