Blue-Green Algae

Introduction

In 2002, the unsettled weather conditions were again not conducive to the development of large accumulations of these algae in Burlington Bay.  Other parts of the lake, especially Missisquoi Bay and the northern reaches of the lake, however, did experience dense algal blooms and elevated levels of toxins.  At least one dog death in the United States and two in Quebec were attributed to the ingestion of toxic cyanobacteria from northern Lake Champlain during the summer of 2002.

In 2002, in collaboration with the Lake Champlain Basin Program, we continued to monitor and evaluate cyanobacteria in Burlington Bay, focusing on the following goals:

1.  Identifying the cyanobacteria in Burlington Bay at the 5 sites included in the Burlington Bay plankton monitoring program, and also at North Beach, the intake of the Burlington Water Facility, Red Rocks Beach just inside Shelburne Bay, and the intake of the Champlain Water District in Shelburne Bay;

2.  Establishing and evaluating a hierarchical monitoring system for cyanobacteria incorporating algal monitoring, toxin testing and a notification system for public health officials;

3.  Conducting a training session on toxic cyanobacteria for agency personnel such as public health officials, beach supervisors and water facility managers  to familiarize them with the algae and introduce the experimental monitoring system.

Clearly, toxin-producing cyanobacteria are present in the lake and will likely continue to be here in the future.  Our focus now is to determine how best to identify potentially toxic algal blooms and get this information to public health officials in a timely and informative manner.