Surface Water Temperature: ~72.9 F
Water Clarity: ~10.00 Feet
Lake Level: 803.3 Feet above sea level
Lake Level Relative to Weir: -0.2 Feet
Another beautiful day to be out on Honeoye Lake boating and fishing!
Observations: Monday (6/13/22), The water clarity has remained stable at ~10.0 feet and the surface water temperature has decreased ~2.4 F to ~70.5 F over the last week. The lake was stratified (had a thermocline) between ~23-26 feet deep. The dissolved oxygen at 28 feet was low enough (0.85 mg/L), in deep water near the lake bottom, to break the phosphorus/iron bond to iron releasing phosphorus into the deep water below the thermocline.
There was only very light algae visible at most of our HAB monitoring locations, but we did observe a significant Dolichospermum Lemmermanii (formally Anabaena) blue-green algae bloom at our Northern Lake Basin open water monitoring site today. It looks like dense green dots in the water column. See surface water picture on the left.
We took the image of today’s Dolichospermum Lemmermanii algae sample on the left using a high-powered microscope. For more information on Dolichospermum (Anabaena) see the articles at HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS | Honeoye Lake (honeoyelakewatershed.org) or search the internet for information.
The DEC recommends that you, your family, and pets avoid contact with water that contains a blue-green algae bloom like Dolichospermum (Anabaena). Everyone should be very careful to watch for blue-green algae blooms for the next few weeks.
Our temperature and dissolve oxygen graphs for this season are on the left. We did have a partial mixing event on June 7 or 8, but by June 13 the lake was stratified again. The two data trends to watch are the rapidity increasing water temperature at all water depths and that the dissolved oxygen at 9 meters (30 feet) stays above 1 mg/L. When the dissolved oxygen level at 9 meters (30 feet) goes below 1 mg/L the phosphorus/iron bond will start to break releasing phosphorus into the deep water below the thermocline potentially providing fuel for a blue-green algae bloom later this summer. Dissolved oxygen at 8.5 m was 0.85 mg/L today. This means that phosphorus will start to be released from the lake’s bottom sediments. Surface water temperature was ~70.5 F and bottom water temperature was ~63.7 F. 1 meter equals 3.3 feet.
Always use your own visual assessment before making contact with the lake water at this time of year as the blue-green algae situation can change daily if not hourly. Please regularly check the DEC HABs alert map for more detailed updates on Honeoye Lake HABs alerts:
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The NYS DEC has started a new program to manage the Sunfish and Crappie population in several NYS lakes including Honeoye Lake. Sunfish 8” minimum length with a 15 per day catch limit and Crappie 10” minimum length with a 25 per day limit. For more information see the NYS DEC information page on this program: Sunfish and Crappie Management - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
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- Click on this link for the Winter 2022 HLWTF Newsletter:
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- Click on this link to see the new HLWTF Honeoye Lake Watershed Storm Water Took Kit if you are planning any storm water projects on your property:
- Click on this link for "Honeoye Lake: 2021 State of the Lake article":
Draft Aeration Planning Project Report, Public Information Meeting Presentation, and WebEx recording posted on the HLWTF web site:
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Click on the blue outlined box that says "Log in / Sign up" in the upper right-hand corner of this page to sign-up to be notified when we update our weekly Honeoye Lake water quality blog.
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