The 2021 Cayuga Lake HABs Monitoring Season: Portraits of Blooms on the Shoreline

In 2021, the Cayuga Lake Harmful Algal Bloom (HABs) Monitoring Program received over one hundred reports of HABs on the shoreline of Cayuga Lake.

Many concerned community members are taking action to help monitor and document the seemingly ever-increasing presence of HABs on the shoreline during the summer months. Below are pictures taken by ‘HABs Harrier’ volunteers of our Cayuga Lake HABs Monitoring Program. Over the past four years these dedicated volunteers have monitored the shoreline of Cayuga Lake for suspicious blooms, reported blooms as they occur, and collected samples for rapid analysis at CSI’s certified water testing lab in Ithaca. The photographs of blooms below are some of the most striking captured by our volunteers during the 2021 HABs monitoring season, and illustrate what lakeshore residents and visitors alike may encounter when a bloom occurs.