Monday July 28, 2025 Honeoye Lake Water Quality
- Terry Gronwall
- Jul 28
- 3 min read
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Monday July 28, 2025 Honeoye Lake Water Quality
Surface Water Temperature: ~80.8 F
Water Clarity: ~6.3 Feet
Lake Level: 803.1 Feet above sea level
Observations: Monday (7/28/25), Water clarity was ~6.3 feet the about 0.7 feet more than last week. The surface water temperature was ~80.8 F about 2.9 F higher than last week due to the warmer weather we have been having. It was sunny with a calm wind today.
It was a beautiful day to be out on Honeoye Lake.
When the sky is sunny and the wind is calm a lot of the blue-green algae rise to the water’s surface. This created a very green surface tint and light surface collection of blue-green algae lake wide both in open water and near shore areas today. See picture on left. Once the wind comes up that should cause the blue-green algae to go deeper in the water column. However, we expect that there are currently surface blue-green algae blooms at isolated near shore locations around the lake. There were no blue-green algae blooms reported to the DEC HABs alert map between 7/21-7/27. Since Honeoye Lake has ~10 miles of shoreline your most accurate source of blue-green algae blooms is the crowd source bloom data found on the DEC HABs alert map (NYHABS):
Anabaena (Dolchospermum) (looks like a spring or chain of beads), Aphanizomenon (looks like a leaf), Limnoraphis (looks like a rod), and Microsystis (looks like a group of small round cells) are the current dominant blue-green algae species. See picture on the left. Gloeotrichia (lots of small spikes) is rapidly declining. See picture below: You should be watchful for Microcystis, Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, and Limnoraphis blooms lake wide. These are all blue-green (cyanobacteria) algae species. We expect to see blue-green algae blooms continue over the next few weeks particularly when we have 80-90 F days with calm winds. More information on Gloeotrichia and Anabaena can be found at: https://www.honeoyelakewatershed.org/habs
Several research studies have found that most of the phosphorus that fuels Honeoye Lake’s blue-green algae blooms is released from the lake bottom sediments when the lake’s dissolved oxygen level goes below 0.5 mg/L in the deeper parts of the lake breaking the phosphors/iron bond in the bottom sediments releasing phosphorus into the water column. The dissolved oxygen (DO) level near the lake bottom at ~7.0 m (~23.1 feet) was 0.45 mg/L and at ~9 m (~30 feet) was 0.21 mg/L today. This means that phosphorus is currently being released from the deep bottom sediments into the deepest part of the lake water. When we have a complete lake mixing event the deep lake water, with excessive amounts of phosphorus, will be mixed into the whole water column potentially fueling a blue-green algae bloom. Lake was stratified (i.e. had a thermocline) at ~6 m (~ 19.8 feet) deep. See temperature and DO graphs to the left.
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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2025 Honeoye Lake Fishery Update
Pete Austerman
Aquatic Biologist
NYSDEC Region 8 Fisheries
Click on the link below:
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Click on the link below to see the Honeoye Lake Watershed Task Force 2025 Winter Newsletter:
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All operators of motorized vessels, regardless of age, will need a boating safety certificate by January 1, 2025.
Click on the link below for more information on how to get a NYS Safe Boating certificate:
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Click on the link below to see the Honeoye Lake Watershed Stormwater Toolkit:
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