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!
We observed a lake wide fish kill late last week. We reported the fish kill to the NYSDEC. They indicated that the most likely cause was spawning stress and the rapidly rising water temperatures this spring. The DEC did come out to Honeoye Lake and collect recently dead fish which they sent to Cornel's Fish Pathology Department to determine the actual cause of the fish kill. It will be serval weeks before Cornel can complete their analysis as to what caused the fish kill.
Observations: Monday (6/6/22), The water clarity has decreased ~4.9 feet to ~10.0 feet and the surface water temperature has increased ~3.3 F to ~72.9 F over the last week. The lake was stratified (had a thermocline) between ~20-23 feet deep. There was just barely enough dissolved oxygen (1.08 mg/L) in deep water near the lake bottom to keep phosphorus bound to iron.
We did not visually see any signs of an algae bloom today.
Our temperature and dissolved oxygen graphs for this season are on the left. 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 9 m was 1.08 mg/L today. If we don’t get a compete lake mixing event later this week phosphorus will start to be released from the lake’s bottom sediments. Surface water temperature was ~72.9 F and bottom water temperature was ~61.7 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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