In late October Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) community science volunteer Ashley Leemans tossed an aquatic rake into Lake Champlain and pulled in a clam while doing a routine monitoring check for aquatic invasive species (AIS) at the South Bay Boat Launch in Whitehall, New York. Ashley immediately reported her finding complete with photos to LCC and we followed up with the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) and state agencies who conducted further analysis and confirmed our suspicions that the mollusk was golden clam (Corbicula fluminea). The aggressive AIS has been documented in the region since 2008, but the October 2024 sighting is the first known finding in Lake Champlain. Native to the eastern Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, and Australia golden clam is hermaphroditic, meaning a single individual can start a new population. The species is known to reproduce quickly in other North American waterbodies. Read...
Reports dwindled dramatically as we moved into November and head towards the 2024 season’s end in the middle of this month.
In this email you’ll find monitoring results from 11/3 – 11/9/24, resources to help you recognize and report cyanobacteria, and photographs of leaf litter, a bloom-free Magog, murky water at Whitehall, all clear at Alburgh, and week 21 bloom-free close-ups. Read...
When a volunteer pulled a suspicious clam from the lakebed in Whitehall, New York, as part of a routine monitoring program last month, they immediately reported the find to lake scientists. Further analysis confirmed the first known occurrence of invasive golden clam (Corbicula fluminea)in Lake Champlain. The volunteer, working with the Champlain Aquatic Invasive Species Monitoring Program (CHAMP), made the discovery while conducting a survey at the South Bay boat launch. Read more about the introduction in the press release from the Lake Champlain Basin Program. Read...
In this email you’ll find monitoring results from 10/27 – 11/2/24, resources to help you recognize and report cyanobacteria, and photographs of fall beauty at Blanchard Beach, a leafy scene, Eagle Bay solitude, wind and whitecaps at Leddy Beach, Lake Bomoseen in the clear, a crayfish in the shallows at Alburgh Dunes, murky Magog, beach bubbles, and week 20 bloom-free scenes. Read...
