- I'm standing by a series of swampy ponds and canals, which contain a mysterious green goo.

What could it be?

It looks like algae, but it might not be.

It instead could be a harmful algal bloom, which is something to look out for in bodies of water, when- - Hold on a second, Dana.

Are you saying that harmful algal blooms aren't a type of algae?

How does that make sense?

- Well, that's a great question, me.

The answer is... maybe?

I don't know.

I'll have to figure that out.

- Okay, but like what even is a harmful algal bloom?

How do they form?

Should I be concerned?

- Can you give me a break here?

I haven't talked to the experts yet.

- Oh, sorry.

- Even though I personally know everything there is to know about harmful algal blooms, I decided to reach out to some experts who can help explain the same things that I definitely could as well.

Let's take a trip to Albany to speak with Brian Duffy, a research scientist with the DEC.

- Harmful algal blooms, we say algal, they're actually not algae at all.

They're cyanobacteria.

They're native ancient microscopic organisms that are almost ubiquitous in the environment.

There are certain conditions that cause them to form into what we would call blooms.

They're harmful, right, because they have the potential to produce toxins, right?

They don't always produce toxins.

Not all of them do.

That toxin production can vary from day to day.

Humans that come into contact with habs, you know, could experience things like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory issues.

We can see impacts to liver and kidney function and potentially skin rashes and irritations and that kind of thing.

- [Dana] It's also worth noting that these can impact the health of pets as well, especially considering the amount of water dogs can consume while swimming, putting them at an elevated risk.

So, these things can be pretty nasty.

What can cause them to form?

- One of the main causes is excess nutrients, right?

Phosphorus, nitrogen, that kind of thing.

These are essential elements and naturally occurring elements for aquatic life and in the environment, but when they get to a certain level, that's when we start to see problems.

There's sort of the more proximal drivers.

Sunlight, temperature, right?

Those are big drivers of habs.

Zebra and quagga mussels, they filter a tremendous amount of water and they can selectively avoid cyanobacteria.

That selective avoidance coupled with the additional water clarity then allows more sunlight to penetrate and to fuel the blooms.

Climate change does have an effect on blooms and hab formation across the state.

With increasing temperatures overall, it just increases the likelihood of habs occurring.

The other side of climate change is extreme weather.

We can see extreme weather events that cause runoff, right?

When we have heavy rains and storms, there's a lot of runoff from the landscape that carries with it the nutrients that then fuel habs.

So, we couple that excess runoff with hot, dry, comp conditions that are associated with climate change and increasing temperatures, which together is a recipe for hab formation.

- So, let's go back to one of my favorite nature spots to see if there are any active blooms.

When identifying habs, Brian told me that they can look like spilled paint on the water's surface.

They can be streaky in appearance and green or bluish-green in color.

In addition to taking photos, I decided to gather a sample for further testing.

The water looked suspicious enough, but I wanted to see if there were other ways to test it to see if a bloom was occurring.

(slurping) This is a smoothie.

It's a different container.

Maybe not a taste test.

Instead of taking a swig of nature's forbidden pea soup and risking getting incredibly sick, let's put this sample in a proper container and bring it to a professional.

I met up with Julian Damashek at the Nature Lab in Troy.

Julian is a water quality scientist with Riverkeeper, an organization that works to protect the health of the Hudson River and its tributaries.

He brought testing equipment as well as a water sample of his own.

Let's see how it goes.

- So, we have probes in here that we can submerge in a water sample and they can just get some real-time measurements of various water quality things.

We can look at the chlorophyll numbers and look at chlorophyll fluorescence to see just how much of a bloom there is of anything, whether it's toxic or not.

And so if we see those numbers go up, it generally means there's something photosynthesizing in the water.

And then from phycocyanin, we can also see how much of that bloom is cyanobacteria.

We don't specifically get data on whether a bloom is toxic from these probes, but if we see a lot of chlorophyll and a lot of phycocyanin, that's usually more of the cyanobacterial pigment, then it's likely that that one could be toxic.

And if you look at the numbers on here.

- Okay.

- So, these two pigments down at the bottom.

- Okay.

- If these numbers are above one or two, then that's indicative of some sort of bloom, right?

So, the main thing we can get from this probe is then basically a measurement of how green the water is.

- Oh, okay.

- And that will tell us how many algae are in this water.

So, this one is a pretty obvious sample because we can see it's green, but the probe can still measure pretty low levels of those molecules.

So, even if we can't see the green color, the probe will probably pick it up.

- [Dana] Unfortunately, I did not collect enough water to use the probe test, but we were able to look at both water samples under a microscope starting with Julian's.

So, what are these little spring-looking things that I'm seeing on the monitor here?

- Yeah, so all of these big things that you're seeing on the monitor are different types of cyanobacterial cells.

- Okay.

- So, they're the things that are photosynthesizing in the water.

- Okay.

- And the ones that look like these coiled up springs are dolichospermum, a species that we know is often toxic in fresh waters.

As you can see, it's a very distinctive shape.

- Yeah.

- So, you know, some of these algae and cyanobacteria are a little challenging to figure out what they are under the microscope.

That's a really easy one.

- [Dana] Up next, my sample.

- So, from the things that I know of that are some of the most common harmful species in this area, I don't see anything that really looks like it's what I would expect.

It looks like the main thing that's growing here are these big, green kind of petal-looking organisms.

I'm actually not sure what those are.

But I think there's a very good chance that it's just an aquatic plant.

- [Dana] This makes sense to me because when I originally collected my sample, I thought it looked like a bunch of tiny seeds or plants.

After some research, it is likely that what I collected is something called watermeal, a very, very small aquatic plant that, according to Brian, can often be mistaken for a HAB and whose growth can also be fueled by nutrient-rich water.

So, even though this wasn't a bloom, it's always good to exercise caution when encountering something in the water that you are unsure about.

But that just leaves one more question.

Where do we go from here?

- As a state we've been addressing habs in what we like to call using our holistic management strategy, which starts with nutrient reduction as the primary driver of habs that we actually can do something about.

And they come from a bunch of different sources on the landscape, one of which is agriculture and fertilizers and that kind of thing, fertilizer on lawns.

Wastewater treatment plants are another big source.

We can upgrade sewage treatment plants to increase phosphorus removal, build new ones, even.

Stabilize stream banks, you know, put cover crops in and reduce the runoff and contribution of phosphorus to our waterways.

- It is also important to note that you can check out a map of reported blooms across New York and even submit your own reports at the DEC's website.

We'll include a link in the description.

(slurping) Thank you.

So, despite harmful algal blooms being an issue in New York, we know that the DEC, as well as groups like Riverkeeper, are working to educate, research, and find ways to manage this problem.

And now you have the knowledge that you can use to keep yourself and your pets safe when enjoying our state's beautiful lakes, ponds, and rivers.

So, remember what you learned in this video because these blooms can continue to show up even when the weather starts getting chilly.

That's all we have to get to today.

Keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious bloom activity.

And as always, I'll see you outside.

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