FlowCam - Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

This past summer in June, The Gaffney Board of Public Works (GBPW), in South Carolina, issued a water quality advisement and posted signs around Lake Welchel in Cherokee County. An algal bloom on a portion of the lake exceeded the state’s water quality standards for Microcystis, a type of toxic cyanobacteria.

Pictured above, Microcystis (left) and Lyngbya (right) as imaged by FlowCam.

The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI) recently received long-awaited funding to purchase a FlowCam Cyano instrument, after first learning about FlowCam at an east coast workshop a few years ago. CTCLUSI makes up three tribes (4 bands) who all reside in close proximity to one another along the Coos River Tributaries in Oregon. According to the CTCLUSI website:

Savannah Mapes, 2020 winner of the #FlowCam Aquatic Research Equipment & Travel Grant for Graduate Students, presented her research at the US Symposium on Harmful Algae this May. Her poster is titled "Using a FlowCam to Facilitate HAB Cell Counts: Comparing Cell Enumeration Methods", and can be viewed in greater detail by clicking on the image below.

The City of Worcester, MA has purchased a FlowCam Cyano to help expand a volunteer water quality monitoring program. The effort is led by Jacquelyn Burmeister, a senior environmental analyst with the City's Lakes & Ponds Program. Together with several other local watershed associations, she helped organize a regional cyanobacteria monitoring collaborative that has recruited dozens of volunteers to help expand cyanobacteria monitoring in the area's recreational waters.

Yesterday Heather Anne Wright and I were invited to join the Friends of Casco Bay on a mission to track down and capture samples of the algae bloom taking place in Casco Bay.  Mike Doan skippered the Baykeeper, while Will Everitt and Ivy Fignoca accompanied the group this afternoon on a ride out to Chebeague Island.

Big Bear Municipal Water District (BBMWD) is a small water utility located in Big Bear California. The MWD is responsible for the overall management of Big Bear Lake, one of Southern California’s premier recreational lakes. BBMWD’s recent purchase of a FlowCam allows them to quickly monitor for harmful algal blooms (HABs) and invasive quagga and zebra mussels.

Maintaining healthy algae populations and preventing HABs are a priority for BBMWD. Foul odors, toxin releases, and wildlife deaths drive visitors away, as well as restrict the use of the lake.  

All ocean vessels require ballast water to help maintain stability and maneuverability during transit. Ballast water is taken on or discharged by tankers, cargo ships, and cruise ships when changes in cargo load, weight distribution of the vessel, or the sea conditions require it. As ballast water is taken up in one location and discharged in another, marine organisms living in the ballast water are often discharged into unrelated, foreign waters. These non-indigenous species may become invasive and cause environmental, ecological, economical and even human health damage.  

Transport System for Potentially Invasive Species: New Regulations

National and international regulations have been adopted to mitigate and prevent further ecosystem invasions by organisms released with ballast water. Starting in September 2017, new regulations will take effect to limit the introduction of foreign organisms via ballast water discharge. Technical guidelines have been established to limit concentration and size of viable organisms.  Achievement of said guidelines and adherence to standards will require the use of approved Ballast Water Treatment Systems (BWTS).  

You may have read this recent Portland Press Herald article about Maine’s green crab problem. If you did, you learned how the invasive species is a real threat to Maine’s clamming industry. If you didn’t read the article you need to know that the green crabs prey on clams and are causing a serious problem, but the good news is that there’s a team of experts working to find a way to keep the crabs from destroying the clams and other shellfish and marine life along Maine’s coast. Although they have been reported in Maine for more than a century, scientists speculate the green crabs have been able to multiply and spread due to Maine’s warmer ocean temperatures over the past few years.