Help Save Honeoye Lake

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABS) are nothing new to the many people who enjoy spending time on NYS Lakes. However, of the Finger Lakes, Honeoye Lake has the most severe and longest lasting outbreaks of HABS. In just the last five summers, Honeoye Lake has had 84 CONFIRMED HABS, 14 of those having HIGH TOXINS. That number does not represent all of the blooms that were deemed as suspicious and not tested.
We believe the Mechanical Weed Harvester(MWH) is a major cause in the abundance and spread of HABS. Reasons we believe this are: 1) The MWH stirs up sediment and causes wave action resulting in legacy nutrients being dispersed into the water column-especially by the paddle wheels. 2) Due to the Harvester moving so slowly, the heat from the motor raises the surface temperature of the water creating favorable conditions for a bloom to occur. 3) When the weeds are cut, where there was once shade there is now direct sunlight to aid in the growth of algae. 4) The algae that are stuck on the large amount of fragmented weeds left behind by the Harvester are now able to float, spread across the lake and get washed up on shore. This does not even mention the reasons we believe the Harvester also contributes to the toxicity of the blooms.
We believe the Harvester is the one cause/variable that we can absolutely control. Please help save Honeoye Lake and stop Mechanical Weed Harvesting!! Thank you.