The Southampton Town Trustees have ordered Sagg Pond, or Sagaponack Pond, closed to all crabbing, fishing and swimming immediately, after water tests revealed that a dense bloom of potentially toxic algae has blossomed in the pond's waters.
A memo from the Trustees to other local municipal agencies said that the Trustees had been alerted to the algae bloom on Tuesday by scientists from Stony Brook University who are doing water testing in numerous ponds and water bodies around the South Fork.
It's at very high levels," Christopher Gobler, Ph.D, said in a phone interview on Wednesday morning. "[Sagg Pond] joins a pretty extensive list of places in Southampton and East Hampton that are experiencing these harmful algal blooms."
Dr. Gobler leads the team of scientists that are conducting water monitoring in 40 ponds and bays around Long Island and have been tracking the various harmful algae blooms that have plagued the area in recent years.
The species of blue-green algae detected in the pond can pose health risks to humans and pets if ingested. The toxin the algae emits naturally, called microcystin, can cause severe gastrointestinal illness. In 2012 a dog died after it was believed to have drank water from Georgica Pond in East Hampton that contained blue-green algae.
Earlier this month the East Hampton Town Trustees also banned crabbing and fishing in Georgica Pond, 3.5 miles east of Sagg Pond, because of dense blue-green algae blooms. Georgica Pond experienced a similar bloom last year but this is the first time that Sagg Pond has seen a bloom dense enough to warrant public health advisories or activity closures.
Both closures have been posted as in effect until further notice.
On Monday, contractors working for the Southampton Trustees dug open the "cut" between Sagg Pond and the ocean to let freshwater flow out of the pond but sand quickly clogged the opening and stanched the flow after only a few hours.
"That would certainly be a good temporary solution," Dr. Gobler said of opening the ponds to the ocean. "It helps in two ways: it flushes out the freshwater, and we just completed a series of lab experiments that show when you douse [blue-green] algae with saltwater they just disappear. So I would definitely encourage them to do that."
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on Aug 26, 2015