Beachwatch - Round 2

With leaves and temperatures falling in the 1000 Islands, a day at the beach sounds anything but tempting…unless you’re taking part in 1000 Islands Beachwatch. Now is the perfect time to check out water quality and aquatic ecology, when the busy recreation activity has died down and the critters are getting ready for a long winter. Save The River is trying to get one more round of tests in before the snow flies, so contact Hilary if you’d like to take part. The results of the second round of testing, taken at the end of the summer, are presented in the chart below.

Several volunteers assisted with sampling this summer, and willingly jumped into cold water, poked at creepy crawly critters, and generally had a good time monitoring their favorite beach. Save The River would like to thank: Bill Hale of Gananoque, Frank Cole of Murray Isle, David Kortz of Alex Bay, Ann Ward of Dingman’s Pt., Kring Pt. campers Michelle and Ronnie Stevens and Andrew & Mary Toole, and Robin Towne of Clayton for their excellent help!

Jacques Cartier and Kring Pt. were closed for the season at the time of sampling, and the other 3 sites were similarly empty, possibly contributing to a more fruitful ecological survey. Potters Beach and Jacques Cartier were home to schools of minnows—probably some type of shiner, although identification was not possible. Interestingly, both of these sites had the softest bottom material and least aquatic vegetation present. Freshwater shrimp, zebra mussels, worms and snails were present at all the sites, although rain ruled out sampling at Clayton this time. The Kring Pt. campers and Hilary were amazed (and pretty grossed out) to find translucent, slimy-looking purple and pink blobs creeping around the rocks in an amoeboid fashion. These creatures seemed to exhibit eyes on their dorsal side behind a slightly arrow-shaped head. Anyone know what these are?

All sites tested positive for coliform, except for Kring’s Pt which was not sampled during the site visit. Potters Beach had the most litter present as the only non-maintained site.

1000 Islands Beachwatch Water Quality Results—2^nd Round
Round 1 tests	Potters Beach 8/22	Clayton 8/29	Alex Bay 8/29	Kring Pt. 9/5	Jacques Cartier 9/5	Levels of Concern*
Water Temperature C	22	N/A	23	23.5	22.5	?
pH	8.5	8.5	7-7.5	8	8.5-9	<5 or >9
Turbidity JTU	0	0	5-10	15	25-30	?
Dissolved Oxygen ppm	7.8	6.4	7.2	8.4	8.8	<5
Nitrate ppm	<4.4	4.4	<4.4	0	<4.4	1
Ammonia ppm	.33	.65	.33	.65	.33	?
Phosphate ppm	0	0	0	0	0	.1
Coliform Bacteria (present/absent)	present	present	present	N/A	present	<1000/ 100ml