In response to increasing frequency of cyanobacteria blooms in freshwater lakes and ponds across Cape Cod, FWS partnered with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) to monitor six Falmouth ponds for the presence and abundance of cyanobacteria. A total of 16 Falmouth ponds are monitored biweekly from May to November and data are added to the Cape Cod Cyanobacteria Monitoring Network Database. Funding from the Falmouth Fund of the Cape Cod Foundation and the Woods Hole Foundation have allowed us to expand monitoring efforts for cyanobacteria blooms in Falmouth ponds and develop outreach efforts to inform pond associations on how to identify early warning signs of cyanobacteria blooms.

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APCC’s Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program partners with officials at the town, county, state, and federal levels as well as local pond associations and residents to conduct cyanobacteria monitoring in select Cape Cod ponds. Each season, water samples are collected and processed biweekly and shared with local officials and the general public through reports, emails, and an interactive map of monitoring results provided on the APCC website (https://apcc.org/cyano). APCC's goals are to raise public awareness of the health and ecological risks posed by harmful cyanobacteria blooms, to help inform proper responses to cyanobacteria blooms to protect public health, to monitor priority ponds across the Cape, and to motivate public action to address the causes of harmful cyanobacteria by improving water quality (APCC, 2023).  Results of FWS monitoring efforts are detailed in  the 2023 APCC Cyanobacteria Report for FWS.

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