NOAA and partners test unmanned vehicle to detect harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie

Scientists from NOAA, the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute will launch and test an unmanned underwater vehicle equipped with technology capable of collecting and processing water samples that can be used to track harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

The torpedo-shaped underwater vehicle will travel through the waters of the western basin of Lake Erie to gather and analyze data on a harmful algal bloom currently occurring in the lake. The tool will also archive samples for later genetic analysis, with the goal of better understanding the growth, toxicity and persistence of harmful algal toxins and developing future mitigation strategies.

The team is  testing the new technology with the eventual goal that it can be used to improve NOAA’s decision-support tools for Great Lakes communities, including the operational Lake Erie HAB Bulletin that provides an analysis of the bloom and a 3-day forecast, and the experimental Lake Erie HAB Tracker that extends the forecast out to  five-days. These tools are used routinely by regional drinking water authorities, state health departments and recreational managers.

“This unmanned underwater vehicle is a new sampling tool that will provide a more detailed, three-dimensional picture of where in the water column a harmful algal bloom is most concentrated and where it may be moving,” said Steve Ruberg, a scientist with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. “Getting information about how deep toxins from a harmful algal bloom go and how close they are to municipal water intake pipes can help NOAA improve forecasts and decision-support tools that Great Lakes communities depend on.”

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Image via NOAA.