ELLERY, N.Y. (WIVB) — Doug Lattimore’s family has had a waterfront property on Martha’s Vineyard Bay on Chautauqua Lake since the mid-1800s.
“It’s a great place to be during the summer — a lot of water sports, water skiing, swimming, spending time with family — it’s a really nice place,” Lattimore said. “This summer’s been different because we’ve just had a unbelievably large bloom of algae and seaweed which has basically taken over our shoreline more than we could actually take care of ourselves.”
Ahead of their family reunion at their property a few weeks ago, Lattimore and several of his family members decided to take cleanup efforts into their own hands, and clear the buildup in front of their property themselves.
“We spent, I would say an afternoon, taking trailers full of seaweed out of here and after doing it for several hours, we took a look at where we were,” Lattimore said. “We threw the white flag and decided it wasn’t something we could do ourselves.”
After cleaning, some of the family members started to notice a rash.
“We’ve had a couple of folks in our family get a rash on their legs from going into the water, so we’ve been resistant from letting any of our kids or certainty not allowing any of our dogs to get into the water,” Lattimore said. “It was like little pimples on their leg that occurred right after and again, it happened to them in close proximity of them getting out of the water, so it seemed pretty clear that was what the cause was.”
They were told by a dermatologist that it was something called swimmer’s itch.
“The Chautauqua County Health Department has not received any confirmed reports of swimmer’s itch on Chautauqua Lake so far this year,” the Chautauqua County Health Department said in a statement. “However, we are aware that swimmer’s itch has occurred in past seasons and remains a concern for some lake users.”
The New York State Department of Health provides detailed information about swimmer’s itch on its website, which can be found here.
“While we are not in a position to make a specific determination in any individual case, it is important to note that symptoms commonly associated with swimmer’s itch may also occur with exposure to cyanotoxins from harmful blue-green algal (cyanobacteria) blooms,” the Chautauqua County Health Department said. “If individuals were not formally diagnosed and had been swimming in areas affected by such blooms, it is possible that their symptoms may be linked to skin exposure to blue-green algae rather than swimmer’s itch.”
The Chautauqua County Health Department encourages residents and visitors to stay up-to-date on the water conditions and to avoid contact with water that is discolored or has surface scum, as they may be indicators of harmful algal blooms.
“It’s certainly a concern and it certainly hinders us from allowing anybody in there to go swimming or do any of the things we enjoy any normal summer,” Lattimore said.
The Lattimore’s dock is 110 feet long and was surrounded by weeds and algal blooms when WIVB News 4 arrived to speak with them. While News 4 was there, the Chautauqua Lake Association (CLA) arrived to clear up around their dock and around Martha Vineyard’s Bay.
“The CLA seems to be the only one that seems to be doing anything to help with the weeds, but it’s certainly a coincidence that they come the morning you guys are here to visit, but we’re happy to have them here and we’re excited they’re cleaning up the shore,” Lattimore said. “We appreciate what they do.”
Latest Local News
Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
