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Social perspectives on and awareness of freshwater harmful algal blooms
Citation:
Canfield, Katherine, M. Reilly, AND K. Mulvaney. Social perspectives on and awareness of freshwater harmful algal blooms. Algal Bloom Action Team webinar, NA, RI, August 02, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Harmful algal blooms impact ability for people to enjoy and use waterbodies every summer. There is scientific understanding of harmful algal blooms (HABs), but limited research on how waterbody users assess HABs and risk. There is a high priority need to improve awareness among constituents on real versus perceived risks of HABs exposure. This presentation provides findings from social science work to document key informant recommendations and public understanding and communication about HABs risk and identify paths to improvement.
Description:
Despite the abundance of various cyanobacteria efforts that are taking place, the problem still exists that there are not good regional perspectives of when, where, and how many blooms are occurring, how long they are lasting, are they producing toxins, is this a newly occurring event in the waterbody, and what level of risk to human and animal health might they may be imposing. Further, there is not a consistent approach or terminology application, making user accurate risk assessment even more challenging. This creates great uncertainty for recreators that use sites prone to harmful algal blooms (HABs). There is limited research to document how users assess HABs risk, and this presentation provides one effort to do that across fresh waterbodies in New England. Presenting results from interviews with key informants and recreators, it shows that despite increased monitoring and potential increased awareness of the existence of toxic algae, communication efforts do not currently provide water users sufficient information to accurately assess risk.