Little Sodus Bay Cayuga County, New York

Abstract

Little Sodus Bay is a 728-acre embayment on the southern Lake Ontario shoreline, located in the Town of Fair Haven, New York. The bay has a mean depth of 22 feet, a maximum depth of 37 feet, and is not fed by any major tributaries. Little Sodus Bay connects to Lake Ontario through a narrow channel located in the northwest corner of the bay. The watershed surrounding the bay is composed of land roughly 20% agricultural, 18% developed land (mostly limited development), 61% forest, 1% wetlands, and 0.1% quarry (The Camdus Group 2007). Little Sodus Bay has nuisance algae and weed problems that impact water recreation. Northern and Eurasian Milfoil are a particular problem and are so dense in some shallow areas of the bay that boat navigation is hindered. Diquat dibromide was applied to control aquatic growth in the 1980s, and in the 1990s the Cayuga Soil and Water District started a weed harvesting program. Fish spawning in the bay has been identified as stressed, the result of benthic anoxia caused by cultural addition of nutrients (Makarewicz 2000). This short report provides a synopsis of data collected monthly from May through September (2003 to 2009) on the water quality of Little Sodus Bay and the lakeside (swimmable depth) of Lake Ontario near the bay.