Didymo Found In New York Stream
The Esopus Creek, a legendary Catskill Mountain fly fishing stream that is an integral part of New York City’s vast upstate drinking water system, is one of the latest bodies of water to be infected with Didymosphenia geminata, a fast-spreading single-cell algae that is better known to fishermen and biologists around the world as rock snot.
Although officials had been on the lookout for spreading Didymo, as it is also called, since it was first confirmed in New York two years ago, they had not found it in the Esopus when they canvassed the area last fall. A fly fisherman told state biologists a few weeks ago that he thought he had seen the telltale gray tendrils of Didymo clinging to rocks on the bed of the Esopus here, about 120 miles northwest of Manhattan.
Investigators later confirmed that Didymo had spread along 12 miles of the Esopus from Shandaken to the Ashokan Reservoir. Biologists believe it is being transported by sport fishermen.
