Collaborative Monitoring and Education of Cyanobacteria and Cyanotoxins in the Wolastoq Watershed

Since the death of dogs near Fredericton, New Brunswick, and the discovery of benthic cyanobacteria mats in the mainstem of the Wolastoq in 2018, much research has been undertaken to understand the distribution of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in the watershed. Under the leadership of ACAP Saint John, multiple watershed organizations came together to build cyanotoxin monitoring within the watershed. Originally monitoring was done in conjunction with researchers at the Lawrence Lab at the University of New Brunswick and the Canadian Rivers Institute using Solid Phase Adsorption Toxin Tracking (SPATT) collectors to passively adsorb cyanotoxin. Unfortunately, lab analysis for these samples was not available during this project, so ACAP Saint John pivoted the monitoring to using test kits for anatoxin-a and total microcystins to ensure readily available data and that all watershed groups would have the capacity to conduct the testing.

These test kits have proven to be a valuable tool for watershed groups to be able to detect cyanotoxins in suspected cyanobacteria sightings and report their findings to the Department of Environment in their local area for additional instructions and response. Together the collaborative partnership was able to collect over 93 samples for cyanotoxin analysis and were able to detect toxins in a small number of samples. As this collaborative groups continues to work together for years to come, additional toxin monitoring, and capacity will be built to continue and expand this project.