Local Saturday - Foam on the Water

There is a mystery foam that appears every fall in the waters of Skaneateles Lake in upstate New York, one of the minor Finger Lakes.  It's a yearly natural phenomenon.

I haven't tried to pick this stuff up but one article describes it as "stiff and sticky, not unlike meringue..."

September 2015 by the shore

The foam seemed to be more prominent in certain areas of the lake.

Taken from a dock

The ducks seem to enjoy eating it.

These next couple of shots were taken at sundown.  You can see the rocks in the lake (it is shallow where I was standing) and ducks, the sundown light shining off of them, eating the foam.

I didn't take a picture of what else I saw, which were parallel bands of the white foam, all lined up as if someone had measured, drawn lines and placed the foam there.

This foam "could" be due to an invading species that has become a problem here in the upstate New York area - zebra mussels.

The naturally occurring foam has no odor (or a slight odor) and, indeed, I didn't smell anything.

Zebra mussels are bad news and I understand they have been found in Skaneateles (pronounced "skin-ee-anteles" Lake.

My late friend Margaret, who passed away earlier was an elementary school science teacher in New York City for many years before her retirement.  I know, if I had asked her, she would have told me all about it, explaining about water surface tension being reduced and air mixing into the water to create the foam, and so forth.

Have you seen lake foam where you live?