The purpose of this study was to assess the diversity of seaweeds in Lake Montauk as part of the Lake Montauk Project of the East Hampton Town Natural Resources Department. Seaweeds were collected monthly by wading at low tide at 5 locations starting 10 October 2009, until 23 October 2010. Initial dredging for specimens was useful only for obtaining floating mat organisms.
Specimens were pressed and dried on herbarium paper using the facilities of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery Laboratory in Montauk. No chemical preservatives were used in the preparation of the herbarium specimens. The dried specimens represent a permanent record of the inventory for East Hampton Town. They were also optically scanned and saved in Portable Document Format (PDF) and are a digital archive of the collection. Such images have sufficient detail necessary to make initial identifications. The PDF images are available on the East Hampton Town website.
