Freedom—September 5, 2025—Summer ended with news that Governor Sununu gave the head of DES a public dressing down for scaring people needlessly about cyanobacteria, one of the state’s most important lake environmental issues.

“This is not ‘Jaws,'” Sununu told DES Commissioner Robert Scott at an Executive Council meeting before Labor Day weekend, referring to the 1975 movie in which the fictional oceanfront resort town of Amity is thrown into chaos after a shark sighting.

“This is not toxic. This doesn’t kill people,” Sununu said about cyanobacteria, apparently reacting to DES’s announcement days earlier that new blooms were found in Lake Winnipesaukee, part of a statewide cyanobacteria resurgence this summer.

“I know cyanobacteria is a yucky, slimy thing, but the messaging out of your department I think is terrible,” Sununu told Scott, according to an account of the meeting by reporter Paula Tracy of InDepthNH.

“There is no part of Lake Winnipesaukee that is closed,” the Governor said. “Everyone should come up.”

Picking up on the Governor’s “Jaws” reference after the meeting, State Representative Rosemarie Rung (D-Merrimack) said Sununu was like the movie’s “bumbling mayor, trying to deny the risk” despite the evidence.

Cyanobacteria are naturally occurring bacteria found in lakes and ponds, according to the DES website. They can produce cyanotoxins that multiply into blooms that can cause human illnesses ranging from nausea to liver damage, and can kill pets and livestock.

“When DES issues a warning, they have documented cyanobacteria at a level that has been shown to have adverse health effects,” Rung said, adding that the state’s warnings are meant to protect public health by keeping people out of the affected areas, not out of the water entirely.

Rung said it was “incredibly irresponsible” for the Governor to publicly claim cyanobacteria is not toxic when it is.

Sununu’s statements come at a time when members of his party are under intense scrutiny from the state’s lake communities, which this summer organized to influence the elections after a string of Republican-led defeats of lake environmental and quality of recreation bills.

The Governor’s comments were quickly taken up by Dr. Bill Marsh, the Democratic candidate for NH Senate District 3, which includes the Ossipee Lake communities of Freedom, Ossipee and Effingham.

Marsh, a physician and former two-term State Representative, said the Governor’s claim that cyanobacteria is not toxic was “clearly negligent.”

“From my time chairing NH’s Rare Disease Advisory Council, I have been aware for years of the emerging connection between cyanobacteria and ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Many people would consider that fate worse than death.”

Marsh’s opponent for the District 3 Senate seat is incumbent State Representative Mark McConkey (R-Carroll District 8). McConkey did not comment directly about Sununu’s remarks, but said he is “proud of his record of accomplishments” on the cyanobacteria issue, and has always voted to fund mitigation programs.

“It is incredibly unfortunate that some politicians are trying to turn this very real challenge that the legislature has tackled in a bipartisan way for many years into a campaign issue,” he said.

Political newcomer Brian Taylor, an Effingham native now living in Freedom, is competing in Tuesday’s three-way Republican primary to represent Carroll District 8 in the House, the position McConkey currently holds. District 8 includes Freedom and Effingham.

Taylor was at the Executive Council meeting when Sununu made the comments, and said the Governor’s actions took him and others by surprise, especially the way he “asked the Commissioner leading questions to which the Commissioner meekly gave the expected answers.”

“There seemed to be a focus on ensuring that the messenger gave a positive report rather than acknowledging a complicated problem,” Taylor said.

Taylor’s District 8 Republican primary opponents did not respond to requests to comment for this story. They are incumbent State Representative Michael Costable, and District 3 State Representative Richard Brown, who is seeking to switch districts. Also unresponsive were District 8 Democratic candidates Rob Davies and Jim Pittman.

Incumbent State Representative Jonathan Smith (R-Ossipee), who is running unopposed, declined to comment on Sununu’s statements, but offered that “I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle.”

Carroll County District 7, which covers part of Ossipee, has a two-way primary contest to determine which Democrat will take on incumbent Republican Representative Glenn Cordelli.

Wolfeboro resident Beverly Woods said simply “I disagree with the Governor on this issue,” while her opponent, Bobbi Boudman, also of Wolfeboro, said “I stand with Rosemarie,” referring to Representative Rung’s criticism of the Governor.

Boudman added that it’s important to have “the right messaging at the highest level.”

Incumbent Cordelli did not respond to several requests to comment for this story.