Volunteer Monitoring Program

Volunteer Monitoring Program

Whether paddling through the bay or hiking along a creek bank, you can contribute to a valuable set of data helping to preserve and restore Morro Bay and its estuary.

The 2,300-acre estuary and its 48,000-acre watershed are threatened by accelerated sedimentation, bacterial contamination, nutrient overloading, and reduction of freshwater flow. As a Morro Bay Volunteer Monitoring Program volunteer, your monitoring efforts increase the understanding of these threats and the impacts of measures to address them.

Increasingly limited federal, state and local budgets only increase the need for citizen-based monitoring. Your efforts will augment existing data and help underfunded agencies determine where to best focus their limited resources. If you’re interested in our volunteer opportunities, read below to learn more about our monitoring efforts.

If you're interested in volunteering, learn more about how to get involved.

Monitoring Efforts

The Morro Bay Volunteer Monitoring Program offers both ongoing and seasonal volunteer opportunities.

Ongoing monitoring typically involves a monthly commitment and includes:
Creek Samplers: Enjoy getting off the main road and into a local creek where you will use water quality parameter test kits and meters to monitor what's flowing out of our hills and into our bay.
Bacteria Monitors: Collect samples from the bay and creeks and conduct scientific lab work to determine levels of bacteria.
Dawn Patrol: Watch the sun rise as you spend your morning kayaking throughout the bay to collect important data on dissolved oxygen levels and temperature.
Plankton Pullers: Net yourself some marine phytoplankton then take a microscopic look at your sample to identify plankton diversity and to help the state Department of Public Health track toxic blooms.
Bay Nutrients: Spend an afternoon on the bay shores to monitor nutrient levels.

Seasonal monitoring typically involves a one-time commitment and includes the following opportunities:
Stream Profiling: Each summer, see parts of the watershed that most people don't have access to by helping survey stream channel profiles to monitor channel and bank erosion.
Bioassessment: Take a closer look at stream habitat and water quality when you survey local creeks and collect channel substrate samples to be analyzed by the Department of Fish and Game for water quality sensitive critters called macroinvertebrates.
Shorebird Surveys: Get out those spotting scopes every spring and fall and join up with other experienced birders to conduct counts of local and migratory birds utilizing Morro Bay.

Please note: Unfortunately, due to safety concerns, the program does not work with volunteers under the age of 18.