Field Updates November 2018: Eelgrass Monitoring and Rainfall Totals

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and wildlife requires a lot of hard work in the field. At the Estuary Program, that often entails doing research, restoration, and monitoring work out on the estuary and along the creeks that feed into it. Read on to see what we’ve been up to during the past month. Eelgrass Monitoring In November, we went out and checked on all of our 2018 eelgrass restoration plots, as well as some planted in 2017. While we were out monitoring, we noticed lots of new patches of …

Field Updates October 2018: bioassessment scouting, Pismo Preserve, sharing data, and getting ready for rain

November 9, 2018 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program bioassessment Camp SLO chorro creek eelgrass report erosion estuary program macroinvertebrates macros MBNEP morro bay morro bay eelgrass Pismo preserve sediment monitoring winter storms Blog Posts Field Updates

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and wildlife requires a lot of hard work in the field. At the Estuary Program, that often entails doing research, restoration, and monitoring work out on the estuary and along the creeks that feed into it. Read on to see what we’ve been up to during the past month. Scouting a new bioassessment site on Camp SLO Monitoring Coordinators Tim and Karissa ventured out to upper Chorro Creek, on Camp SLO property, to scout out new locations for conducting bioassessment surveys. This site would help …

FIELD UPDATES SEPTEMBER 2018: Fish Surveys, Fish Habitat, and Sharing What We’ve Learned

October 12, 2018 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program e-dna electrofishing environmental dna estuary estuary program field notes field updates field work fish barrier fish ladder fish passage MBNEP morro bay pikeminnow santa lucia fly fishers Club steelhead trout stillwater sciences volunteers Blog Posts Field Updates

We observed this juvenile steelhead trout during a fish survey on Chorro Creek.

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and wildlife requires a lot of hard work in the field. At the Estuary Program, that often entails doing research, restoration, and monitoring work out on the estuary and along the creeks that feed into it. Read on to see what we’ve been up to during the past month. Fish surveys Our field highlight for September was heading out with Stillwater Sciences and volunteers to complete fish surveys in Chorro Creek. We conducted fish sampling, a process of catching, identifying, measuring, and releasing fish, that …

Field Updates August 2018: Monitoring Eelgrass Restoration Plots in Morro Bay

September 7, 2018 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program california conservation eelgrass estuary field update field work fieldwork MBNEP morro bay restoration seagrass transplant Blog Posts Field Updates

This eelgrass plot, transplanted in March of 2017, is thriving.

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and animals requires a lot of hard work in the field. At the Estuary Program, that often means spending time doing research, restoration, and monitoring work out on the water. Read on to see what we’ve been up to during the past month. This past spring, we were busy planting eelgrass. We planted just over 3,000 eelgrass shoots throughout the estuary. We chose transplant sites where naturally occurring eelgrass was found nearby. The five transplant locations in 2018 represented a range of conditions throughout the …

Field Updates July 2018: Reports, Mollusks in Eelgrass, and Fish in the Creeks

August 4, 2018 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program cal poly CalPoly eelgrass estuary fieldwork MBNEP morro bay national estuary program navanax sea hare sea slug SeaGrant Blog Posts Field Updates

We commonly spot this nudibranch, Hermissenda crassicornis, in depressions along the mudflat.

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and animals requires a lot of hard work in the field. At the Estuary Program, that often means spending time doing research and monitoring work out on the water. Read on to see what we’ve been up to during the past month. Data and reporting July was a quiet month for fieldwork. This has given the monitoring staff time to get caught up on data entry and report writing. Keep an eye out for a series of reports related to the health of the estuary …

Field Updates April and May 2018: Bioassessment Monitoring and New Team Members

June 1, 2018 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program bioassessment bugs caddisfly estuary program macros mayfly MBNEP Miossi Charitable Trust morro bay stonefly stream survey water quality Blog Posts Field Updates

Monitoring team works in the middle of the creek.

Bioassessment Monitoring Each spring, the Estuary Program conducts bioassessment monitoring throughout the Morro Bay Watershed. Bioassessment monitoring is an important tool that allows us to assess the health of local streams to determine their value as fish habitat. This monitoring involves collecting macroinvertebrates, insects visible to the naked eye, and taking measurements of things like water depth and canopy cover that tell us about the health of the creek. Check out this blog post to learn more about what bioassessment monitoring tells us about the health of our local creeks. Our bioassessment season kicked off on Saturday, April …