Field Updates March 2021: Volunteer Monitoring Program Updates and Bioassessment Site Scouting

Monitoring staff conducts bioassessment site scouting in the Morro Bay watershed

Read each month’s Field Updates post to see what our Monitoring Team have been up to. Updates on the Volunteer Monitoring Program As of March 2nd 2021, San Luis Obispo County moved from the purple or “Widespread” tier back into the red tier. The Morro Bay National Estuary Program’s current COVID-19 Safety Policy allows for volunteer monitoring when the San Luis Obispo County risk level is at or below the red tier designation, as outlined by COVID19.ca.gov. As such, the Estuary Program has slowly begun inviting back volunteers in a limited capacity. We have coupled this change with additional …

Bioassessment Survey Results 2020: Tracking the Health of Local Creeks

March 26, 2021 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program bioassessment creeks habitat habitat assessment habitat survey healthy habitat macroinvertebrates macros MBNEP morro bay morro bay national estuary program wildlife Field Updates

One of the goals of the Estuary Program is to monitor the bay and the lands that surround it to better understand conditions and how they are changing over time. As part of this effort, the Estuary Program conducts spring bioassessment surveys. This data allows us to assess the health of our creeks and determine if they support sensitive aquatic life. What is bioassessment? Each spring, staff and volunteers head out to local creeks to collect habitat measurements. These measurements include the depth of the water, the size of the rocks in the stream, and the amount of tree cover …

Updates from the Field: Monitoring Eelgrass Expansion

March 12, 2021 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program ecological restoration eel grass eelgrass eelgrass decline eelgrass map eelgrass restoration marine ecology monitoring morro bay research restoration Field Updates

Makenzie, Monitoring Coordinator, takes data while monitoring eelgrass in Morro Bay.

The Morro Bay National Estuary Program’s fieldwork has been deemed an essential service by the County of San Luis Obispo. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, we are not working with volunteers at this time and our field staff are following updated monitoring protocols. We look forward to working with volunteers and other community members again as soon as it is safe for us to do so. Thank you, readers, for staying engaged and supporting the Estuary Program’s work on monitoring eelgrass expansion and other projects during this difficult time. Green, green, everywhere! If you’ve been out on the …

Field Updates February 2021: Post-Storm Monitoring

March 5, 2021 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program Canet road creek flow effects of rain field work fieldwork flow monitoring precipitation steelhead storm storm flow storm monitoring storm water Field Updates

COVID-19 Precautions The Morro Bay National Estuary Program’s fieldwork has been deemed an essential service by the County of San Luis Obispo. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, we are not working with volunteers at this time and our field staff are following updated monitoring protocols. We look forward to working with volunteers and other community members again as soon as it is safe for us to do so. Thank you, readers, for staying engaged and supporting the Estuary Program’s work on storm monitoring and other fieldwork tasks during this difficult time. Monitoring Sites Post-Storm January brought a substantial amount …

Field Updates January 2021: Wildlife, Rainfall, and Flow Monitoring

February 5, 2021 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program Canet road eelgrass field updates field work fieldwork flow monitoring lion's mane monitoring nudibranch precipitation rain rainfall rainfall accumulation research san diego dorid sea slug water quality Blog Posts Field Updates

The Morro Bay National Estuary Program’s fieldwork has been deemed an essential service by the County of San Luis Obispo. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, we are not working with volunteers at this time and our field staff are following updated monitoring protocols. We look forward to working with volunteers and other community members again as soon as it is safe for us to do so. Thank you, readers, for staying engaged and supporting the Estuary Program’s work during this difficult time. What’s Living in the Eelgrass? Estuary Program staff have continued to monitor eelgrass into January 2021, …

Field Updates December 2020: Eelgrass Monitoring and Volunteer Monitoring Update

January 8, 2021 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program bay bacteria COVID-19 eelgrass field updates field work fieldwork MBNEP monitoring morro bay morro bay estuary science seagrass volunteer Field Updates

Monitoring eelgrass at a site near Morro Rock in December 2020.

The Morro Bay National Estuary Program’s fieldwork has been deemed an essential service by the County of San Luis Obispo. Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, we are not working with volunteers at this time and our field staff are following updated monitoring protocols. We look forward to working with volunteers and other community members again as soon as it is safe for us to do so. Thank you, readers, for staying engaged and supporting the Estuary Program’s work during this difficult time. Eelgrass Monitoring Anyone who has spent time on the bay this month may have noticed quite a few …

A Day in the Life of a Field Tech: Eelgrass Monitoring, by Blake Toney

June 27, 2020 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program Blake Toney double-crested cormorants eelgrass field technician field work fieldwork Linda Tanner Low tide MBNEP monitoring morro bay morro bay national estuary program mudfat restoration scientific monitoring windy cove Blog Posts Field Updates

A staff member stands in waders in a puddle on the mudflat.

In today’s post, Blake Toney, former Morro Bay National Estuary Program Field Tech, reflects on an early morning spent monitoring eelgrass during a very low tide in Morro Bay. 5:40 a.m. I arrive at today’s site a few minutes before my coworkers to get my bearings. The sun will not rise for another hour, but already the dark sky has begun to take on a hint of blue so faint it becomes harder to see when I concentrate on it. The moon provides some light, enough for me to trek out across the mud after struggling to fit into my …

Field Updates January 2020: Eelgrass Success and Creek Water Quality

February 14, 2020 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program creek stage creek water quality eelgrass eelgrass loss eelgrass plots eelgrass restoration MBNEP monitoring morro bay morro bay national estuary program morro bay watershed restoration Blog Posts Field Updates

This month, our field staff have been busy monitoring eelgrass success in the bay and water quality in the creeks that drain to the Morro Bay estuary. Eelgrass monitoring and restoration success If you spent time out on the bay in January, you might have noticed the really high tides. January 2020 had King Tides, meaning that the high tides were much higher than normal. These extreme high tides are mirrored by extreme low tides. We always take advantage of these extreme low tides to monitor eelgrass, as we have a wider window than normal to conduct our monitoring. Eelgrass …

Field Updates November 2019: Eelgrass, wildlife sightings, weather

December 6, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program eelgrass field updates field work fieldwork MBNEP monitoring morro bay morro bay national estuary program multispectral imaging restoration sea grass Field Updates

November was a busy month for our field staff. Mapping eelgrass and algae The Estuary Program has been mapping submerged vegetation, such as eelgrass and algae, for more than fifteen years. This is done by having a plane fly over the bay taking a series of images, including a multispectral image. We try to repeat this survey about every other year, with 2019 being an eelgrass flight year. Multispectral imagery Multispectral imagery is produced by sensors that measure the reflected energy within several bands of the electromagnetic signature, usually capturing light not visible to our eyes. You can …

Field Updates, October 2019: Eelgrass Mapping, Ground-truthing, and Cal Poly Partnerships

November 8, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program cal poly CalPoly eelgrass eelgrass loss eelgrass map eelgrass restoration estuary program field update fieldwork mapping MBNEP monitoring morro bay multispectral imaging restoration seagrass volunteer Field Updates

Eelgrass fieldwork depends on tides Fall is a busy eelgrass season for field staff at the Estuary Program. The exact timing of our field work depends on when the good low-tides occur, which varies slightly from year to year. This year, October had a few days that had tides low enough to expose the eelgrass during daylight hours. This doesn’t always happen—sometimes the low tides we need happen after sundown and before sunrise. We were glad to see good tides in combination with good timing because we have a few different projects going on. Monitoring permanent eelgrass plots First …