Water Quality Monitoring Program: Great Bay Coast Watch

The Great Bay Coast Watch monitors twenty-one sites in the Great Bay
Estuary system once a month from April to November at low and high tide
collecting important water quality data.

Volunteers measure water temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH,
transparency, fecal coliform and depth for each site and record the results in
a database for analysis.

Samples are taken at high tide and low tide on the same day. All sampling
activities are subject to rigorous quality control procedures. The Watch began
monitoring NH waters for the presence of harmful algal blooms in 1999

Phytoplankton Monitoring

Six sites are sampled weekly at high tide and include four along the coast, one
in the Great Bay Estuary, and one offshore at the Isles of Shoals.