Volunteer Dissolved Oxygen Night Survey

This volunteer team, later dubbed "The Insomniacs", was made up of
boat groups from various organizations in the Rhode Island and Massachusetts
area with an interest in water quality issues in Narragansett Bay and its
watershed. We started on a cool summer evening in June of 1999 with 8 boats
covering more than 80 stations in upper Narragansett Bay, the Providence River,
Greenwich Bay, and Mt. Hope Bay. Since that time we have participated in a
total of 13 surveys and have dedicated much effort, with minimal funds, to
compile the data and make it available for use in our future studies and by
others.

After a year hiatus we reinitiated our DO surveys in the summer of 2005 using
new Sea-Bird SBE 19 Plus SEACAT profilers purchased with support from the NOAA
Bay Window Project (NOAA Award NA05NMF4721253). We call this new effort the Day
Trippers survey because we go out during daylight intervals. We use two boats
(Brown and NBEP) to sample about 50 stations covering the Providence River,
Greenwich Bay, and the upper East and West Passages of Narragansett Bay.

This program identified significant areas of hypoxia in upper half of
Narragansett Bay. Hypoxia intitiates during summer warm-water periods on neap
(weak) tides when stratification sets up.

Other Instruments: used YSI's 1999-2004; Seabird 19+ w/ fast response D.O.
sensor 2005-6

Type: Estuary

Waterbody or Watershed Names: Narragansett Bay