SMRWA Expands High-Tech Monitoring for Oyster Health

David M. Higgins II, Publisher/Editor

May 6

The St. Mary's River Watershed Association (SMRWA) has once again been awarded funding from the Chesapeake Oyster Innovation Award to enhance oyster restoration efforts through advanced technology. This year, the association received a $10,000 grant from the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance and the Chesapeake Bay Trust to expand its network of cost-effective, automated water quality monitoring devices.

Known as Bay Observation Boxes (BOBs), these devices are constructed using economical makerspace components, with each unit costing around $900, a fraction of the $20,000 price tag for similar commercial equipment. The BOBs measure critical water quality parameters such as dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, and water temperature—data crucial for maintaining healthy oyster populations.

Emma Green, Executive Director of SMRWA, highlighted the importance of this technology in the context of broader environmental efforts: "The major Chesapeake Bay water quality monitoring efforts are focused on the main channel, but we need up-to-date information about our existing and potential oyster reef locations, which are in the tributaries of the Bay."

Last year, the association deployed five BOBs, which collected preliminary data every fifteen minutes. With the new funding, SMRWA plans to build and deploy an additional three BOBs, increasing the total to eight. The grant will also support enhancements to the organization's data dashboard, data analysis capabilities, and sensor accuracy improvements.

The project benefits from a collaborative effort with local students and teachers. Dorothy Birch, a teacher at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center in Leonardtown, along with her students, built and deployed seven BOBs last year. This year, they are expected to add three more to their tally, funded by two Chesapeake Bay Trust Youth Environmental Education grants.

Reflecting on the project's evolution, Green added, "Last year, we learned how to design and deploy the technology. This year, our focus will move to improving our sensors and ensuring our data is accurate. These are exciting challenges."

Norm O'Foran, a volunteer, underscored the significance of the new technology in streamlining data collection: "The usual approach is to get in a kayak or boat and go out to the oyster reefs and take measurements manually. We'd try to get data once every two weeks – assuming we had enough volunteers and the weather cooperated. Now, our BOBs sit in the water and send the data to us all day, every day."

As the project progresses, the potential to shift from manual to automated monitoring may transform how data is collected and utilized in the preservation and restoration of oyster habitats in Chesapeake Bay.