Fwd: CWQT Week 17--results

[Rob Buchanan]

While it feels like we can't shake this rainy summer, only 0.28 inches of rain was measured in Central Park this week. Pretty mixed results across the harbor, but you may notice that main-channel sites with high amounts of current generally have better results than the tributary sites (i.e., Wallabout Channel or Anable Basin). Check out the full list of results here; for a map of our testing sites, click here. 

BOP's Week 17 sampling team: volunteer Austin Tucker, Assistant Waterfront Director Marc Melendez. Field Station Assistant Hana Isihara

WATERWAYS NEWS:

 Remembering the 9/11 boatlift (NY Post) 

New competitor for the Staten Island Ferry (Yimby)

Don't flush the pills--new pharmaceutical drop boxes coming soon! (Albany Times-Union)

Gansevoort Peninsula Park plans take shape (Yimby)

HARBOR EVENTS:

Need a last-minute plan for tonight? At 7 pm Marie Lorenz and collaborators Dana Spiotta, Kurt Rohde, and Charlotte Mundy will be performing a 10-minute floating opera on the Hudson River at 147th St.

Bioblitz and Boating with The Guardians of Flushing Bay this Sunday, September 12th; the bioblitz is 11 AM-1 PM, and boating is 1 PM-2:30 PM and 2:30-4 PM. Reservations required!

Wrap up your summer by helping to clean up Starlight Park on Thursday, Sept 16 10 AM-12 PM

WEEKLY SLIDE SHOW:

BOP volunteer Austin Tucker collects the Brooklyn Bridge Beach sample. The result: 63 colony forming units of fecal indicator bacteria, better than many places in the harbor (including some public bathing beaches). 

There was no sampling on the Raritan and Hackensack Rivers last week because most sites were underwater. Update from the Raritan yesterday: the water is still high and river banks are a mess, strewn with trash (photo of the Edison Boat Basin sampling site by Michele Bakacs).

High tide at the Battery yesterday was at 10:29 AM, which made shoreline sampling this week a relative breeze! Jie Ma and Mika collecting at Grand Ferry Park. 

The Friends of Bushwick Inlet Park installed new 'eco-docks' at Bushwick Inlet last week. In addition to hosting a floating wetlands of spartina grass, each dock will support four Billion Oyster Project Oyster Research Stations--cages filled with juvenile oysters. FBIP and BOP are planning a public monitoring session on October 2, stay tuned for more details!

 Upside of Ida? Five (count em!) fewer rats roaming the sewers. 

Species ID quiz: Some fishy friends are round, and some are flat. Who is this?

Harbor Geography quiz: Local version of the mid-Pacific gyre--but where?

Last week's quiz answers:

 

Species ID: dead whale temporarily secured to floating dock (second photo is from the next day, after the Army Corps towed the carcass to Staten Island; cause of death TBD)

Harbor Geography: Sebago Canoe Club gangway and dock, Paerdegat Basin, Jamaica Bay

The Citizens Water Quality Testing Program (CWQT) is a collaboration between the New York City Water Trail Association, the Billion Oyster Project, and Hudson River Park's River Project, with support from Two Trees Management. 

Partner programs and labs sharing their data (or publishing ours) include: Bronx River Alliance, Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Interstate Environmental Commission, Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership, Hackensack Riverkeeper, Hudson Riverkeeper, Monsignor Farrell High School, Newtown Creek Alliance, St. Francis College, Sarah Lawrence Center for the Urban River, SUNY Maritime Marine Environmental Science Department, Queens College Biology Department. 

For more information, to volunteer, or to unsubscribe, email us at water-...@nycwatertrail.org