NewsPress.com

June 18, 2007

Underwater device snags data

Water-quality information being collected in river, sound, Gulf

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/NEWS0105/70617017/1075

By Kevin Lollar

LOBO is soaking and doing its thing.

That would be the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory, which was put in the water this week near Tarpon Bay and is collecting water-quality data once an hour and sending it to the foundation.

When foundation researchers finish the marine lab’s Web site within a few weeks, the data will be available to anyone with Internet access — eventually, the data will be available at news-press.com.

“We got into this because of the need for integrated water-quality monitoring for the Caloosahatchee River,” research scientist Eric Milbrandt said. “Right now, we have the technology to look at water quality once a month.

But during tidal cycles, clean water comes in from the Gulf, and there are low nutrients, then the tide goes out, and you have high nutrients.

“The dynamic nature of the estuary can’t be captured in one-month intervals, but it can be in one-hour intervals.”

Within the next few months, the foundation will have nine LOBOs, including the one in Tarpon Bay, collecting and sending data.

One will be in the Gulf between the Sanibel Lighthouse and Fort Myers Beach; the rest will be in Pine Island Sound, as far north as Redfish Pass, and in the Caloosahatchee River, upstream as far as Moore Haven.

The need for continuous water-quality data grew out of a series of environmental problems after the extremely wet summers of 2004 and 2005. Vast amounts of nutrient-laden fresh water flowing down the Caloosahatchee, for example, caused frequent and massive micro- and macroalgal blooms in the river and southern Pine Island Sound.

Specifically, the LOBOs, developed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, will measure chlorophyll levels, conductivity, depth (depth changes with the tides), dissolved organics, dissolved oxygen, nitrate levels, oxygen saturation, salinity, temperature and turbidity.

For those unfamiliar with some of these terms, explanations will be provided online. Scientists will be able to use online LOBO data for any of their research; policymakers might use the data to make environmental decisions, such as how much water to release down the Caloosahatchee River from Lake Okeechobee.

Fishermen, too, could benefit from LOBO: If certain fish species like turbidity, for example, or high salinities, fishermen can target those fish in areas where LOBO says the water is turbid or very salty.

Milbrandt pointed out that people with wireless phones will be able to get LOBO data. “If you’re in a meeting and you want to go fishing later,” he said, “you can go online and check the water quality.”

The foundation’s first LOBO arrived from California June 8, but the scientists couldn’t just stick it in the water: Southwest Florida waters are famous for fouling — that’s when animals such as barnacles and tunicates grow on fixed objects — so research assistant A.J. Martignette spent much of the weekend applying anti-fouling paint to the device.

“It’s warm here: Things grow faster,” he said. “As water temperature goes up, life cycles speed up. We’re also concerned with lightning here, so I added a lightning suppressor. I hope it protects it. But if we get a direct hit, we’re going to be screwed.”

Each LOBO costs $65,000, and the price has been covered mostly by private donations, with help from the city of Sanibel and the Lee County Tourist Development Council.

“This is a long time coming from the fundraising standpoint and the scientific standpoint,” foundation Executive Director Eric Lindblad said. “This will increase awareness of the issue, which is important as the science because we’ve had so many water-quality problems the past few years.”

In addition to donating money for LOBOs, some islanders got involved in other ways.

“We took out a full-page ad in one of the island newspapers urging our fellow islanders to do as much as they can to support the project,” said John Jensen, co-owner of Jensen's Twin Palms Resort & Marina and Jensen's On the Gulf. “Water quality is a very important part of this whole area, and we support the project 100 percent.”