History of GBCW

GBCW was formed in 1990 as a pilot citizen water-monitoring program sponsored by Sea Grant Extension (now NH Sea Grant and UNH Cooperative Extension) through a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It had a dual mission of monitoring Great Bay, NH, and involving citizens in an action-oriented educational program. The following three objectives were outlined:

Develop "baseline" data
Develop a long-term data set
Foster better citizen understanding to promote wise resource-management decisions.

GBCW was wonderfully successful and has grown from eight water quality monitoring sites to 21 sites.

In 1999, the Phytoplankton program was started to provide data on algae blooms and aid the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) in their management of shellfish resources. It has served to help to address rising concerns about Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) or “Red Tide” in the Gulf of Maine. As new techniques are developed, and research provides new information, this part of the program is still evolving. There are currently five active Phytoplankton monitoring sites.

Why (why not) duplicate info gathered by other organizations?

Because GBCW works with volunteers, it is able to educate a large number of people from many backgrounds about the value and upkeep of healthy marine ecosystems. In return, the volunteers are able to monitor areas that would not normally be monitored by other groups due to personnel and cost restrictions. GBCW data can be compared to other data collection methods at some similar (or in some cases the same) locations.
It can also enhance data collected by stationary buoys that can collect data 24 hours a day, but cannot move to where changes may be occurring. Buoys are also costly and can be difficult to maintain. Should the technically advanced equipment break down, GBCW data can fill in the gaps. GBCW volunteers can also look beyond the data they are collecting and observe changes that are unexpected or previously unknown. Volunteers can see where the tide line is changing, if plants and animals are changing, land use is changing, etc. No piece of technology can look for things that it is not instructed or designed to look for.
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