RESEARCH - Water Quality

The Challenge

Three recent comprehensive studies (the Pew Oceans Commission, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment) have identified the deterioration of our oceans as one of our planet’s most pressing environmental concerns. Of particular risk are the coastal zones and estuaries, which provide essential nurseries for coastal and open ocean species, yet receive the brunt of human impact. In the face of progressive decline, policymakers, industry leaders and citizens throughout the nation often remain inactive.

We as a society are ignoring the desperate need for smart conservation. This is most notably due to a lack of reliable, unambiguous, easily understood information about the worsening condition of marine ecosystems. After all, can there be collective agreement on conservation solutions when the source of the problem is in doubt?

The Solution

ORCA has developed the world’s first marine habitat water quality monitoring system of its kind. This low-cost marine ecosystem monitor, called “Kilroy” is designed to work in vast networks reporting data 24 hours a day to identify where environmental problems originate, how they are spreading and how well mitigation efforts are working.

ORCA’s Kilroy is a small, underwater sensor package used to measure physical properties of a water body, such as water level, temperature, salinity, turbidity, wave heights and periods, flow speed and direction and sound speed (fig. 1).

Additionally, biological properties can be assayed with the Kilroy bathyphotometer (BP) a device that can monitor common primary producers (plants) like dinoflagellates (fig 2a) and keystone predators like comb jellies (fig. 2b).

ORCA’s Kilroy monitoring networks—the first of which is currently being deployed in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon—are designed to track the environmental toxin producers (including the red tides responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning), invasive species, and watershed pollution threatening public health, fisheries, and other ocean resources.

ORCA will deploy Kilroy in the ocean’s coastal zones—where the brunt of human impact, coupled with the fragile nature of coastal resources, is creating exponentially damaging effects on ocean health. Information about water quality conditions will then be sent to ORCA’s website, where it will be freely viewable in real time, on special color-coded maps. Scientists, policymakers, and the public will finally be able to understand what is going on in their local body of water, and see clearly how human actions can lead to positive and negative consequences for the ocean.

Kilroy’s continuous reporting results and web interface will encourage ongoing conservation in the community, informing individuals, decision makers and interested organizations about:

• The status of local marine resources
• The importance of maintaining healthy ecosystems
• Ways to reduce human impact on marine resources
• The importance of immediate action
• Progress toward conservation goals

Currently, ORCA’s Kilroy network is operating in Florida’s St. Lucie River estuary, with plans to expand throughout the adjacent Indian River Lagoon and then beyond—including the Chesapeake Bay and other important ecosystems throughout the nation. The information collected by ORCA’s Kilroy network is currently relayed to a test website (via Kilroy’s Voice—a telemetry system based on cell phone technology), where it is displayed using Google Maps. Soon, visitors to ORCA’s website will be able to check on Kilroy data directly via ORCA’s homepage!

KILROY´S CONSERVATION GOALS

Identifying the Sources of Pollution The resident population of dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) have extreme immune deficiencies, which manifest as distressing cauliflower-like fungal infections. Tissue samples from these dolphins reveal excessive mercury contamination. But the tissue samples can’t accurately reveal the sources of the mercury.The water flow mapping capabilities of the Kilroy network are designed to identify the source of the mercury contamination.Without understanding where the source is, there is no way to advocate for meaningful conservation strategies to mitigate this deadly pollutant. People swim and fish in this water.Tracking the source of mercury contamination is vitally important for human health as well. Photographer S.D. McCulloch, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute © 2007

Scientifically Supporting Conservation Action Plans Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), which sometimes manifest as red tides, are occurring with increasing frequency along our coastlines. These events, which have devastating impacts on aquaculture, fisheries and tourism are generally thought to be driven by nutrient loading, however, there is much finger-pointing about the source of the nutrients (such as agriculture run-off, residential septic tanks, lawn fertilizers, deep well sewage injection systems, etc.) Kilroys will provide the much needed data to document where these blooms originate and what environmental drivers are linked to the HABs. It is evident that until policy makers and regulatory agencies have such data, appropriate actions cannot be taken to remedy this situation.

Please help us expand Kilroy’s conservation efforts! If you are interested in helping ORCA expand the Kilroy program, call 772-467-1600 or e-mail dharris@teamorca.org for more information or support ORCA’s efforts directly by donating here.