Clarity wasn’t as dramatic as a couple of weeks earlier when we hit 1.61 meters on the Secchi Disk reading.

Our best reading this day was 1.20 meters at our Round Bay North Station.

We’re also finding that the water column is rather homogeneous temperature- and salinity-wise.

We had expected to find dramatic layers of cold vs. warmer and fresh vs. salinity. But instead, we’re finding temperatures change by less than 0.5 degrees from bottom to top of the river. Salinity is tending consistently towards the fresh side throughout the water column, due to all the wind and rain this summer.

We also noticed that the water in Round Bay was a healthy green color since late summer. You can see this in the wake off Capt. Mark’s Key West in the pictures below.

You can see by the other picture how brown the water gets once you get up to The Narrows and on up to Ben Oaks.

Inside other creeks, like Chase Creek, the water isn’t so attractive, more of an olive green hue.

So long Osprey, hello Seagulls

The osprey have left us for the winter. But, we did see dozens of seagulls that visit our river this time of year, and we found a flock of cormorants sunning themselves.

They’re everywhere, picking up moorings in Valentine Creek and this bunch here hanging out on a tree branch near Indian Landing.

What’s all this mean for the health of the Severn River?

The dead zone is still there, though it seems to be retreating here and there. What do the salinity, pH, temperature and clarity readings mean?

Join us on Nov. 20 during SRA’s Educational Series meeting at Union Jack’s.

Dr. Andrew Muller, SRA Board Member and associate professor of oceanography at the U.S. Naval Academy, will put all this data into perspective when he presents his State Of The Severn Report.

Don’t miss this unique presentation!