Since 1992, Buzzards Bay Coalition has organized with volunteers to gather data on temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, and nutrients at more than 200 stations in 35 estuaries around Buzzards Bay. We used these data to understand the variability of water quality around the Bay, assign health scores to monitored locations, communicate with towns about water quality problem areas, and advocate for water quality improvements.

The COMBB Project examines the decades of Baywatchers data to determine how water quality has changed over time in different locations around the Bay. It also examines the increasing ways that climate change now influences water quality—such as the lower levels of dissolved oxygen and increased algae growth that occur with warmer temperatures, or the higher inflows of nutrients in rivers that occur with more intense rainstorms.