Water Reporters Spur Actions to Protect the Bay • Friends of Casco Bay

Casco Baykeeper Ivy Frignoca is our watchdog on the health of the Bay. She is on or along the water as much as possible, even in her spare time! But she can’t be everywhere. Ivy says, “We rely upon our Volunteers to be our extra eyes on the Bay. Since July, increasingly Volunteers are joining me in using the WaterReporter app to share what they are seeing. These reports make a difference!”

“It’s like Facebook for the Bay,” says Ivy. We can communicate with our WaterReporters, commenting on their posts and reporting back on actions taken.

Here are some examples:

A Water Reporter captured a potential pollution incident—a large accumulation of fish scales in the water. The posting, complete with the time, location, and a photo, led to action to stop unpermitted, fish processing wastewater discharges into the Fore River in Portland.

A report of a green algae bloom at Falmouth Town Landing was important news to us, and Ivy went to examine the site in person.

Images of algae smothering the shoreline in Yarmouth prompted the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to investigate to try to identify the source.

We look forward to Water Reporter posts continuing to come in throughout the fall and winter, when we will be on the lookout for any unusual algal blooms, effects of large rainstorms or snowstorms on the Bay, and extreme high tides, called King Tides. The more of us who are keeping watch on the health of the Bay, the better protected our waters may be.