Painting under a pandemic

Dear Everyone:

Ecosystem observatories gather valuable time-series environmental data.  The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed this year’s deployment of a weather and water quality buoy observatory in Muskegon  Lake, an urbanized Great Lakes estuary in Muskegon, Michigan.  Now that we are finally being allowed back into our work places and are able to initiate pending field research projects, we are busy preparing the Muskegon Lake Observatory buoy (MLO) for deployment on the lake.  Here, Water Resources technician, Tony Weinke (wearing a mask, and practicing social distancing with me – his painting partner), is busy applying several coats of an eco-friendly anti-biofouling ablative paint to the buoy to prevent excessive biofouling by mussels and bryozoans.  In the coming days, we hope MLO will be safely deployed and begin to share weather and water quality data online with open access to all.  It will be the 10th year of MLO operations providing long-term data on Great Lakes ecology – including on eutrophication, harmful algal blooms and hypoxia www.gvsu.edu/buoy/

Bopi Biddanda

Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, Muskegon, Michigan, USA.

www.gvsu.edu/wri/biddanda/