Coastal Monitoring Program

CMAR collects data on Essential Ocean Variables to support and inform science-based development of coastal industry, guide government policy and management decisions, encourage environmental stewardship, and ensure preparedness for climate change.

Since 2017, CMAR has conducted high-resolution monitoring of Nova Scotia’s coastal waters. This monitoring primarily includes temperature, dissolved oxygen, and intermittent salinity measurements, recorded by sensors attached at various depths along sensor strings, anchored to the ocean floor, and suspended by a subsurface buoy (see figure below). CMAR currently maintains and supports over 60 sensor strings and is continuously expanding into new areas throughout coastal Nova Scotia.

Processed sensor string data is available on Nova Scotia’s Open Data Portal and CIOOS Atlantic for public viewing and download. Summary reports have been produced for each county and can be retrieved in the Water Quality County Reports map below.

CMAR has developed a package in R (free, open-source statistical software) to facilitate compiling, formatting, and visualizing water quality data measured throughout the water column. The package is free and can be installed from GitHub. A dissolved oxygen conversion sheet has been compiled and can be accessed here.

CMAR also works with the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (NSDFA) and a marine service provider to deploy Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) to measure current speed and direction at coastal locations throughout Nova Scotia. The processed ADCP data can be accessed on Nova Scotia’s Open Data Portal and downloadable summary reports can be retrieved in the ADCP map below.

Water quality county reports and ADCP summary reports are updated as new data is retrieved and processed.

If you have accessed and used any of the Coastal Monitoring Program data in your work or projects, we would love to hear from you. Please take the time to fill out this questionnaire to help CMAR plan program priorities to best serve stakeholder needs.