Harbor Watch / River Watch (HW/RW) is a water quality monitoring effort that monitors local estuaries and watersheds in lower Fairfield County.  The Harbor Watch component tracks dissolved oxygen conditions in the Norwalk, Saugatuck and Five Mile River harbors, and also surveys the numbers of marine creatures that are found at the bottom of the Norwalk River estuary.  These types of animals, known as benthic or bottom-dwelling species, include such fish as winter and summer flounders, skates, sea robins, cunners, tautogs, rock gunnels, grubbies, windowpane flounders, and hog chokers.  Other bottom-dwelling creatures include lobsters, green, hermit, blue, calico (or lady) and horseshoe crabs, shore or sand shrimp, boring sponges, sandworms and blood worms, and snails.  Harbor Watch has over 10 years worth of data on such findings that is reported to the CT DEP Fisheries Division.

Harbor Watch is led by Dick Harris, Director of Harbor Watch/River Watch, and Pete Fraboni, Associate Director and Senior Naturalist of Earthplace.  From May through September/October these men go out twice a week in the boat RV Annie, a refurbished oyster scow, along with a group of dedicated volunteers.  Some of the volunteers are high school students who help with Harbor Watch and River Watch and write up scientific analyses of the data observed.  Some high school teachers, including Jim Lucey from Wilton High School, have spent several years volunteering and encouraging their students to participate in the program.  There are also many adult volunteers who aid in the maintenance and care of the boat, help with the monitoring procedures, and with laboratory analyses.

Each trip out in the RV Annie has certain defined procedures.  The drag net is dropped in specific areas of the harbor marked on a grid map, and a GPS locator identifies the precise location.  The nets are dragged for three minutes in the defined area, and then hauled up so that the resulting "catch" can be identified, counted and released.  Each harbor section will be visited at least three times in a season in order to note variations in an area.

The photos below are from a trip in the Norwalk River harbor on Tuesday August 24, 2004 from 4:30 until 6:30 PM.