Watershed Management Bureau

  Shellfish Program

    Monitoring Programs: GulfWatch

Toxin Monitoring: The GulfWatch Program was begun by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment to assess habitat exposure to a variety of organic and inorganic toxic contaminants, using blue mussels as an indicator organism. Sampling of native populations of mussels provides an assessment of long-term exposure to such contaminants, and provides important information on contaminant levels in shellfish. NHDES expanded the GulfWatch Program in NH waters by adding more sites, and sampling them more frequently, to better understand baseline contamination levels and help assess trends in the future. The sampling program is conducted in cooperation with the UNH Jackson Estuarine Laboratory.