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Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs about participation

1. "I can't make it every week. Should I still participate?"

Yes, you should still participate! The more weeks you can make it, the better, but we totally understand if something comes up.

2. "I have to miss a week. Should I ask a friend to collect the samples for me?"

For consistency's sake, we'd prefer that all the samples are collected by the same person each week. In other words, it's better to miss a week than to have someone else collect the samples.

3. "My partner/spouse/friend/buddy/etc and I want to sign up to do the sampling together. Is this okay?"

Ideally, you would both sign up and each collect your own independent samples: that would mean more data and scientists love data! But if that seems excessive to you, no worries, we just ask that for consistency's sake, one of you is designated as the "primary sampler" who will be responsible for the data sheets and other project-related communication.

FAQs about sampling

1. Conditions were too rough to sample

"What should I do if the weather or surf were too rough and I decided not to collect samples?"

If you have to miss a day of sampling due to bad weather (or other conditions at the beach), that's okay—safety first!

2. Sand in your water samples

"I cannot get a sand-free water sample under the current conditions at the beach. What should I do?"

Do your best avoid sand in your sample. The reason to try to avoid sand is so that you are seeing the color of the water against the white bottom of the bottle, not the brown color of the sand. With strong waves or turbulence, however, it can be very difficult to avoid sand, so just do your best to determine the color.

Sometimes, it may be impossible to get a “clear” water sample. If the water has a lot of fine particles in it, it may appear brown and fairly opaque, even if there is no sand in your sample. That is OK. Just match it to the closest color on your color comparator.

3. Salinity measurements and the white dropper bottle

"How and why are we measuring the salinity of the water in the white dropper bottle (that is, the 'calibration solution')?"

HOW: Each week, place three DROPS of calibration solution on the lens of your refractometer, and measure the salinity in the same way you do for all of your samples. If you use 3 drops per week, there should be more than enough calibration solution to last 13 weeks. But if you run out, please let us know.

WHY: We are measuring the calibration solution each week because the refractometer's accuracy can change from week to week. The true salinity of the calibration solution is 34. However, you may measure it to be 34 some weeks, and 31 or 28 or 38 etc. other weeks -- depending on temperature and the alignment of the refractometer's prism, which can get jostled.

In this way, we can adjust all your salinity measurements relative to that reference level. This is analogous to making sure the weight scale at the grocery store reads "0" before you try to weigh your produce.

4. The GPS app

Stay tuned for updates.

5. What to do if a mistake happens

"I realize I made a mistake in my measurements, especially my first time sampling. What should I do?"

That's OK! Just do your best, and let us know if you think you made a mistake, or have questions about why or how to do something.

6. There's a sandbar now and the beach looks totally different

"A sandbar has formed at the mouth of San Lorenzo River. Should I walk out onto the sandbar and sample from there?"

No, there is no need to walk out to the sandbar. Please just sample from the shoreline as usual. If you have time to take a picture of the conditions, however, we would love to have those so that we can document the changing morphology of the river mouth.

Contact us

Questions? Comments? Let us know!

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