CCPO Seminar About New Bay Buoy System with Data Available to the Public

The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS), which offers the public as well as scientists a unique perspective about the bay, will be the subject of a presentation at 3:30 p.m. today at Old Dominion University's Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography (CCPO).

The guest speaker, Ann Marie Chapman, is education coordinator with the Chesapeake Bay Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her title is "The Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System: Making Real-Time Data Accessible and Relevant."

Her presentation, part of the CCPO Spring Seminar Series, will be on the second floor of the Innovation Research Park @ ODU building at 4111 Monarch Way. A reception with refreshments begins at 3 p.m. The public is invited to this free program.

Six buoys now monitor water conditions in Virginia and Maryland from their locations on the James and Elizabeth Rivers and at the mouths of the Susquehanna, Rappahannock, Potomac and Patapsco rivers. The public can pay a virtual visit to each buoy via www.buoybay.org or by calling 877-BUOY-BAY.

The buoys monitor real-time conditions involving 20 different physical and biological characteristics of the water. The buoys also are markers along the Captain John Smith National Historic Trail, and anyone in contact with a buoy will be presented with a story about Smith's adventures near where the buoy is located.