Columbia, S.C. – As part of its commitment to improving both coastal habitat and saltwater recreational angling opportunities, Coastal Conservation Association South Carolina has announced it will provide $5,400 in funding for the continued operation of the water monitoring station at the end of Apache Pier in Horry County this summer.
“CCA South Carolina could not be more pleased to be working with scientists on a research project that provides such critical information,” said Michael Smith, CCA South Carolina state chairman. “This project is another example of CCA’s members and volunteers continued commitment to science-based fisheries management as well as the recreational angling community.”
In 2004, unusually large catches of flounder in the waters off the Myrtle Beach area, often called Long Bay, were determined to have been caused by a hypoxic, or low-oxygen, zone in the water that drove fish toward the shoreline. As a result of that event, in 2006 the S.C. Department of Natural Resources installed water quality monitoring equipment that was maintained by researchers at Coastal Carolina University’s Environmental Quality Laboratory. The monitoring station provides the tools to review oxygen levels, water temperatures, salinity levels, and other environmental conditions along the coast. In August 2009, the water quality monitors indicated that Long Bay had experienced another hypoxia event, alerting fisheries managers and scientists to the conditions in Long Bay. As a result, scientists from SCDNR, CCU and USC are much closer to identifying the conditions that cause such events.
However, state agencies such as the SCDNR and state-supported research programs such as CCU are dealing with severe budget cuts and programs such as the water-monitoring station are being forced to look for new sources of funding to continue ope