Author: Laura Oleniacz
As lead of DWR’s Estuarine Monitoring Team, Jill Paxson helps manage water quality monitoring for 21 counties across five river basins in eastern North Carolina, including important areas in and along two of the state’s estuaries, where freshwater and saltwater meet.
“An estuary is a connection point – it’s a nexus between freshwater and saltwater,” Paxson said. “The location of that connection can travel upstream or downstream on a daily basis with tidal fluctuations, precipitation and wind. In these estuaries, there are a lot of critters eating other critters – you’ve got bacteria, fungi, phytoplankton and all the trophic levels of fish.”
Paxson and the two other members of her team travel approximately 300 nautical miles of waterways in a month as they travel up and down streams, rivers and other waterways across the region to conduct sampling. Their domain extends to where the Chowan River empties into the Albemarle Sound, as well as where the Neuse and Pamlico rivers empties into the Pamlico Sound. They respond to harmful algal blooms and fish kills, and recently, even, a clam kill.
We spoke to Paxson about her work, and what inspired her to a career living and working by the water.
How did you get interested in environment science, and in particular, estuaries?
I grew up in a landlocked area. In college, I transferred to UNC-Wilmington because of their marine biology program. It was eye-opening. Everyone thinks about pretty fish and rays and dolphins and manatees. I think about all the little things, like the juvenile fish and shrimp. That was a whole world I got interested in.
After college, I got a research position in Everglades National Park, as part of AmeriCorps. I was working on taxonomic identification of juvenile fish and shrimp. Not the shrimp we eat, but smaller ones. I did a lot of diving, and I learned to pay attention to details such as tiny hairs or fins to distinguish species. I also got to be involved in research using planes to track panthers in the Everglades, and learned about the impacts of nonnative plant species on an entire ecosystem.
Later, I went back to Wilmington to get a master’s degree in marine science. Part of my research was using GIS to track the loss of submerged aquatic vegetation in the Florida Bay. The vegetation is like a lawn underwater with lots of interesting creatures living in it. I would dive underwater, identify the grasses, and mark the location using GPS to get a better description of where everything was.
When I finished, I interviewed for a job at DWR. It was one of those things where the skills you have which are very particular are exactly what they’re looking for.
What is the focus of the Estuarine Monitoring Team?
In addition to responding to calls about fish kills and algal blooms on waterways in our region, the Estuarine Monitoring Team handles ambient water quality monitoring for 21 counties in five river basins in eastern North Carolina. We have a 24-foot, twin engine boat that can access water safely and quickly as well as several boats dedicated to smaller waterbodies that don’t draft as deep, and are useful particularly for shoreline investigations.
Why are you interested in working in estuaries?
Estuaries are very interesting environments. They’re one of my favorite because they’re so diverse. You’ve got flora and fauna adapted, or semi adapted, to a brackish environment. When waters warm up, the metabolism of the whole ecosystem shifts into high gear.
When did you start working with estuaries for DWR?
I started as a Rapid Response team member on the Neuse River in 2004, based in New Bern. At that time, we had two, four-person groups, one based in Washington, North Carolina, and one in New Bern. At that time, there was concern about water quality issues on the Neuse River. Our main goal was to get to fish kills or agal blooms that could be a human health concern, get baseline data, and then disseminate it to our laboratory and to any researchers we collaborated with, based on their interests, along with samples. I got promoted to lead the team in Washington.
What were some of the calls you responded to?
We had a lot of fish kills when I started. People would wake up, smell something, fishy, and call the fish kill hotline. Depending on how big the area was, we would record GPS points where the fish kill started and ended, and count the fish using specific scientific methods.
Has the type of calls you received changed?
I have seen more algal blooms. We’ve seen bright turquoise algal blooms that look like somebody spilled paint in the water. Nonpoint source pollution, such as from inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus, entering the water can help trigger algal blooms.
What is one of the most unusual calls you’ve had?
One day, we got a phone call from a riverkeeper in New Bern, saying “you’ve got to come down here, there’s a dead mola mola.” Mola mola are whimsical-looking fish - they baffle me as to how evolutionarily they have occurred. They look like a giant puffer fish, squished on both sides, with whale-like fins. We went to the Neuse River, and the riverkeeper was already in the water. The dorsal fin went up, and it scared the daylights out of him.
If there is low precipitation, we get calls about shark sightings. When we have low precipitation, saltwater can shift upstream, and that can entice fish to look for their food further upstream as well. So, we’re not surprised to see dolphins and sharks following food sources.
Last year, we got a call about a clam kill. If you’re a scientist who studies bivalves, or shellfish, you know that they hinge closed, and slam shut, in response to water quality issues such as low dissolved oxygen in the water. They can hang in there for weeks and not open up. They’re trying to bide time until things get better, and they can open up again. When they open up, if things aren’t better, they can go quickly. If you happen upon a clam kill, you may not know how long they’ve been clammed up for.
When should people contact the Estuarine Monitoring Team, and how?
The best way to report an algal bloom or fish kill is using our Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard. The dashboard is a tool for tracking reports, and we add follow up information from our investigation.
For health-related information about an algal bloom or other incident, contact your local health department. You can contact your regional office to report an environmental emergency.