Hi all,
The estuary looks almost exactly like it did two weeks ago. The upper region above New Bern is very turbid as flows are still much higher than normal for this time of year.  Surface waters are basically fresh to near the bend at Cherry Branch. The tip of the salt wedge is at station 50 just downstream of the HWY 17 bridge and the estuary is highly stratified ,and bottom waters were hypoxic from station 50 to the mouth. A broad zone of elevated chlorophyll a occurred from stations 100 to 160. Depth-wise the high phytoplankton biomass was maximum at about 1 m depth. This vertical patchiness is a tell-tale sign that the phytoplankton producing the peak is likely a flagellate seeking optimum light levels for photosynthesis. Our surface sample is collected at 0.2 m and missed the peak. I suspect it’s probably still an ongoing bloom of Gyrodinium instriatum.
Best regards,
Nathan