Remotely Operated Towed Vehicle (ROTV) - Ocean Monitoring Program

The City’s Ocean Monitoring Program (OMP) conducts quarterly surveys using a ROTV. The ROTV houses multiple sensors used to monitor physical, chemical, and biological parameters to assess water quality and the fate of treated wastewater effluent across the San Diego coastline with high spatial resolution. In the initial phase of ROTV monitoring, efforts were focused on corroborating ROTV data against traditional water quality monitoring data by surveying across the traditional sampling grid. Future surveys will be conducted adaptively with monitoring efforts focused on the location of the treated wastewater effluent, when observable.

Please note: Data have undergone preliminary quality control to remove obvious cases of data dropout and values outside established regional climatic ranges. No ROTV data were collected in 2023 due to staffing limitations; vessel maintenance requirements; and participation in the Bight 2023 regional monitoring program which precluded ROTV sampling. Sensors have been added and removed over the course of the monitoring program. Empty fields may indicate that a sensor was not deployed at the time of sampling or that available measurements did not pass preliminary quality control. See parameter descriptions for approximate sensor deployment dates.