Every summer, ShoreRivers deploys a team of community scientists to monitor bacteria levels at popular swimming and boating sites to let people know about current bacteria levels as they make their plans for recreating in our rivers and creeks. To see weekly results and program details, visit shorerivers.org/swim. Photo by Jessica Passwaters.
ShoreRivers is pleased to announce its Swimmable ShoreRivers bacteria testing program will return for the season on Thursday, May 21, and that weekly results from this annual program will once again be available this year in both English and Spanish.
Every summer, ShoreRivers deploys a team of community scientists to monitor bacteria levels at popular swimming and boating sites to provide important human health risk information to the public. Their samples are then processed and analyzed, according to standard scientific protocols, in ShoreRivers’ in-house labs. The program makes public the results of that testing to let people know about current bacteria levels as they make their plans for recreating in our waterways. Results are posted every Friday, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, at shorerivers.org/swim and on both the organization’s and its individual Riverkeepers’ social media pages.
A second page, shorerivers.org/swimmable-shorerivers-espanol, is designed to share this program with the Spanish-speaking community, and bilingual signs can be found at public monitoring sites around the Eastern Shore that explain the goals of the Swimmable ShoreRivers program and show users where to find weekly results in both English and Spanish. This program is supported with generous funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
Weekly results are also shared on theswimguide.org, where descriptions of testing sites are available in both languages. This public service is a true community effort: this summer, nearly 70 SwimTesters will monitor 55 sites on the Choptank, Miles, Wye, Chester, and Sassafras rivers; Eastern Bay; and the Bayside Creeks. Special thanks go to our generous site sponsors, who include towns, marinas, homeowners’ associations, and families. ShoreRivers is actively seeking additional sponsorships — by supporting Swimmable ShoreRivers, you become part of a community of river stewards dedicated to protecting the waterways that define life on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Photo by Harry Greenspun
The Swimmable ShoreRivers program serves our community in a way that no other program, organization, agency, or data set does. In Maryland, if the state or local government designates an area as a swimming beach, then bacteria monitoring and reporting is required. However, a major gap exists on the Eastern Shore as very few areas are designated swimming beaches, and the results from those that are, are rarely posted publicly or in a timely manner.
“Swimmable ShoreRivers is one of our programs that the community interacts with most widely. We all want to be able to spend our summer connecting with our rivers and creeks, and to know that the data shows that our families are safe while they do so,” says Becky Golden, Watershed Scientist at ShoreRivers. “As we continue to grow and improve the program, our goal remains the same — to provide timely and accurate information that our community needs to make informed decisions about how, when, and where we choose to enjoy our time in and around the water."
Also returning for the 2026 season is ShoreRivers’ Pumpout Boat. The Pumpout Boat is a free service offered on the Miles and Wye rivers that docks at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels and operates from May to mid-November. Through this service, we’re ensuring that every boater on the Miles and Wye has the means to safely and properly pump out — we can all help to keep marine waste out of our waterways. To schedule a pump out, contact Captain John Carlsson at 410.829.4352, on VHF Channel 9, by emailing POBCaptJohn@gmail.com, or by using the form at shorerivers.org/programs/pumpout-boat.