In February 2022, MRRI staff and interns completed their winter water quality sampling at 14 monitoring sites in the lower Hackensack River estuary, during which time hundreds of birds were observed on the river. MRRI analyzed temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, salinity and pH in the river. The water samples were  brought back to the MRRI laboratory for additional analysis, including total metals, dissolved metals, major anions and cations, ammonium, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), hardness, total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, and fecal coliforms.