Researchers work in the Chesapeake Bay to collect information about water quality, plant and animal abundances, shoreline erosion, tides, waves, and harmful algal blooms. For example, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science monitors the abundance of submerged aquatic vegetation in the shallow areas of the Chesapeake Bay each summer. Many organizations run continuous monitoring programs. Monitoring programs set out instruments at fixed stations on buoys, moorings, and docks throughout the Bay to record things like temperature, salinity, chlorophyll-a concentration, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity over time. 
Organizations actively collecting data in the Chesapeake Bay include, but are not limited to:
*Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Maryland
*Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Virginia
*Chesapeake Bay Program
*Hampton Roads Sanitation District
*Maryland Department of Natural Resources
*NASA GSFC Ocean Biology group
*NASA GSFC Applied Sciences group (Water Resources and Human Health areas)
*NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office
*Old Dominion University’s Earth and Ocean Sciences Department
*Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
*United States Geological Survey
*University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
*Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
*Virginia Department of Health
*Virginia Institute of Marine Science
*Virginia Marine Resources Commission