There’s a newly donated boat patrolling the Potomac River. The Sea Dog, a former Chesapeake fishing boat, will be used as part of a new program to test water quality weekly.

“If you’ve ever seen D.C. on a Saturday in July, there’s just boats out there, and people are on stand-up-paddle boards, falling in the water,” says Dean Naujoks, the Potomac Riverkeeper. “I just think people have a right to know whether it’s safe to go in or not.”

The 42-foot boat was donated to the Potomac Riverkeeper Network by retired Navy Admiral Paul Reason and his wife, Diane Reason. “The Potomac is my home river, I’m a native Washingtonian,” says Reason, who was the Navy’s first black four-star admiral, and who commanded the Atlantic Fleet.

The Reasons had the boat built in 2006.

“It’s a traditional-hulled Chesapeake Bay deadrise,” explains Reason. A deadrise is a long, low-slung fishing boat—designed for the bay’s particular winds and currents and shallow waters. “We’ve been building these boats on the Chesapeake Bay for hundreds of years,” Reason says.

Reason used the boat for fishing, but now, he says, “We’re getting a little long in the tooth to go around boating all the time.” So, he donated the vessel to the Potomac Riverkeeper Network.

“Having a great boat like this one, a working boat, a boat that we can use to patrol and to monitor water quality is really going to help us in our work,” says Nancy Stoner, president of the nonprofit. She spoke at a press conference before re-christening the boat (with the same name) and officially launching it.

Maryland Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles was on hand. He complimented the name, “Sea Dog,” saying it conjures up McGruff the Crime Dog (take a bite out of crime!)

“It’s kind of a pollution hound to make sure the Potomac River continues to improve,” says Grumbles. “It’s more important now than ever before, when the federal government is not as focused on clean and safe water to have states, like Maryland, and localities, and communities and nonprofit organizations increase the number of eyes and ears on the water.”

The Sea Dog (take a bite out of pollution!) will soon be retrofitted with a mobile lab for testing water. Results will be posted online, and on the Swim Guide app. The boat will be docked at National Harbor.

It’s still illegal to swim in the Potomac within the D.C. borders, though water quality has been improving in recent years. In 2018, the Potomac got a B grade on its regular report card — its best health rating so far.

This story was originally published on WAMU.