Boat rides, whales and wind!

The Delaware II returned to Woods Hole Thursday, December 8, blown in by a nor’easter that moved rapidly through the area. Overall we have had a very successful cruise.  We collected 71 bongo samples, 46 IKMT samples, 9 neuston samples, lots of images from the VPR, rescued one buoy, and collected our target species with multiple gears in multiple regions.

Ensign Carl Noblitt (stern) and Fisherman Jim Pontz (bow) return to the Delaware II in the ship's rescue boat. (Photo by Harvey Walsh, NEFSC/NOAA)

Pilot whales photographed off the stern of the Delaware II during plankton operations included a mother and calf. (Photo by Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA)

Barometer on the ship's bridge shows pressure drop caused by the nor'easter that passed around midnight Thursday, December 8.

I want to thank the officers and crew of the Delaware II who worked hard to make sure we efficiently used our time to accomplish our missions.

Harvey Walsh
Chief Scientist
DE 11-10 Ecosystem Processes Research Cruise

Different gear, different samples

During this cruise we have been using primarily three types of gear to collect plankton samples: a 61-cm bongo net, 1.8-m Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl (IKMT), and a Video Plankton Recorder (VPR). The bongo and IKMT are pulled through the water and plankton is concentrated at the tail end of the net, also called the cod end.

Samples collected from the same station using different gear. On the left is a sample collected with a 61-cm bongo net that has lots of small copepods. At right is a sample collected from the 1.8-m IKMT with larger crustaceans and very few copepods. (Photo by Harvey Walsh, NEFSC/NOAA)

Due to different mouth opening and mesh size, bongo and IKMT collect different amounts of plankton, different types of plankton, and different sizes of plankton from the same station. The bongo has a smaller mouth opening and finer mesh than the IKMT, and generally catches smaller zooplankton and fish larvae. The IKMT is more efficient at collecting larger zooplankton and fish.

Plankton collected with the Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl (IKMT): krill (A), eel leptocephalus (B), lanternfish (C), silver hake (D), and (E) windowpane flounder. (Photos by Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA)

Images captured by the Video Plankton Recorder (VPR): comb jelly (A), krill (B), Atlantic herring larvae (C), and copepod (D).

Using multiple types of nets or advanced sampling instruments to collect plankton information on a cruise allows researchers to better understand the entire plankton community.

Harvey Walsh
Chief Scientist
DE 11-10 Ecosystem Processes Research Cruise

Buoy recovered…

After completing the high priority plankton stations for our cruise, the ship shifted to buoy rescue mode. The drifting Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) buoy was north of us in Jordan Basin. The ship arrived at the buoy just after midnight December 5, and the crew was able to secure it onboard after a few hours work.

Lead fisherman Todd Wilson power washing the NERACOOS buoy and attached oceanographic instruments on the Delaware II. (Photo by Harvey Walsh, NEFSC/NOAA)

They have deployed and retrieved these buoys in the past, but had to devise a new strategy for this one since we had an extra winch on the back deck to conduct Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl (IKMT) tows. The back deck of the Delaware II seems spacious until you drop a fourteen-foot buoy with an instrument cage attached in the middle of your gear! During a buoy maintenance cruise they are able to store three of these on the deck. However, we planned to continue plankton work and needed the space for the IKMT. On the transit back towards shore, the buoy was power washed and secured out of the way of plankton operations.

Another mission accomplished: Cleaned buoy secured on the back deck of the Delaware II to make room for plankton operations. (Photo by Harvey Walsh, NEFSC/NOAA)

We arrived off the coast of Portsmouth and resumed plankton operations just over 24 hours after the last bongo net came onboard.

Harvey Walsh
Chief Scientist
DE11-10 Ecosystem Processes Research Cruise

Missions almost accomplished…

The Delaware II sailed Wednesday, November 30, on the DE 11-10 Ecosystem Processes Research Cruise.  The principal objective of the cruise is to locate and quantify concentrations of larval and juvenile fish.  The target species for this trip is Atlantic herring, which spawn on Georges Bank in the fall.  Sampling will be done primarily with a Bongo Net and a Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) towed simultaneously, and an Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl (IKMT).  The bongo net collects zooplankton and larval fish, and the takes pictures of plankton as it is towed through the water.

Crew member Chris Taylor hauls the Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) and Bongo Net aboard the Delaware II. (Photo by Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA)

Sampling will be conducted in the western Gulf of Maine, southern New England waters, and adjacent to three drifters released on Georges Bank near larval Atlantic herring collections made during the November EcoMon cruise (DE 11-09).

Fisherman Jim Pontz hauls the Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl aboard the Delaware II. (Photo by Harvey Walsh, NEFSC/NOAA)

In addition, we are trying to accommodate several other missions during our cruise.  We will conduct vertical casts with a Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) probe, a Laser In Situ Scattering Transmissometer (LISST), and Niskin water bottle.  The CTD relays real-time salinity (derived from conductivity), temperature, and depth back to the ship.  The depth is the most important; it allows us to monitor where our gear is during the tow.  We have CTDs on the wire during Bongo and IKMT tows, as well.  The LISST collects particle-size distribution profiles, which can be used to monitor how much plankton is in the water column.  The water bottle collects water samples for a Fluoroprobe designed to estimate the amount and types of phytoplankton in the water.

Fisherman Jim Pontz retrieves the Laser In Situ Scattering Transmissometer or LISST (black probe), the Conductivity Temperature Depth or CTD (white instrument), and a Niskin Bottle (gray bottle) from a vertical cast. (Photo by Harvey Walsh, NEFSC/NOAA)

Prior to sailing, we were asked to retrieve a Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) buoy that was drifting in the vicinity of Jordan Basin.  We also plan to conduct visual survey transects for sea birds in conjunction with an ACROBAT towed sensor body, which collects temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll, light, nitrate, and oxygen level data.  The transects are located adjacent to Nantucket Shoals, an area of high concentrations of sea ducks this time of year.  If the weather cooperates, we hope to accomplish all our missions.

Harvey Walsh
Chief Scientist
DE11-10 Ecosystem Processes Research Cruise

Bats, bongos, and buoys

Friday, November 18:

Today is our last full day of work on the Fall Ecosystem Monitoring Survey.  Since my last update the Delaware II has almost completed a circuit of stations ranging from as far north and east as the Grand Manan Banks, down into the central Gulf of Maine, and along the coastal waters of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Then we headed east again, across Wilkinson Basin, and right now are heading for two final stations located just east of Cape Cod, before we return to Woods Hole via Great Round Shoal Channel, for a Saturday morning docking at 7 AM.

Brendan Floyd and Adrian Martyn-Fisher bring a bongo net aboard as Adrian uses the newly-installed rail-mounted winch controls. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

We located herring larvae in the western Gulf of Maine coastal stations,off the coast of Maine, just 12 miles offshore from Saco Bay, and right outside of Boston Harbor, at our Liquefied Natural Gas terminal monitoring site.

Chris Taylor braces himself to look through a microscope for Calanus copepods aboard the Delaware II. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Jim Manning, the designer of our surface drifter buoys,  sent us a website for tracking the three surface drifters that we launched last Sunday on the southwest flank of Georges Bank.  We’ve been watching the website and found that since then, the buoys haven’t traveled very far.  They are essentially moving in small circles, and are still fairly close together.  You can see them on the website:

http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/drift_nefsc_2011_1.html

We had a “catch” of another kind, when one of the crew members, Rick
Rozen, and a bird observer, Chris Vogel, rescued a brown bat that had
collided with the superstructure of the ship and had fallen to the deck. The bat appears to be uninjured and is recuperating in a plastic bucket covered with a milk crate until we can return it to shore.

A brown bat rescued from the ship's deck recuperates aboard the vessel. (Photo by Fionna Matheson, NOAA)

The work accomplished on this survey would not be possible without the cooperation and contributions of all the people on board: the NOAA Corps officers, the crew and the scientists. The officers were constantly tweaking our cruise track to make it as efficient as possible, shaving off miles from the route to provide better coverage in less time.

Cory Staryk fetching some primary productivity sample bottles from his deck-mounted incubators while the Delaware II rolls in a heavy swell. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

The crew deployed our gear safely in all kinds of sea conditions. They even rigged up winch controls from our new winch at the starboard rail to allow one person to operate the A-frame and winch simultaneously for smoother deployments in rough seas, or for when they were short-handed. The scientists worked diligently on collecting and preserving samples, and logging all the data from the 115 stations that we’ve visited so far. They did this even under uncomfortable sea conditions, which on this trip was most of the time!  Working together the personnel aboard the Delaware II  have acquired more data to help us answer the many questions we are faced with today about our changing environment.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
DE 11-09 Ecosystem Monitoring Survey

Filling in the Gaps

The wee hours of Wednesday morning find us in the enviable position of being able to add more stations back onto our cruise track,  thanks to a favorable forecast for the remainder of the week. On early Monday morning we were working our way eastward across Georges Bank, finding herring larvae at a station on the eastern edge of the shoals and watching their numbers dwindle off as we progressed towards the Northeast Peak.

The Delaware II then crossed the Northeast Channel and went as far north as Browns Bank before turning west to head across the Gulf of Maine and back towards Wood Hole.

Magnified view of small herring larvae (about 10 mm) caught on Georges Bank. (Photo by Chris Taylor, NOAA)

Plankton catches in the Gulf of Maine have been very light, with no fish larvae, until we found a couple of herring larvae at a station on the northern flank of Georges Bank.  Since that time, with seas finally coming down last night, we’ve been able to make better time and now plan to sample stations as far up as twenty nautical miles north of Jordan Basin. Chris Taylor, one of the scientists from the NEFSC’s Narragansett Laboratory, has been able to collect some stage V Calanus copepods from the Gulf of Maine, and flash freeze them in liquid nitrogen to be tested for signs of environmental stress back at the lab.

Crew member Chris Taylor bringing in bongo nets during a tow that caught Calanus copepods used by scientist Chris Taylor (we have 2 Chris Taylor's on board!). (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NOAA)

We’ve continued our sampling for the Census of Marine Zooplankton Project using 20 cm bongo nets at selected stations. We are also using a set of 20 cm bongo nets with a coarser mesh to collect herring larvae for Dave Richardson back at the Narragansett Lab, although there have been no sign of them once we left the Georges Bank area.

The bird observers had a difficult day for observing yesterday with large seas obscuring any birds sitting on or flying low to the water, and conditions so rough they were forced to leave the flying bridge and observe from inside.

Marine bird and mammal observers Holly Goyert and Chris Vogel at their usual observation post, the flying bridge of the Delaware II. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NOAA)

We were however, able to deploy our rosette sampler at sunrise, so Cory Staryk from Old Dominion University collected water samples from the northern flank of Georges Bank, before conditions deteriorated later in the morning. Seas also forced the ship to tack its way north toward Georges Basin, in order to get there without excessive rolling from seas coming at us beam-on.

Niskin bottle rosette breaks the surface as it's taken aboard during a sunrise water sampling for Old Dominion University researcher Cory Staryk. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NOAA)

Today is one of the first days that we’re not anticipating another big low or tropical storm so I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to end this cruise with a flurry of activity as we make our way westward across the the Gulf of Maine towards home. The crew and command have really outdone themselves to keep us working and moving ahead, despite the difficult conditions we’ve had to face for most of this trip.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
DE 1109 EcoMon Cruise

Eating, Exercising, Assembling and …

A lot has happened since last Thursday (November 10). We were overtaken by a low pressure system while in the southern New England area and spent 24 hours anchored south of Martha’s Vineyard, from Friday morning until Saturday morning.

Rocky's Cafe: Chief Steward John "Rocky" Rockwell, making baked goods for us while the ship waits at anchor. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NOAA)

Bird observer Holly Goyert working off some baked goods on the Delaware II's new rowing machine. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NOAA)

We followed a high pressure system out onto Georges Bank after completing sampling operations south of Nantucket Shoals. We are currently working our way eastward along the southern flank of Georges Bank before the next low comes upon us Monday night.

Plankton catches have been exceedingly light with very little biomass, and almost no fish larvae at all with the exception of one  herring larva each in a couple of the stations on the southwest corner of Georges. That changed, however, at a station on the southern flank of Georges Bank, further east and in 75 meters (about 245  feet) of water, where we obtained eight very young (they were only about 10-12 mm long) herring larvae in one of the two nets on the bongo frame. We marked this parcel of water with three drifter buoys provided to us by Jim Manning, as a potential area to sample for the next cruise.

The crew and scientists work together on the aft deck to assemble the drifter buoys to track the herring larvae. (Photo by Todd Wilson, NOAA)

The idea here is that the buoys will drift along with the larvae and indicate where the currents will take them on Georges Bank. The buoys, which appear rather low-tech, are made from wooden two by fours, with four plastic vanes, some weight near the bottom and a GPS unit mounted on the top, supported by small floats. Given to us partially assembled to save space, they were quickly put together by the crew and scientists and deployed where the herring were found. The next cruise will be able to follow their locations by consulting a website to which  the buoys upload their positions.

Launching a drifter buoy over the starboard rail of the Delaware II. (Photo by Rick Rozen, NOAA)

The deployed drifter buoy will remain with the water mass where the herring larvae were found for the next cruise to locate in December. (Photo by Cory Staryk, Old Dominion University)

We have not made any rosette casts since leaving the Martha’s Vineyard anchorage due to the large seas remaining from the last low, but we’re hopeful that conditions will improve sufficiently by tomorrow morning to resume this operation. Our respite from high winds and seas may be short-lived, so we are hoping to complete most of our Georges Bank sampling before the next low is upon us!

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
DE 11-09 EcoMon Survey

Back in business!

Monday, November 7, was a turning point for the Ecosystem Monitoring cruise aboard the Delaware II. The outboard motor for our rescue boat was repaired and returned, the weather in the Cape Hatteras area improved dramatically, and the Delaware II returned to sea late in the afternoon.

Rescue boat outboard motor being returned to the Delaware II from the repair shop in Virginia. (Credit Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Taking advantage of the diminishing seas, we were able to sample three out of five of our southernmost stations, plus an additional station for collecting Gulf Stream water for the Smithsonian Institution.

Collecting a jug of Gulf Stream water for the Smithsonian Institution from our seawater flow-through system in the wet lab of the Delaware II. (Credit: Tamara Holzwarth-Davis, NEFSC/NOAA)

We also collected deep shelf-slope water for stable nitrogen and carbon isotope studies being done in conjunction with the EPA and the URI Graduate School of Oceanography.

A morning rosette cast from the Delaware II. (Credit: Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Steadily improving weather has enabled us to be able to do two sunrise rosette water casts since we left the dock in Little Creek, Virginia. This has kept our scientist representing the CliVEC (Climate Variability on the East Coast) program very busy.

CliVEC Program researcher Cory Staryk measuring oxygen levels in incubated seawater samples taken from various depths. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

We are now working our way north about 30 nautical miles offshore of the New Jersey coast. Our hope is to be able to reach Southern New England waters by Thursday night ( November 10).  If we can get there ahead of a low pressure system forecast to hit us before the end of the week, we may be able to continue working. If not, we have a couple of options; either stopping work but staying on location if the weather is not too severe, or heading for shelter closer inshore if the forecast calls for more dire conditions. Right now we have a good forecast for the next 24 hours and so the command, crew and scientists are doing their best
to move us along.

We’ll know better what our strategy will be by the next update.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
DE 11-09 EcoMon/CliVEC cruise

Treats and tricks of a different sort

On Halloween afternoon, October 31, 2011, the Delaware II sailed from Woods Hole, Massachusetts to begin the late fall EcoMon (Ecosystem Monitoring) and CliVEC (Climate Variation East Coast) Survey.  We left under sunny skies and moderate winds, conditions far different from those present on the weekend just prior to our departure!  As is customary for this survey, we are working our way south first, to sample the Southern New England and Mid-Atlantic Bight areas, then we’ll loop back north to reach Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.  To add some festivity to our departure, one crewman donned his Halloween costume and went trick- or-treating on the vessel as we left the harbor!

Lead fisherman Todd Wilson in his shipboard Halloween costume. (Credit: Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

We were able to only reach a few of the offshore Southern New England stations before large seas forced us to head inshore.  Working closer along the coast in more moderate conditions allowed us to work our way south at a brisk pace, using all the sampling gear we have brought along, including our instrument-laden Niskin-bottle rosette, giving us profiles on water column temperatures, salinities, and chlorophyll , oxygen and light levels.  These measurements confirmed that the water column closer to shore is well-mixed, not surprising for windy coastal autumn conditions.

Crew members maneuver the rosette on the back deck of the Delaware II. (Credit: Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

The crew has been aided in their gear deployment by our new hydrographic winch on the back deck.  Literally just “out of the box”, it has functioned flawlessly and has made the gear deployment and retrieval process much less suspenseful than it used to be in rough weather!

Boatswain Adrian Martyn-Fisher running the new hydrographic winch. (Credit: Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

On Wednesday an engine problem with the safety boat carried aboard the vessel was discovered during a routine check.  With this issue plus impending bad weather approaching, the Delaware II continued working its way south along the station trackline until it was able to put into the Navy base at Little Creek, Virginia on Thursday morning for repairs and shelter.

The Delaware II docked at the Navy Base in Little Creek, Virginia. (Credit: Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Scientist Tamara Holzwarth-Davis replaces alcohol in a plankton sample while the Delaware II is docked in Virginia. (Credit: Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA).

The crew and scientists are taking advantage of this lull in sea-going operations to catch up on ship maintenance and sample processing, but are hopeful that we’ll be able to sail on Monday,  November 7, and continue working at sea again soon.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
DE 11-09

Inside the Wet Lab

Conveyor belts, stainless steel, rushing water, plastic bucket thumps, computer bleeps, bells and dings, red and green  lights, fish, fish and more fish.  These are some of the sights and sounds in the Bigelow Wet Lab.  Appropriately named  “Wet Lab”, a constant water wash streams across the floor to flush debris and slime out the scuppers.  This floating laboratory is the frontline for fish science.  Usual and not so usual species enter the lab from the net to be processed.

Bill Duffy with a spinycheek scorpionfish, one of the more unusual species, to be sampled. (Photo by Dave Chevrier, NOAA)

As the conveyor belt moves the species into the lab the most interesting location is in the first position.  This is the place where you see every species before it is sorted into the baskets, buckets and pails.  The colors of blue, turquoise, lime green, yellow, coral, and purple are brilliantly displayed under the bright fluorescent lights.  After the sort, the watch chief enters the species into the FSCS 2 program using the Latin scientific name for identification.  The barcodes on each basket, bucket or pail are scanned to uniquely identify the container and then they are weighed and sent down the line for processing at the three sampling locations.

Jakub Kircun places an angel shark on the electronic measuring board at one of the sampling stations. (Photo by Dave Chevrier, NOAA)

At each sampling location there are an abundance of tools to assist the cutter and recorder.  Barcode readers are used to scan a container, so that the recorder can confirm the species.  The container is dumped into a hopper and the sampling protocol begins.  Individual species are first placed on an electronic measuring board which sends lengths and weights to the computer.  For smaller species, a different scale is available to send the weight also.  Knives, tweezers, and scissors are the cutters’ surgical instruments to extract samples such as otoliths (fish earbones, used to determine age and growth), determine the sex of the species and examine stomach prey contents.  The computers prompt for each required data component and record the responses.  Tissue samples such as spines, scales, ovaries and whole fish are either frozen of put into jars with preservative chemicals.

After the survey, the data and samples return to the on-shore laboratory in Woods Hole where the analysis begins…

Heidi Marotta
Aboard the Henry B. Bigelow