Education Comes In Many Forms

We have covered a lot of ground since the last update.  After the wind died down we were finally able to leave our Provincetown anchorage and head up into the Gulf of Maine where we sampled a “loop” of stations to cover as much territory as we could before the next predicted storm system forced us to dock in Portland Maine.

Victor Coleman washes mud from the anchor
chain as the Pisces prepares to leave Provincetown harbor. Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA

While there we hosted tours of our vessel for researchers and staff from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).  They in turn invited us to visit their impressive facility which was conveniently located just down the road from the state pier where we were docked.  We learned that the GMRI has a multifaceted mission of fostering research, education and sustainable fisheries for the Gulf of Maine.

Gulf of Maine Research Institute staff visit the Pisces while the ship is docked at the Portland State Pier.
Photo by Petri Tuohimaa, GMRI

NOAA Corps Officer Doug Pawlishen gives a tour of the Pisces bridge to GMRI staff during our Portland port call. Photo by Petri Tuohimaa, GMRI

Their gracious hosting of the ship’s complement helped us pass the time while we waited for the weather to abate, which it did by Friday morning, when we left Portland and returned to work.   With cruise time now limited to just a few remaining days we sampled what we could in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank before still another storm system forced us to seek shelter in Narragansett Bay.  We stayed there overnight and calibrated our acoustic fish-locating system, which we had been unable to do when we were anchored off of Provincetown.

NOAA researcher Mike Jech holds up a 38 mm metal sphere placed under the hull for acoustic calibrations while anchored in Narragansett Bay. Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA

On Monday morning we left our Rhode Island anchorage and finished the last part of the cruise completing sampling of Southern New England waters.  Even though pressed for time sampling as much as they could in the few remaining days, the scientists still managed to squeeze in one more mission; that of education.

Decorated styrofoam cups from Fishing Cove School second graders, shrunken at depth by Pisces scientists. Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA

They brought out with them fifty-one Styrofoam cups, creatively decorated by second graders from the Fishing Cove Elementary School in North Kingstown, RI.  By placing them in a mesh bag attached to the CTD/Niskin bottle water sampling array, and submerging them during deep water casts, the scientists were able to shrink the cups to about one fourth of their original size, dramatically demonstrating how pressure increases with depth in the ocean.

Scientists working up the mid-water trawl catch in the Pisces wet lab. Photo by Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA

Chief engineer Garet Urban brightens up a dreary day with a barbecue while we are anchored in Narragansett Bay. Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA

Now in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, we have just completed our last station and are heading back to Narragansett Bay to dock at the Newport Naval Station in Rhode Island.  It has been a very difficult cruise in terms of weather, but we are fortunate to have achieved as much survey coverage as we have due to the very hard work of the Pisces command and crew, who did everything they could to assist us with our sampling.  Now they will be returning to their home port in Pascagoula, Miss., after they deliver us to Newport.   I wish them a safe and speedy return home.  We are very grateful to them for their efforts and camaraderie that they shared with us, and hope that we will have an opportunity to sail with them again soon.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
PC 13-01 Northeast Pelagic Survey

Wind and Weather Rule

The forecast for the predicted Sunday storm was right on target, with winds and seas increasing dramatically during the wee hours of Sunday morning.  By mid-morning after a hard slog from our last station, the Pisces dropped anchor just outside of Provincetown, tucked in snugly under the very tip of Cape Cod.  The winds are still increasing and we are seeing gusts of better than 50 knots with some regularity this Sunday evening.  The ship is also enshrouded with snow, although precipitation ended earlier today.

The midwater trawl, rolled up onto its reel, covered in snow. Photo by Lt. Kyle Byers, NOAA Corps.

The side sampling station on the starboard side of
Pisces, with snow on the deck. Note that the Niskin bottle sampling rosette and CTD unit are secured to a bulkhead on the right side of the photo and protected from ice by a blue cover. Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA.

We’ve done very well until this point in time, having completed a total of seventy four stations from North Carolina to Southern New England and even the southwest corner of Georges Bank in just one week.  These stations have included four midwater trawls, twenty three rosette casts and forty seven bongo plankton tows.  The NASA personnel have also conducted several hand-deployed radiometer casts on days when it was not too rough or raining.  Our marine bird and mammal observers have been working steadily in two-hour shifts, to document all sightings along our cruise track.  The midwater trawl catches, all very small (less than one bushel basket), have included spiny dogfish, myctophids (lantern fish), pearlsides (another family of bioluminescent fish), small squid, and some butterfish.

NOAA Corps Officer Jim Europe on anchor watch, peering through the ice-encrusted bridge windows. Note the Pilgrim Monument sticking up from the shoreline, just visible in front of Jim’s face. Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA

Now however, we are pinned down by very strong winds, which are forecast to last well into Monday.  Our plan is to assess the situation on Monday afternoon and then determine whether it will be safe to leave before nightfall or on Tuesday morning to head north and inshore into the Gulf of Maine.  We have ten days until we return to Newport Rhode Island which is enough time to finish sampling the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank, but the long range forecast doesn’t look good for offshore, where most of the remaining stations are located.

Crewman Ryan Harris knocking ice off the bridge windows and windshield wipers. Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC NOAA.

In the meantime we are doing what we can while at anchor.  Mike Jech, our midwater trawl expert, may conduct a calibration of the acoustic transducers used to “see” fish schools in the water column.  He is waiting for there to be less wave agitation and fewer air bubbles in the water column to get a clearer image from targets lowered over the side.  This eight-hour process will allow him to check out the performance of four transducers, each tuned to a different sound frequency to give a return from organisms ranging in size from plankton to fish.  Patrick Bergin and Reed Maloney, the electronics technician and ship’s engineer, spent some time studying the movement of the huge rack and pinion mechanism that raises and lowers the centerboard where the transducers are located, from an inspection hatch in the floor of the bridge deck.

Looking down into the centerboard trunk from the bridge access hatch. Note the water visible since it is open to the ocean to
permit lowering of the centerboard from the hull. Photo by Lt. Kyle Byers, NOAA Corps.

Although it is frustrating to be stuck at anchor, we have only to hear the sounds of the wind blowing across the hull and feel the ship movement even in this sheltered anchorage, to know this is a far better situation to be in than somewhere offshore!

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
PC 13-01 Northeast Pelagic Survey

Better Weather Offshore than On

Valentine’s Day Update:  Thursday 14 February 2013

The NOAA vessel Pisces has made a great deal of progress since our last update.  The weather has been remarkably cooperative for February, and although we’ve had some winds and seas, plus rain and snow, we’ve been able to keep working at a rapid clip, and now find ourselves approximately 40 miles south-southwest of Montauk Point, Long Island, conducting our second midwater trawl.  Our first midwater trawl was done 50 miles off the coast of New Jersey, and yielded 14-15 spiny dogfish, many small squid and 1 butterfish.  The total volume did not exceed a one bushel basket.

Despite the large size of this net, our first midwater tow yielded only a one bushel basket-sized tow of spiny dogfish and squid, plus a single butterfish. Photo by Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA

Plankton catches have been light, and very typical for this area and time of year.  Water column temperature and salinity has also been fairly typical for this season, being well mixed and showing little evidence of any thermo- or haloclines in most of our casts.  We had been plagued by intermittent but persistent problems with our water sampler on the Niskin bottle rosette, but today the equally persistent scientists and electronics technician on board have tracked down and corrected several problems, involving both hardware and software and the most recent casts conducted just prior to my writing this went very smoothly.

The Niskin bottle rosette sampler is now functioning smoothly, thanks to patient troubleshooting by NOAA scientists Tamara Holwarth-Davis, Chris Melrose and Jon Hare, and by Patrick Bergin, the Pisces electronics technician. The calm seas evident in this photograph have been the norm for much of this cruise, quite unlike that experienced ashore along much of the east coast. Photo by Chris
Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA

The midwater trawl being deployed from the stern gantry of the Pisces. The net is nearly one hundred meters (roughly 300 feet) long! Photo by Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA

I fear that our streak of excellent weather will end this Sunday, as a front with strong winds is forecast to come through the Southern New England area.  The captain has proposed targeting as many offshore stations as possible prior to that event, a strategy which has already worked very well for us farther south.  We’ll be on our way inshore to calmer waters near Cape Cod when the worst of the storm hits.  The art to this is all in the timing.  If we stay offshore too long, we’ll get caught in the winds and seas and have to stop working.  If we come inshore too soon we could end up finishing work on all the nearby inshore stations and have to stop working until we can get back offshore.  The command aboard the Pisces is quite adept at this game.  Our November ecosystem monitoring cruise last year on this vessel was during Hurricane Sandy and the huge un-named nor’easter that followed it.  They had us out sampling prior to the storms, in for shelter for the worst weather, and quickly back out as the seas subsided, using the superior speed of these newer vessels to best accomplish this.

A screen image captured from the NOAA Ship Tracker page shows the progress being made by the Pisces as the ship works its way northward along the continental shelf. Screen capture by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA.

One fact that has been a cause for concern is that, ironically, we have had better weather at sea than many of our families have had ashore.  While many ashore have had to endure blizzards and power outages, we have continued in relative comfort, by comparison.  I admire the spirit with which everyone aboard has carried on while saddled with concerns about how their families were faring during the worst of the storms that hit much of the east coast.  Of course in our modern age we are able to communicate with much more regularity than we could on past cruises, but it is still not the same as being there with your family when life becomes difficult at home.    I’d like to say thank you, on this Valentine’s Day, to everyone on board who is continuing to make this cruise possible while so far from their loved ones.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
PC 13-01 Northeast Pelagic Survey

The first Integrated Northeast Pelagic Survey underway

The NOAA vessel Pisces departed from the Atlantic Marine Operations Center in Norfolk, Virginia at 0930 Sunday morning on 10 February after being pinned down there by winter storm NEMO for a couple of days after our scheduled departure date.

The PISCES (right) at the Atlantic Marine Center in Norfolk, where
it was tied up alongside the HENRY B. BIGELOW, just prior to sailing for
this cruise.  Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA.

.

The scientists from the Integrated Northeast Pelagic Survey
gathered in the PISCES conference room for a pre-cruise meeting prior
to sailing.  Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA.

We are currently off the coast of Virginia and working our way north from the southern-most part of our scheduled survey area. Winds and seas came down considerably from the storm-force conditions that plagued this area
prior to sailing, and although they have risen again we are making
excellent progress as we head north along the planned cruise track.

This cruise is entitled the Northeast Pelagic survey, and may be the
first multidisciplinary survey for the Northeast Fisheries Science
Center in terms of the broad scope of its scientific coverage.  The
ship is deploying a CTD 911 with Niskin bottles for hydrographic and
water quality studies.  Large and small bongo plankton nets are being
used for studying taxonomic, abundance and distribution and genetics
of lower trophic level organisms as well as collecting fish larvae and
eggs.  We have a large midwater trawl for upper trophic level studies.

 The wet lab of the PISCES, serving as a scientific storeroom
and a fish processsing area for midwater trawl catches.  Photo by
Chris Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA.

The midwater trawl will be deployed opportunistically, based upon
what we observe in the water column on the acoustic returns from the
sensors that are running continuously throughout the cruise.  The
ship’s scientific flow-through seawater system is also running
continuously, collecting along-track chlorophyll levels, and
temperature and salinity data.   We have three scientists from NASA
joining us to take light level readings from above and below the sea
surface for correlation with satellite data, as well as water samples
from various depths in the water column being analyzed for total
alkalinity and dissolved inorganic carbon.

 NASA scientist  Aimee Neeley in the chemistry lab of the
PISCES with all the gear from the NASA scientists.  Photo by Chris
Melrose, NEFSC/NOAA.

We are also collecting water samples from various depths to measure
nutrient levels for researchers from the University of Maine. Marine bird observers from Cornell University and the City University of New York are stationed on the flying bridge, tallying bird and marine mammals along our cruise track.  The flying bridge also has a radiometer from the NASA scientists to monitor light levels and a bat detector tuned to detect and log sounds emitted by bats that we may encounter along our cruise track.

Although this is a large ship, we have managed to fill every available
scientific space on board with supplies and instrumentation!

At this point in time, Monday night 11 February, we have completed
seventeen stations using our bongo nets and CTD 911/Niskin bottle
rosette.  There have not been any midwater trawls done yet, but we are
hoping to get our first one done when we are further offshore on
Tuesday.  Everyone on board is happy to be out here working after
waiting for a break in the extreme weather that plagued so much of the
east coast.  Another front is scheduled to be coming through here
soon, but hopefully we’ll not see anything of the magnitude of what we
have recently experienced!

Jerry Prezioso
Chief scientist
PC 13-01 Northeast Pelagic Survey

Cruise Completed: 169 stations in 18 days at sea

This will be my last update for this cruise since we are due to dock at the Newport Naval Station in Rhode Island this afternoon.  At the moment, Friday morning, 24 August, we are transiting the Cape Cod Canal, affording us an opportunity to clean up and pack up a mountain of gear which has been brought aboard by the three groups that have shared this cruise:  NOAA, NASA and Old Dominion University (ODU).  The last group, ODU, has been conducting primary productivity analyses in outdoor tubs, shaded to represent the light levels at varying depths of the water column.   These are mounted out on the stern deck of the Henry Bigelow, and at four feet by four feet, represent some of the more cumbersome gear that will have to be offloaded.

ODU graduate student Brittany Widner removing samples from the incubators mounted on the stern deck of the Henry Bigelow. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

We have completed our entire cruise track including the most northern ones near the Bay of Fundy that are frequently missed when we are pressed for time.  One hundred and sixty nine stations have been completed in our eighteen days at sea, which may be a record for our group!  Only three outlying stations, one to the south, east and west were trimmed as we played the game of how best to utilize our scheduled time to accomplish as much as possible.  This remarkable productivity comes from a variety of factors, with the excellent weather certainly playing a large part, having allowed us to work during every day of the trip.

Juvenile butterfish (top) and mackerel (bottom) caught in bongo net samples from the Gulf of Maine. The butterfish is 30 mm (  inches) long and the mackerel is 50 mm ( inches) long. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

A bigger part however was the way everyone on board worked to accomplish our common goals.  Scientists from the different groups coordinated their sometimes divergent needs to allow everyone to get the most data from this cruise.  The crew, some of them old friends and some new ones that I’ve met for the first time, all pitched in to get our gear deployed and retrieved safely time and again at all hours.  Other crew members, such as engineering, and electronics, were right there to fix things when any problems arose, and the food from our stewards was unbelievably good!  The command was very supportive, with ideas on improving our track-lines to shave time from our transits.

Two students (wearing hardhats), Sammi Ocher from Northeastern on the left, and Mac Hoggan from UMass Amherst on the right, did extra duties on this cruise, including washing nets and deploying gear. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

We left a bit short-handed on this trip, due to some personnel that were unable to come at the last minute.  However the vessel’s survey technicians Jim Burkitt and Amanda Andrews pitched in to help out on the science side, while a student intern, Mac Hoggan filled in as a deck-hand on the midnight to noon watch in addition to his science duties.  Even one of the bird watchers, Northeastern student Sammi Ocher, left the flying bridge to come and wash plankton nets and preserve samples when we were backed up.  Finally, Betsy Broughton, from our Oceanography Branch, was kind enough to sign up at the last minute to help fill out the science roster.  She also identified larval and juvenile fish much more reliably than I could!

To all of these remarkable people, I say thank you!  It was truly a pleasure sailing with you.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
HB 12-05 EcoMon/CliVEC Survey

Rare birds and good weather

The Henry Bigelow crossed over into the Gulf of Maine late Saturday night (August 18).  On the strength of continued good weather we’ve made excellent progress and are now back in Canadian waters as we work our way north along the far eastern portion of our cruise track towards Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy area.  It looks like we’ll be able to reach just about the entire Gulf of Maine in the time remaining for this cruise.

Our catches have been very typical for this area.  Lots of Calanus copepods, easily recognized with their deep red color from the oil in their bodies, and at night we’ve been getting euphausiids and some shrimp.  Senior survey tech Jim Burkitt found a myctophid (lantern fish) about 4 centimeters long in one of the night tows.  Betsy Broughton, watch chief on the midnight to noon watch, has been observing red hake juveniles in a number of the tows from this area.

Red hake juvenile captured in our bongo nets at a Gulf of Maine station. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

I haven’t said anything about the marine birds and mammals seen during this cruise by our observers, Holly Goyert and Tom Johnson.  I’m going to append an update from Tom that provides an excellent description of some of their observations, including a remarkable one of a rarely seen bird.

A Barolo Shearwater, never before photographed in Canadian waters. This species breeds in the Macaronesian Islands, a small group of islands in the eastern Atlantic, just west of the Straits of Gibraltar, and is extremely rare in North American waters. (Photo by Tom Johnson, Cornell University)

A White-faced Storm Petrel, another first photograph from Canadian waters. This species has only been sighted once before in these waters. (Photo by Tom Johnson, Cornell University)

The marine mammal and bird observation team on the flying bridge of the Henry Bigelow (left to right): Tom Johnson, Holly Goyert and Sammi Ocher.   (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
HB 12-05 EcoMon/CliVEC Survey

______________

Bird Observation News:
I just wanted to share some cool sightings and photos from yesterday, 17 August. When we were out in the ~1700m deep water off the shelf edge around 11:50 AM, I spotted a tiny shearwater that I’d never seen before – it was a Barolo Shearwater (Puffinus baroli), a species that breeds in the Macaronesian Islands of the eastern Atlantic and has only been recorded off North America about 5 times previously. I was able to get some photos, so this is the first Barolo photographed at sea in Canadian waters. I was even more excited later when Holly and Sammi joined me and we found 3 more of these super rare Barolo Shearwaters, as well as 2 White-faced Storm-Petrels and 1 Audubon’s Shearwater (the White-faced Storm-Petrel and Audubon’s Shearwater have each been sighted once before in Canadian waters, but had never been photographed at sea in Canada until yesterday, as far as I can dig up). Combined with great whale activity (humpback, fin, sperm, and a few small pods of pilot whale sp.), yesterday was a fantastic day for us up on the flying bridge!

Some photos of these birds can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonxie88/

Tom Johnson
on the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow in the NW Atlantic Ocean

Sand waves and some luck

We crossed the Great South Channel and started working on Georges Bank on Wednesday afternoon (August 15).  We are being blessed with excellent weather for working in this region, notorious for its rough seas, shoal areas and lack of any shelter from approaching storms.  Even in calm seas there is drama below the surface when working the shoal areas.  Last night we encountered an area of tremendous sand waves at station 30-7 which is located squarely in the shoal area of Georges Bank.  We were very lucky and missed having our bongo nets hit a 20-meter-high sand wave  (about 65 feet high, and one of several) by just a few minutes!  Instead we not only missed the sand, but were able to catch a tiny juvenile lobster about 15 mm long.  The station before that one, also on the shoals, had juvenile windowpane flounder and silver hake.  The flounder juveniles were up to 40 mm and the silver hake up to 50 mm in length.  All of these animals were caught using only our 61 cm diameter bongo nets, since we finished our Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawls yesterday.

Isaacs-Kidd Midwater Trawl being hauled aboard the Henry Bigelow. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Bongo nets and CTD unit being deployed from the Henry Bigelow. (Photo by Sammi Ocher, Northeastern University)

Sammi Ocher, Northeastern University graduate student, washing a plankton sample from the bongo net. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

As I am writing this on Friday afternoon (August 17)  we are in Canadian waters, on the northeast peak of Georges Bank, heading for a station in the Northeast Channel.  We’ll be working our way back west across the northern flank of Georges for the remainder of today and part of tomorrow, then proceed on into the Gulf of Maine, where we have until Thursday afternoon to finish sampling before returning home.

Silver hake and windowpane flounder juveniles caught on Georges Bank in the bongo nets. The silver kake at the top of the photo is 50 mm long (roughly 2 inches), the windowpane flounder in the middle is 40 mm long (about an inch and a half). (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

 

A juvenile lobster caught on Georges Bank in the bongo net. It is about 15 mm long, or just over a half-inch. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Net tow and bottom profile showing the tow profile of a bongo net on the left (purple line), and a 20-meter-high sand wave that the bongo nets just missed, on the right (blue line). Screen capture by Senior Survey Tech Jim Burkitt, MOC-A, NOAA.

Time will be tight, but with our continuing good weather, and everything (and everyone!) working at full capacity, we have a good chance, I believe, to cover most of the Gulf of Maine area.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
HB 12-05 EcomMn/CliVEC cruise

Celebrating the Olympics at Sea

On Wednesday morning, August 15, the Henry Bigelow has reached the Great South Channel and is poised to be on Georges Bank early this afternoon.  We have now completed seventy nine stations, including a half dozen tows with our Isaacs Kidd midwater trawl.  The last of these tows caught large numbers of flounder larvae at station 19-1 SNE which is located 63 nautical miles south of Block Island,  Rhode Island.  Subsequent tows made since then with our bongo nets have had a variety of small unidentified fish larvae in them.  As we neared Nantucket Shoals the catches have been dominated by increasing numbers of chaetognaths (arrow worms) and gammarid amphipods to the point where they obscure everything else in the sample.  The gammarid amphipods are also extremely difficult to wash out of the nets! Our last tow made in the vicinity of the Great South Channel had fewer of these fortunately, and a large number and variety of fish larvae in it.

NASA scientist Mike Novak holding a hand-deployed radiometer for measuring light penetration from the surface and sub-surface backscatter. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

We are continuing with our NASA-related light measurements and yesterday at noon took the opportunity of clear sky conditions and calm seas to test a second radiometer, a smaller red and black unit dubbed “Robin” in keeping with the “Batman” designation of the larger unit that we have been using daily.  The smaller radiometer proved more cumbersome to use as it requires adjustments to be made to the angle of its light sensors depending on sea-conditions encountered during deployment.

Radiometers mounted on the flying bridge of the Henry Bigelow provide light measurements for comparison with the submersible radiometers. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

As a result we will continue using the larger unit and possibly do only one other comparison test.  The big issue for us at the moment is time.  With nine working days remaining in our schedule we are at the midpoint for time but still not at the mid-point of our cruise track, and are forced to prioritize missions in order to best accomplish our multiple objectives.

Chief survey tech Jim Burkitt, Commanding Officer Kurt Zegowitz and Electronics tech Billy Dowdell cue up at the ice cream bar on Ice Cream Social and Bingo Night aboard the Henry Bigelow. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

The weather has been wonderfully calm and sunny and we have a good forecast for the next few days which is always encouraging when you are about to head out onto Georges Bank!  After nine days at sea the ship, our sampling gear and all personnel are still running well and getting along wonderfully!  One CTD unit (measures temperature, salinity and depth) used with our bongo nets had a switch failure, but was promptly swapped out with a spare unit by Jim Burkitt, the Chief Survey Technician, with no further issues since then.  We’ve also had an ice-cream social and bingo night organized by our stewards, Dennis Carey and Jeremy Howard, commemorating the end of the Olympics and demonstrating that going to sea does not have to be dull!

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
EcoMon/CliVEC Survey HB 12-05

Bongos, Batman and rosettes

Since our last update on Thursday (August 9) the Henry Bigelow has made considerable progress along its cruise track.  Early Saturday morning we reached the southernmost point of this survey and now are looping back to the north, picking up our inshore stations from the Middle Atlantic Bight Region.  We hit our first real weather on Friday night when winds and seas reduced our progress to 5 knots and less for awhile, but the crew and scientists were able to keep working, albeit at a slower pace, deploying both bongo nets and rosettes.  The only equipment we did not use was a hand-deployed submersible radiometer and CTD unit, dubbed “Batman” by the crew owing to its black color and futuristic shape.  Now, on Saturday afternoon, the weather is much improved and we are soon to be engaged in an “everything” station, where all our gear; bongo nets, “Batman” and the rosette, will be deployed sequentially in that order before sunset.

 

The submersible radiometer, dubbed “Batman” by the crew due to its black finish and futuristic shape, is hand deployed by NASA scientist Scott Freeman. He is measuring light penetration from the surface and light reflecting upwards from the seafloor with this device. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

NASA scientist Dirk Aurin is receiving the data from the submersible radiometer in real time while the laptop computer in front of him is comparing the light measured from beneath the sea surface to that measured by a device mounted on the ship’s superstructure. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

To date we have completed 44 stations.  Of these 20 have involved rosette operations, the remainder were plankton tows.  Three of the plankton stations involved comparative tows between bongo samplers of different sizes and a six-foot wide Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl.  Betsy Broughton has observed a number of fish larvae from the Sciaenidae family which includes Atlantic Croaker and Spot.  These were seen in plankton tows taken as we were heading south, well offshore from the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware.   I’ve noticed a number of ribbed medusae of about 8 to 12 cm in diameter in offshore stations further south, off the coast of Virginia.

A large ribbed medusa, several centimeters in diameter, one of many captured by our plankton nets off the coast of Virginia. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

With the improving weather we should be able to complete sampling operations in the Mid-Atlantic Bight sometime on Monday, leaving us adequate time to sample the northern portions of this survey on Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.  The Bigelow has been able to make 11-12 knots in calm seas, and all the scientific equipment (there is a lot of it on this trip!) is functioning well.  The crew, command and scientists have gotten into a routine now, integrating sometimes unscheduled stops for sunrise, noon and sunset rosettes for our NASA and ODU colleagues into the pre-determined station pattern.  With roughly about one hundred and twenty stations left, we are making a good start on this survey!

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
EcoMon/CliVEC Survey HB 12-05

A little bit of everything

At noon on Tuesday, August 7, 2012 the Henry Bigelow left Pier 2 at the Naval Station in Newport, RI to start what is to be the last of a joint series of cruises between the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), NASA and Old Dominion University (ODU), under the Climate Variability on the East Coast Program (CliVEC).

Upon departure from the Newport Naval Station, the FSV Henry Bigelow passes the Coast Guard buoy tenders on Pier 2. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Working together, these three institutions have a number of diverse missions with a common goal: a better understanding of the biology and hydrography of the northeast continental shelf waters of the US, from Cape Hatteras to Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.  Over the course of the eighteen-day cruise, the NEFSC will conduct over 130 plankton tows using a variety of bongo plankton nets and an Isaacs-Kidd Midwater Trawl to look for larval fish and study zooplankton distribution and abundance.

Scientists from NASA and ODU at work in the Henry Bigelow‘s chemistry lab space. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

Working together, the NEFSC, NASA & ODU scientists will conduct over forty vertical water casts using a Niskin bottle rosette sampler armed with a suite of electronic sensors to get water column profiles of temperature and salinity as well as light, chlorophyll and oxygen levels.  Water samples taken at various depths will be filtered and analyzed for particulate organic matter, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity and nutrients, while the ODU contingent will use some of the collected water to conduct primary productivity experiments. Even the surface water that the ship sails through will be analyzed with a variety of instruments to measure additional parameters, such as near-surface carbon dioxide levels for example, using the vessel’s flow-through seawater system.

Carbon dioxide and nitrate measuring unit analyzing seawater from the Bigelow‘s Flow Through Seawater System. (Photo by Jerry Prezioso, NEFSC/NOAA)

In addition to all this sampling, we also have three researchers from Northeastern University, Cornell University and the City University of New York to observe and record marine mammals and birds sighted while the ship transits between stations.  This is definitely a well-staffed, multi-objective cruise!

Now, on a sunny, calm Thursday morning, the Henry Bigelow is steadily working its way south about 70 miles off the coast of New Jersey.  Plankton catches yesterday were dominated by hyperiid amphipods, small crustaceans less than one centimeter long with huge compound eyes that cover their heads.  There were a couple of small, unidentified fish larvae in two of the plankton samples taken last night, south and well offshore of the New York Bight.  There has been very little gelatinous zooplankton, which has made collecting and preserving the samples much easier!

All systems on the boat are working well.  We have three separate winches on board, one each for bongo net sampling, vertical rosette water casts and Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawls.  The midwater trawling is done off the stern of this vessel, while all other sampling takes place off the starboard side.  Despite the large size of the Henry Bigelow, our NASA and ODU colleagues have managed to cover every available counter top in the lab areas with their filtering apparatus setups and other paraphernalia, much as they did when we last sailed together aboard the much smaller Delaware II!  Some things never change!  There is definitely enough room for all of us to carry on comfortably however, and I’m impressed by the way everyone has been working together to pitch in when extra hands are needed.

That’s all the news from the Henry Bigelow today.  I’ll follow with more updates in the days to come, and try to highlight some of the interesting work being carried out.

Jerry Prezioso
Chief Scientist
HB 12-05 Ecomon/CliVEC Survey