FINAL CRUISE INSTRUCTIONS
NOAA Ship: MILLER FREEMAN
Cruise No: MF-97-04
FOCI No: 3MF97
Area: Shelikof Strait and eastern Bering Sea
Itinerary:28 Mar - 13 April 1997. (See Appendix Table 1 for a detailed itinerary.)
Participating organizations:
NOAA - Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC)
NOAA - Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)
Applicability:These cruise instructions in conjunction with the "FOCI Standard Operating Instructions for NOAA Ship MILLER FREEMAN, 1997" constitute the complete instructions for this cruise.
CRUISE DESCRIPTION:
Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) is an effort by academic and federal scientists to understand ecosystems and biological and physical processes that cause recruitment variability of commercially valuable fish and shellfish stocks in Alaskan waters. FOCI comprises Shelikof Strait FOCI, Bering Sea FOCI, and Southeast Bering Sea Carrying Capacity. Presently research is focused on the western Gulf of Alaska and the southeastern Bering Sea to examine the effects of the biotic and abiotic environment on the ecosystem and the early life stages of walleye pollock. FOCI uses four scientific approaches: environmental monitoring, process studies, retrospective analyses, and modeling. Research cruises address the first two approaches.
The Bering Sea green belt coincides with the Bering slope current and is characterized by apparently high chlorophyll concentrations along the Bering Sea slope during summer. The green belt is hypothesized to be a result of increased phytoplankton production caused by nutrients mixed into the region through physical processes such as tidal mixing, transverse circulation and
mesoscale eddies (Springer et al 1996, Fisheries Oceanography 5). Potential sources of nutrients to the slope current photic zone include basin water to the west and the deep water over the outer continental shelf to the east.
One of our goals during the Miller Freeman cruise MF-97-04 is to map the nutrients within and adjacent to the Bering slope current, to identify potential sources of additional nutrients to the Bering slope current, and to identify physical processes capable of bringing those nutrients into the slope current photic zone. We hope to observe potential nutrient sources on both sides of the
slope current. Our second goal is to characterize the phytoplankton abundance and species composition in the vicinity of the slope current, and our third goal is to measure the increased phytoplankton production predicted by the green belt hypothesis stated above.
CRUISE OBJECTIVES:
1Conduct a CTD transect along FOCI Line 8 in Shelikof Strait,
2.Obtain walleye pollock eggs on the southeastern Bering Sea shelf for low-temperature incubation on-board ship,
3.Conduct a CTD/ADCP survey of the Bering Slope Current from the shelf break to ~120 nm seaward along 6 sections in the eastern Bering Sea,
4.Determine the distributions of chlorophyll, dissolved inorganic nutrients (NO2+NO3, PO4, SiO4, NH3) and particulate organic material (carbon and nitrogen via mass spectrometry and organic compounds via HPLC) within and on both sides of the Bering Slope current.
5. Characterize the phytoplankton community within and on both sides of the Bering Slope current based on cell size and species composition.
6. Measure the phytoplankton production within and on both sides of the Bering Slope current.
1.0. PERSONNEL
1.1. Chief Scientist:
Edward D. (Ned) Cokelet, Ph. D. male PMEL
1.2 Participating Scientists:
Deborah Blood female AFSC
Daniel M. Dougherty male JISAO
William Rugen male AFSC
Pim Van Meurs, Ph. D. male NRC
Paul Simpson male UAF
Eric Suring male UAF
2.0. OPERATIONS
A standard oceanographic watch will be utilized consisting of a winch operator, a scientific staff of two (1 in DataPlot for CTD, 1 extracting water samples) and a Survey Tech on deck. Operations will be conducted 24 hours a day.
2.1. SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES:
As part of FOCI's continuing study of Shelikof Strait, the ship will conduct a CTD transect along line 8 (Fig. 1). Following this it will proceed southwest along the Alaskan Peninsula and through Unimak Pass to the Bering Sea.
The ship will locate aggregations of walleye pollock northwest and north of Unimak Island by running diagonal transects that span the 100-m contour (Table 1, Fig. 2). Ship's personnel will monitor the EQ-50 echosounder on the bridge to identify these aggregations. The search pattern may have to be modified to locate spawning fish, dependent on echosign encountered and other real-time information. When walleye pollock are located, a midwater trawl will be deployed. Ripe walleye pollock will be stripped and the eggs will be incubated in four refrigerators located in the fish processing lab. Once sufficient eggs are obtained for the rearing experiments, the ship will break off these operations. AFSC scientific personnel will sample the eggs throughout the incubation period (~60 days) and perform daily maintenance on the incubators (i.e., change water, remove dead eggs).
Upon completion of pollock egg collection the ship will proceed to a 4-CTD station transect north from Pribilof Canyon toward St. George Island (Fig. 2).
The ship will then proceed to Bering Slope Current station 1 near the intersection of the shelf break and the Russian border (Fig. 2). There it will begin a series of 6 CTD transects totalling 52 stations. Casts will be to within 10 m of the bottom or 1500 m, whichever is smaller. The ADCP will operate throughout the cruise, but its main application will be to measure the current in the upper 300 m of the water column along the CTD transects. This will be used to give an absolute velocity reference to the otherwise relative geostrophic currents determined from the internal mass field via CTD casts. Our goal is to process the CTD casts and ADCP transects on board for the first time. We may modify the sampling grid if the results merit. Transits between CTD lines will cut diagonally from the outer end of one transect to the inner end of the next, thus giving the widest possible ADCP coverage between CTD transects .
Depending on their availability, 1-2 satellite-tracked drifting buoys may be deployed during the cruise.
Fluorometry data and biological water samples will be collected during CTD casts using the rosette. The water will be used for measurement of total and size fraction chlorophyll concentrations, dissolved inorganic nutrients, particulate organic material, and species composition. Total and size fraction chlorophyll concentrations will be measured on board using acetone extraction. Water for other measurements will be filtered and frozen, or the filters frozen, for analysis on shore.
Additional water will be collected at the one station per day that is closest to dawn for phytoplankton production experiments. The depths for these water samples will be determined prior to or during the CTD cast, depending on conditions.
2.2 PROCEDURES FOR OPERATIONS:
The following operations are to be conducted on this cruise. Details are given in the FOCI Standard Operating Instructions. Additions or modifications to operations are addressed below.
CTD / Water Sample Operations
Two Sea-Bird 911 Plus CTDs will be used - the primary CTD with dual thermistor and conductivity cells for deep casts to 1500 m on the port side and the backup CTD for shallow casts to 300 m on the starboard side. The shallow CTD will have the fluorometer (z < 500 m), light meter (z < 1000 m) and chlorophyll absorbance meter (ChlAM, z < 300 m) attached. Double casts (one shallow and one deep) will be taken at all stations for which the water depth is less than 500 m and may be taken at deeper stations as time permits.
Once the CTD has been deployed, it should be lowered to 10 m. The deck unit should be turned on. If a ChlAM is attached, the CTD should remain at 10 m for three minutes; otherwise after 20 seconds the CTD can be returned to just below the surface. Then the data acquisition program and cassette tape should be started. The CTD should descend at a rate of 30 m/min for the first 200 m and 45 m/min below that. The ascent rate should be 50 m/min. One exception to the descent rates occurs on the Bering Shelf in water less than 150 m deep - in this case, the CTD should descend at 10 m/min during the entire cast. An entry in the MOA should be made for each CTD cast at the maximum cast depth.
CTD data will be acquired on a PMEL computer using SEASOFT software. On NOAA ships, the capability to display CTD data using the SCS system and monitors will be available. Survey technicians and scientists will keep the "CTD Cast Information/Rosette Log". Pressure, primary salinity, primary temperature, secondary temperature, fluorescence, chlorophyll concentration and light levels will be recorded on the "CTD Cast Information/Rosette Log" for all water bottle samples.
CTD Calibration: Salinity comparisons will be conducted on every cast (or as specified by the Chief Scientist). No reversing thermometers will be required. The CTD systems will be equipped with dual thermistors. A survey technician will run the AutoSal analysis during the cruise and record the readings on an AutoSal log.
Water samples will be collected during CTD upcasts using the rosette sampler. Water will normally be collected at depths of 0, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 m at all CTD stations within the Bering Sea. Additional depths will be sampled in deep water or coincident with in situ downcast chlorophyll fluorescence peaks at stations 500 m or shallower. Scientists will inform the crew if biological water samples need not be collected during a particular CTD cast.
Water from 4 additional depths will be collected at the one station per day that is closest to dawn for phytoplankton production experiments. At station depths of 1000 m or less where CTD casts will not be made on the north side of the vessel, the additional water collection depths will be determined using the
light meter attached to the CTD rosette, based on light levels measured on the downcast. At stations deeper than 1000 m or where currents and ship orientation will force deployment of the CTD on the north side of the ship, the light extinction coefficient will be determined prior to the CTD cast based on a hand lowered light meter or secchi disk, from which the depths for water collection will be determined. The method used to determine light extinction
coefficient and additional water sample depth will be determined in consultation with ships bridge personnel and/or the chief scientist as the vessel approaches the dawn station.
The water will be immediately collected from the Niskin bottles and brought to the lab. In the lab the water will be partitioned into 16 1.3 L containers and inoculated with 1 microgram atom 15-NO4. In order to avoid contamination of the water to be used for phytoplankton production experiments, scientific,
janitorial and maintenance work involving solvents or other chemicals, or work that might produce airborne dust should be avoided in the vicinity of the CTD rosette during the short time that the water is being drained or in the lab while the water is being inoculated and partitioned among experimental containers. This precaution applies only to the dawn CTD cast.
The 16 1.3 L containers will be incubated on the fan tail deck in incubation chambers with flow through seawater to maintain the temperature. After 6 hours the water will be filtered and the filters frozen for analysis on shore. The fan tail incubation chamber can be set up either during the transit from the trawl stations to the Pribilof Canyon, or from Pribilof Canyon to CTD transect I.
Trawls
Several Aleutian wing trawls may be required to collect sufficient spawning pollock. Trawls will be deployed using standard procedures for the gear requested. The Chief Scientist or watch chief will decide trawl locations, times and depths. The trawls will be conducted day or night and will depend on fish sign seen on the EQ-50 echosounder. Once a trawl is called for the fishing crew will need to be activated quickly. As per 24-hour operations, a 30-minute crew call-out period is required outside of the normal 8-hour shift.
When trawls are used to fish for ripe pollock for the purpose of obtaining eggs, trawl time should be of short duration; only long enough to descend into the school, fish for 10-15 minutes, then be brought up. The trawl should be landed as quickly as possible and emptied into the sorting table on deck. Scientific personnel will quickly sort through the catch and put suitable fish into filled sinks in the wet and/or fish processing labs. Should it be necessary to obtain more ripe fish at the same location, the trawl should be readied and re-deployed as quickly as possible.
Satellite tracked drifter buoys
ADCP
Radiometer
3.0. FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT
The following systems and their associated support services are essential to the cruise. Sufficient consumables, back-up units, and on-site spares and technical support must be in place to assure that operational interruptions are minimal. All measurement instruments are expected to have current calibrations, and all pertinent calibration information shall be included in the data package
3.1 Equipment and Capabilities to be Provided by the Ship
Simrad EQ-50 echo sounder ,
2 trawl winches for Aleutian wing trawl,
WesMar 3rd wire trawl sonar system with winch,
Furuno acoustic link with net sonde (backup),
Commercial refrigerator for dark/light incubation (4°C),
Laboratory space for chlorophyll determinations, ~20 linear feet.
Sea-water hose inside fish processing lab,
Uncontaminated seawater,
Adequate deck lighting for night-time operations,
Safety harnesses for working on quarter deck and fantail.
Oceanographic winch with slip rings and 3-conductor cable terminated for CTD,
Sea-Bird 911 plus CTD system to be used with PMEL stand (primary system)
(The underwater CTD unit should have mounts compatible with the PMEL CTD stand).
Sea-Bird 911 plus CTD system with stand (back up system)
(Each CTD system should include: underwater CTD, deck unit , tape recorder, weights, and pinger).
10-liter sampling bottles for use with rosette (10 plus 4 spares),
For CTD field corrections: IAPSO water and AUTOSAL salinometer,
Wire speed indicator and readout,
For meteorological observations: 2 anemometers (one the R. M. Young system interfaced to the SCS), calibrated air thermometer (wet-and dry-bulb) and a calibrated barometer and/or barograph,
Freezer space for storage of nutrient samples (blast and storage freezers),
Simrad EQ-50 echo sounder ,
JRC JFV-200R color sounder recorder,
RDI ADCP with PC-compatible data acquisition computer and SyQuest drives,
Use of IBM-PC-clone Windows NT workstation in DataPlot for data analysis,
SCS (Shipboard Computer System),
Navigational equipment including GPS and radar ,
Secchi disk,
3.2 Equipment to be Provided by the Project
Aleutian wing trawl (and 1 backup) for midwater trawls,
4 Fishbuster trawl doors (2 + 2 backups),
3 small refrigerators for dark incubation,
Dissecting microscope,
Miscellaneous supplies for collecting and maintaining live eggs,
Temperature recorder,
Sorting tables, baskets for processing trawl catches.
Laboratory equipment for the analysis of nutrient samples
Sea-Bird SBE-19 Seacat, SBE 36 deck unit, SBE Power Data Interface Module (PDIM), and SBE 5T pump (primary system),
PMEL PC with SEASOFT software for CTD data collection and processing,
Fluorometer, light meter, and chlorophyll absorbance meter (ChlAM) to be mounted on CTD,
CTD stand modified for attachment of fluorometer,
Temperature thermistors for CTDs (one for primary system, one for back up system),
CTD rosette sampler
Spare wire angle indicator,
Argos tracked drifter buoys,
Turner designs field fluorometer
centrifuge
tissue grinder
vacuum pumps (2)
6 filter manifold (2)
filter towers
glassware, consumables, etc.
Wetlabs wet star fluorometer (if required)
De-ionized (D.I.) water columns
Hand lowered LICOR light meter (maybe)
3.3. Scientific Computer System (SCS)
3.4. Seachest and Uncontaminated Seawater
3.5. Ultra-cold Freezer Requirements
4.0. DATA AND REPORTS
Data requirements, responsibilities and requirements are listed in the FOCI Standard Operating Instructions.
5.0. ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS
5.3. Piggyback Projects: None at this time.
6.0. MISCELLANEOUS
6.5. Hazardous Materials
The Chief Scientist shall be responsible for complying with NC Instruction 6280A, Hazardous Waste; policy, guidance, and training, dated February 4, 1991, paragraph 7.g and paragraph 9. By federal law, the ship may not sail without a complete inventory of MSDS, and appropriate neutralizing agents, buffers, and/or absorbents in amounts adequate to address spills of a size equal to the amount aboard.
The following hazardous materials will be provided and controlled by the scientists with the Chief Scientist assuming responsibility for the safe handling of such substances:
1) Chemicals needed for study:
Acetone, 90%:
3N Hydrochloric Acid (MSDS provided for 12N HCl): Acid.
HEALTH - 3 SEVERE (POISON)
FLAMMABILITY - 0 NONE
REACTIVITY - 2 MODERATE
CONTACT - 3 SEVERE (CORROSIVE)
0.5N HCl (MSDS provided for 1N HCl): Acid
HEALTH - 3 SEVERE (POISON)
FLAMMABILITY - 0 NONE
REACTIVITY - 2 MODERATE
CONTACT - 3 SEVERE (CORROSIVE)
Magnesium carbonate, N-Hydrate (MgCO3): Salt
HEALTH - 1 SLIGHT
FLAMMABILITY - 0 NONE
REACTIVITY - 1 SLIGHT
CONTACT - 0 NONE
Formalin (100%) (chemical name - formaldehyde, 37%):
HEALTH - SEVERE CANCER HAZARD
FLAMMABILITY - MODERATE
REACTIVITY - MODERATE
CONTACT - SEVERE HAZARD
3)Personal Protection Equipment: Acetone and Acid, rubber gloves.
4)MSDS provided for all UAF chemicals. MSDS for AFSC chemical (formalin) is already aboard ship.
6)Special storage required for HCL (acid), unused acetone (flammable) and acetone waste (flammable). These chemicals will be stored in 4 L glass bottles, 2 for HCl and 3 for acetone.
7)Acid will be securely boxed for transport to and from the ship.
8)UAF will load and unload their chemicals personally.
9)UAF personnel will offload their unused chemicals and provide inventories after cruise. Unused formalin, the only AFSC chemical used during this cruise, will remain aboard.
7.0. COMMUNICATIONS
Communications requirements and procedures are listed in the FOCI Standard Operating Instructions.
8.0. APPENDICES
Table 1: Itinerary
Figure 1:Chart of Shelikof Strait Line 8 CTD stations.
Figure 2:Chart of Bering Sea CTD stations and trawling area.
Material Safety Data Sheets for
Magnesium carbonate,
acetone,
hydrochloric acid (1 N),
hydrochloric acid, and