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ECOHAB-PNW Mooring Report - 2005 Sue Geier Introduction The ECOHAB PNW: Ecology and Oceanography of Toxic Pseudo-nitzschia in the Pacific Northwest Coastal Ocean (ECOHAB) project was funded jointly by the National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Ocean Program. One of the many components of this project was to design and maintain three surface moorings to collect time series data of water properties and currents and in situ meteorological events in the Juan de Fuca eddy region. The following describes the mooring deployment, recovery, and other mooring activity for the 2005 field season. Deployment Cruise: 2005-08 The deployment cruise, 2005-08, on the Canadian Coast Guard Offshore Research and Survey Vessel John P. Tully (Tully), was scheduled for April 25-May 9, 2005. Due to changes in the Canadian customs regulations the University is no longer allowed to have employees drive trucks with equipment across the Canadian border so the University of Washington (UW) equipment was shipped from the UW to the Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS) during the week of April 11-15, arriving at IOS on Monday, April 18. All the UW equipment was loaded onboard the Tully at IOS on Monday April 25. Nicolaus Adams from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) met the ship at IOS to load 3 Aquamonitors and 2 ISUS instruments on Monday April 25 before sailing. Tom Juhasz from IOS was the Chief Scientist under the direction of Dr. Rick Thompson. The ECOHAB moorings were scheduled to be deployed on the second leg of the cruise so no one from the UW or NWFSC boarded at this time. The Tully left the dock at Patricia Bay, Vancouver Island, B.C. on the evening of April 25. Jim Johnson and Keith Magness of UW, serving as representatives for Dr. Barbara Hickey, left Seattle to drive to IOS on April 30, 2005. There they were met by Rick Thomson who drove them to Port Renfrew to join the cruise that evening. On May 1, 2005, the EH2 surface mooring on the Washington coast was deployed at 13:36PDT. The next morning, on May 2, 2005 the EH1 surface mooring in the Strait of Juan de Fuca was deployed at 09:54, followed by the EH3 surface mooring in the Juan de Fuca eddy at 15:01. Both Jim and Keith were dropped off at Tofino on May 3, where they boarded an express bus to IOS, picked up their car, and returned to Seattle. Moorings were equipped with an ARGOS satellite transmitter so that their positions could be monitored from shore. The satellite positions were checked daily for all three moorings. The moorings were also equipped with Coast Guard approved lights. The lights are amber. The flash pattern for all of the moorings is the same, 5 second quick flash 20, defined as 5, 1 second flashes followed by 15 seconds of dark, then repeated. The light at EH1, in Canadian waters, was required to be visible for 5 miles or greater, while those at EH2 and EH3, in US waters, were required to have a visibility of greater than 1 mile but less than 3 miles. In order to insure that the EH1 mooring in the Strait did not lose power to its light, Anthony Odell agreed to check its visibility from land several times over the course of the summer. The lights on the other two moorings are solar powered. EH1 mooring displacement, recovery and redeployment On Thursday, May 19, 2005 Sue Geier received a call from the US Coast Guard notifying her that they had received a report that the EH1 mooring was drifting free. Sue verified that the ARGOS position showed the mooring was in its correct position. She then notified Barbara Hickey, and Rick Thompson and Tom Juhasz at IOS who all agreed that from the ARGOS positions the mooring didn't appear to be drifting free. Sue then notified the US Coast Guard that the mooring appeared to be in place on Friday May 20. Anthony Odell was scheduled to do a visual check from the shore to verify the light was working on Friday night. He reported he was able to see the mooring light. On Monday, May 23, the ARGOS positions were indicating that the mooring may have moved out of the separation zone Sunday afternoon, May 22, between 11:18 and 15:27PDT and was now on the edge of the traffic lane. By Tuesday morning all the positions for EH1 were from approximately 3 to 4 kilometers off the original position. The US Coast Guard was notified and arrangements were made with Anthony Odell to check the light again that Friday. Tom Juhasz arranged for two Canadian Coast Guard vessels that would be passing the site in the next 24 hours to watch for it. The CCGS Tanu reported sighting it at 48-29.48N, 124-39.36W on May 24, 22:55, 1.8 nm (3.33km) ENE of its advertised position. They also reported that the light was working properly, shining brightly with the correct flash pattern and that the mooring did not appear to be damaged. This sighting confirmed the mooring was now located on the edge of the traffic lanes and would have to be recovered and moved. Rick Thompson and Tom Juhasz arranged for some additional ship time to recover and redeploy the EH1 mooring. On Monday, May 30, Tom Juhasz met the Tully while returning to IOS to recover the mooring. The recovery was completed by 18:00PDT and the Tully proceeded to IOS. The equipment was offloaded and stored until arrangements could be made to redeploy the mooring. A release and an SBE-37 were shipped to IOS to replace the release and bottom SBE-37 if necessary. On June 17, 2005, Jim Johnson drove to IOS, inspected the EH1 equipment and determined the bottom SBE-37 was not damaged and did not need to be replaced. As a precaution the release was replaced. In addition, 48 meters of chain and a danforth anchor were added to the mooring. The equipment was loaded on the Tully, which departed IOS on the morning of June 18 to redeploy the mooring. The mooring was successfully redeployed June 19 at 09:17PDT. The Tully returned to IOS that afternoon and Jim Johnson drove back to Seattle. EH4 mooring deployment Keith Magness drove to Port Angeles early June 30 where he met Jim Johnson who drove up the night before. There they met the UW Friday Harbor Lab's research vessel, the R/V Centennial, at the public fuel dock, loaded the equipment for the EH4 subsurface mooring and departed. The EH4 subsurface mooring was deployed Thursday, June 30, 2005 at 12:54PDT in 34m of water at 47-36.041N, 124-32.009W. The instrument closest to the surface was at approximately 29 m. There was no surface marker. Water samples were taken at the EH1, EH2 and EH4 mooring sites at the surface and 5 meters to compare to the fluorometer readings on the moorings. The R/V Centennial returned to Port Angeles to let Jim and Keith off July 1, 2005 so they could return to Seattle. The Centennial returned to Friday Harbor. R/V Atlantis AT11-30 During the R/V Atlantis cruise, AT11-30, July 6-27, night checks of the moorings were made to be sure the mooring lights were working. On July 13, 2005 during a routine 'drive-by' to check the light on EH3 it was discovered that the light was no longer working. The US Coast Guard was alerted. Nancy Kachel ordered a new light and arranged to have it delivered to the R/V Atlantis during the personnel exchange on Saturday, July 16 at Neah Bay. The light was replaced by Amy MacFadyen accompanied by Julian Herndon later that day between 13:00-15:00PDT. Mooring Recovery Cruise: 2005-23 Sue Geier and Jim Johnson served as representatives from Dr. Hickey's group on the mooring recovery cruise, 2005-23, scheduled for September 30 through October 10, 2005 on the Tully. Tom Juhasz from IOS was the Chief Scientist under the direction of Dr. Rick Thompson. New Security Clearances for Foreign Nationals are now required to participate on Canadian research vessels. These were requested August 8, 2005 by Tom Juhasz. Sue and Jim drove to IOS September 29 to load gear for the recovery cruise. The Tully departed September 30 at 14:00PDT. On October 2, 2005, the weather was overcast with rain and small white caps at the EH1 mooring. At 08:03PDT the release code was sent. The mooring was successfully recovered by 09:00. At 12:40 the Tully was on station EH3. The winds had increased to approximately 25 knots SE with 1-2 meter seas. The Tully hove to at the mooring site to wait until calmer conditions to recover the mooring. By 14:30 the wind died down to 15 knots W and it was deemed safe to recover the mooring. At 15:04, the release code was sent. By 16:15 the mooring was onboard. The Tully was on the EH2 site prepared for mooring recovery by 08:00PDT on October 3. The weather was cold and overcast. The release code was sent at 08:10. By 09:30 the mooring was all onboard and we departed for EH4, the only subsurface mooring, arriving at 10:05. At 10:11 the release code was sent. The mooring was sighted on the surface at 10:13. By 10:21 it was successfully recovered. All instruments were downloaded onboard the Tully immediately after recovery. On October 4, 2005, Sue and Jim were taken via small boat to Port Renfrew where they were met by an off duty Coast Guard person and driven to IOS, where they picked up their car and returned to Seattle. Acknowledgements We thank the crew and officers of CCGS J.P. Tully and the IOS/OSAP/UW mooring team of Tom Juhasz, Dave Spears, Kieth Magness and Jim Johnson for their help in the mooring deployment and recovery. We would also like to thank the crew and captain of the R/V Centennial for their help deploying the EH4 mooring. This research was supported through the Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms program by National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration/Coastal Ocean Program Award No. NA17OP2789 and National Science Foundation Award No. 0234587. Mooring recovery and deplyment on the Tully was made possible by Canadian support to Rick Thomson at IOS. Mooring Summary A summary of the deployment and recovery times and positions for each mooring is shown in the table below followed by tables showing the instrumentation on each array. ECOHAB 2005 Moorings Quick Summary
Instrumentation
Below are tables showing the instrumentation on each array. EH1 - 2005 Juan de Fuca Strait Mooring Summary
Position: 48-29.331N, 124-41.974W Depth: 255m
48-29.330N, 124-41.938W
Deployed: May 2, 2005 09:54 (+7) Recovered: May 30, 2005 17:45 (+7)
June 19, 2005 09:17 (+7) Recovered: October 2, 2005 08:03 (+7)
Abbreviations for variables measured are: EH2-2005 Washington Coast Mooring Summary Position: 47-35.789N, 124-35.906W Depth: 47m Deployed: May 1, 2005 13:36 (+7) Recovered: October 3, 2005 08:10 (+7)
EH4-2005 WA Coast Subsurface Mooring Summary Position: 47-36.041N, 124-32.009W Depth: 35m Deployed: June 30, 2005 12:54 (+7) Recovered: October 3, 2005 10:11 (+7)
EH3-2005 Eddy Mooring Summary Position: 48-17.771N, 125-27.280W Depth: 127m Deployed: May 2, 2005 15:01 (+7) Recovered: October 2, 2005 15:04 (+7)
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