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ECOHAB-PNW Mooring Report - 2006 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 2006 field season. Deployment Cruise: 2006-10 The deployment cruise, 2006-10, on the Canadian Coast Guard Offshore Research and Survey Vessel (CCGS) Vector, was scheduled for May 29–June 12, 2006. The University of Washington (UW) equipment was shipped from the UW to the Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS) during the week of May 15–19, arriving at IOS on Friday, May 26. Jim Johnson from the UW, serving as the representative for Dr. Barbara Hickey, drove to IOS on May 26, 2006. All the UW equipment was loaded onboard the CCGS Vector at IOS before sailing Monday, May 29, 2006. Tom Juhasz from IOS was the Chief Scientist under the direction of Dr. Richard Thompson. The ECOHAB 2006 moorings were scheduled to be deployed on the first leg of the cruise. The CCGS Vector left the dock at Patricia Bay, Vancouver Island, B.C. on the evening of May 29th. On May 30, 2006, the EH2 surface mooring on the Washington coast was deployed at 14:47 PDT. EH3, the surface mooring in the Juan de Fuca Eddy, was deployed on June 1 at 12:59 PDT, followed by EH1, the surface mooring in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, on June 2 at 20:59 PDT. The Vector returned to IOS on June 4 to drop Jim off before continuing the rest of the cruise. Jim returned to Seattle later that day. The surface moorings were equipped with an ARGOS satellite transmitter in order to monitor their positions from shore. The satellite positions were checked daily for all three moorings. Less than 24 hours after EH2 was deployed the transmitter stopped transmitting. Luckily, the R/V Wecoma was working in the vicinity and had a spare drifter with an ARGOS transmitter that they attached to the mooring June 11. The ARGOS transmitter on the Straits mooring failed to initialize before deployment so a spare transmitter owned by IOS was attached to the mooring as a back up. Shortly after deployment both transmitters were broadcasting, although the backup transmitter ran out of battery power and discontinued broadcasting August 29. On July 23, the transmitter on the EH2 mooring stopped transmitting. We arranged for a pilot to fly over and confirm the mooring was still in position and was not drifting free. Because of poor visibility the earliest the pilot could get out to search for the mooring was July 28. It was sighted in its correct position and did not appear to have sustained any damage. The Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary had a mooring maintenance cruise scheduled for August 8 in the vicinity of EH2 and generously agreed to take Anthony Odell with them to try to attach another transmitter, weather and time permitting. The attempt was successful and a new transmitter was attached August 8, 2006. 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 beginning June 12. The lights on the other two moorings are solar powered. EH4 mooring deployment Jim Johnson and Jim Postel drove the equipment for the EH4 mooring to Port Angeles on the morning of August 9. There they met the UW Friday Harbor Laboratory’s research vessel, the R/V Centennial, at the public fuel dock at about noon, loaded the equipment for the EH4 subsurface mooring and departed, heading to Neah Bay where they anchored overnight before proceeding to the EH4. The EH4 subsurface mooring was deployed Thursday, August 10, 2006 at 11:23 PDT in 34 m of water at 47-36.068N, 124-32.107W. The instrument closest to the surface was at approximately 29 m. There was no surface marker. A CTD cast was taken after the mooring was deployed for calibration purposes and to collect water samples for chlorophyll analysis. Water samples were taken at 30 m, 5 m, and at the surface. After the samples were collected the boat moved inshore to 47-36.2N, 124-28.00W, bottom depth about 23 m, and took another CTD cast with water samples at 5 m and at the surface. They then proceeded to EH2 to take another CTD cast but the CTD did not work so a surface water bucket sample was taken for chlorophyll analysis. From EH2 the boat steamed to EH1 where the ship’s intake hose was used to pump water on deck for chlorophyll samples at 5 m and at the surface. All chlorophyll samples were stored in a cooler overnight for analysis in the lab after the cruise. The ship steamed through the night, arriving in Port Angeles at approximately 07:00 PDT Friday, August 11, to let Jim and Jim off so they could return to Seattle. The Centennial then returned to Friday Harbor. R/V Thompson fall cruise: TN-200 During the R/V Thompson cruise, September 11–October 4, night checks of the moorings were made to be sure the mooring lights were working. In addition, calibration CTDs were taken at all the mooring sites. Mooring Recovery Cruise: 2006-33 Sue Geier and Tor Bjorklund served as representatives from Dr. Hickey's group on the mooring recovery cruise, 2006-33, scheduled for October 10–October 20, 2006 on the CCGS John P. Tully. Tom Juhasz from IOS was the Chief Scientist under the direction of Dr. Richard Thompson. Sue and Tor drove to IOS October 10 to load gear for the recovery cruise. After all the equipment was loaded the Tully departed later that evening. On October 11, 2006, we arrived at the EH1 mooring. At 12:16 PDT the release code was sent. The mooring was successfully recovered by 13:20. By 16:28 the Tully was on station EH3. At 16:34, the release code was sent and by 17:15 the mooring was recovered and onboard. The Tully was on the EH2 site prepared for mooring recovery by 08:00 PDT on October 14. The release code was sent at 08:08. The mooring appeared to have released its anchor, but when the boat hooked it, there was still a considerable amount of tension. The release code was sent a second time at 08:50 and the anchor released successfully. The Par sensor on the mooring tower was lost when it struck the A frame while bringing the tower onboard. By 09:05 the mooring was all onboard and we departed for EH4, the only subsurface mooring, arriving at 9:25. There were some problems getting consistant ranges but at 10:00 the release code was sent. The mooring was sighted on the surface at 10:01 and recovered without incident. All instruments were downloaded onboard the Tully immediately after recovery. Copies of the raw data were left with the Chief Scientist as a backup. On October 16, 2006, the Tully returned to IOS to let Sue and Tor off. The UW gear was offloaded to make more room on the deck for the rest of the cruise. Sue and Tor left IOS, catching the 17:00 ferry and arriving at the University at about 21:15. Acknowledgements We thank the crew and officers of CCGS Vector, the CCGS J.P. Tully and the IOS/OSAP/UW mooring team of Tom Juhasz, Dave Spears, Jim Johnson (deployment), and Tor Bjorklund (recovery) for their help in the mooring deployment and recovery. We would also like to thank the crew and captain of the R/V Centennial and Jim Postel for their help deploying the EH4 mooring and the Olympic Coastal National Marine Sanctuary for their help in attaching a replacement transmitter to the EH2 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. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Department of Commerce. Mooring recovery and deployment on the Vector and the John P. Tully was made possible by Canadian support to Dr. Richard 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 2006 Moorings Quick Summary
Instrumentation
Below are tables showing the instrumentation on each array. EH1-2006 Juan de Fuca Strait Mooring Summary Position: 48-29.391N, 124-41.919W Depth: 255m Deployed: June 2, 2006 20:59 (+7) Recovered: October 11, 2006 12:16 (+7)
Abbreviations for variables measured are: EH2-2006 Washington Coast Mooring Summary Position: 47-35.861N, 124-35.415W Depth: 45m Deployed: May 30, 2006 14:47 (+7) Recovered: October 14, 2006 08:08 (+7)
EH4-2006 Washington Coast Subsurface Mooring Summary Position: 47-36.068N, 124-32.107W Depth: 34m Deployed: August 10, 2006 11:23 (+7) Recovered: October 14, 2006 10:00 (+7)
EH3-2006 Eddy Mooring Summary Position: 48-17.725N, 125-27.296W Depth: 128m Deployed: June 1, 2006 12:59 (+7) Recovered: October 11, 2006 16:34 (+7)
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