California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations

CalCOFI cruise 0901NH, the winter 2009 cruise encountered relatively calm conditions due to the persistent high pressure and off shore winds.  Once our calibration of  Tony Koslow's new EK-60 sonar was completed inside San Diego Bay, hydrographic data collection could begin.  
Preliminary hydrographic data revealed the California Current to be strongest well off shore in the range of stations 90 and 100 and beyond.  Salinity, 10m & 100m salinity anomalies plus 100m temperature revealed the current flowing in this region and then jetting in to the coast towards Dana Point.  Both 10 and 100 meter temperature anomalies showed a preponderance of negative values, this was consistent with our casual observation of cooler than average sea surface temperatures and air temperatures.  Windy, stormy conditions were known to have preceded this cruise but the mild conditions may have given way to higher phytoplankton production as seen in higher-than-usual offshore near-surface chlorophyll values.  In addition to these observations, nutrients were assayed to be high in some of the same offshore regions, further bolstering the observed productivity of the region. Upon processing data for this cruise, a peculiar down-welling  event was evident at Station 83.3 100.0.  Higher temperatures and lower nitrate were evident down to 500m.   Oxygen was elevated compared to depths at other stations in the region.  Density was low enough to be anomalous, but not impossible.  This feature will likely be evident in the deep flow field of the California Current (as seen post cruise).

Marine mammal observations by Andrea Havron & Dominique Comacho: This cruise was marked by higher than normal species diversity and whale abundance. This increase of sightings could be related to the superior weather conditions allowing for better ability to sight and identify marine mammals. This cruise was marked by a high number of humpback whales. Past winter CalCOFI surveys tally numbers of unidentified large whales while concurrent acoustics detected humpbacks in the vicinity. This survey raises the question of whether humpbacks frequent the CalCOFI lines over winter and warrants further investigation. As to be expected, areas surveyed around the Channel Islands offered the largest variety of whale and dolphin species. Near San Clemente Island, between stations 90/45 and 90/37, we encountered about 15-18 humpback whales, minke whales, and common dolphins. Near Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands between station 83/51 and 83/42, we sighted fin whales, humpbacks, grey whales, risso’s dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and both forms of common dolphin, long and short beaked. Dall’s porpoises were encountered during the transit north to line 80 and continued through line 77. This section also offered us additional sightings of grey whales, humpbacks, minkes, and common dolphins. Other species of interest include killer whales, seen just before station 90/60 and station 77/51 and one sperm whale sighted past station 90/70. 

Marine mammal acoustic comments by Lisa Munger: Acoustic operations overall went smoothly without incident.  We towed a six-element hydrophone array (capable of detecting odontocetes but not baleen whales) during transits and deployed omni-irectional Navy sonobuoys (capable of detecting baleen whales and low-frequency odontocete sounds) on stations.  Delphinid clicks and whistles were detected offshore at ends of lines 93, 90, 87, and 83, and inshore on lines 90, 87 and 77.  Species sighted during acoustic detections included common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphin, and killer whales.  Dall's porpoise were also sighted along lines 87 and northward, but we were not capable of monitoring in real-time for Dall's porpoise clicks, so Dall's acoustic detections are pending.  During sonobuoy deployments, humpback whales were detected at the majority of offshore stations (16 of 30 sonobuoys) on all lines (figure 1).  Fin whale calls were detected on two sonobuoys, 93 inshore and line 87 about midway offshore.  Sperm whale clicks were detected on four sonobuoys, three of which were midway out on lines 90 and 87.

 

SIO New Horizon: Current Schedule
The 170-foot oceanographic research vessel New Horizon, owned by UCSD, is a working platform for oceanographic cruises by Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

• New Horizon Handbook - Welcome Aboard and general information about the vessel.
• Scientific Equipment - The equipment available for cruise
• Deck plans - deck, lab and berthing layout
• Communications: VHF voice, HF radio voice and TELEX, cell telephone voice and FAX, INMARSAT voice, data and FAX.
  • In-port San Diego: phone number: (858) 534-1648
  • At Sea: INMARSAT phone number: 011-872-1501554; INMARSAT fax: 011-872--81-1501554
  • INMARSAT area code is 872 when ship is in Pacific; other codes are 871, 873, or 874 for east Atlantic, west Atlantic, Indian Ocean.
    
  • Photos from New Horizon web page

Each standard CalCOFI station usually includes the following:

• A Seabird 9/11plus CTD/Rosette consisting of 24 10-liter hydrographic bottles is lowered to 500 meters (depth permitting) measuring physical parameters (temperature, salinity, oxygen, fluorescence, transmittance, NO3 and PAR); bottles are closed at discrete depths isolating seawater for analysis of: oxygen concentration, salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll and phytoplankton.
• A CalBOBL (CalCOFI Bongo) standard oblique plankton tow with 300 meters of wire out, depth permitting, using paired 505 um mesh nets with 71 cm diameter openings. The technical requirements for this tow are: Descent rate of 50 meters per minute. All tows with ascending wire angles lower than 38 degrees or higher than 51 degrees in the final 100 meters of wire will be repeated. Additionally, a 45 degrees wire angle should be closely maintained during the ascent and descent of the net frame. The Bongo frame is fitted with a self-contained OPC (Optical Particle Counter) mounted inside the port side opening.
• A Manta net (neuston) tow, using a 505 um mesh net on a frame with a mouth area of 0.1333 m^2.
• A Pairovet (vertical) plankton tow is performed at all stations inshore of, and including station 70. The Pairovet net fishes from 70 meters to the surface (depth permitting) using paired 25 cm diameter 150 um mesh nets. The technical requirements for Pairovet tows are: Descent rate of 70 meters per minute, ascent rate of 70 meters per minute. All tows with wire angles exceeding 15 degrees during the ascent will be repeated.
• A PRPOOS (Planktonic Rate Processes in Oligotrophic Ocean Systems) vertical net tow is performed at all stations on line 90.0 and 80.0 as well as stations out to and including station 70.0 on lines 86.7 and 83.3. These stations are occupied as part of the LTER(Long Term Ecological Reserve) project. The mesh of the PRPOOS net is 202 um and the tow is a vertical cast up from 210 meters.