Jose Torres, chief scientist for the April-May
process cruise started the discussions by developing a time budget for
the open water process sites, which is summarized below.
Personnel Tasks Time Repeated
Costa/Burns crabeater seals 2-6 h 7x per cruise
Fraser penguins 6 h 15x per cruise
Ice stations/opportunistic, no open water stops
Fritsen
CTD in open water
1 h
1/d
CTD in ice
1 h
1/d
Ice station
3-4 h
1/d
Requested 10L bottles for CTD
Sample forming grease ice/frazil ice w/buckets
Vernet?
Zhou
ADCP survey 20 km box
24 h
2x per station
1m MOCNESS
4 h
2x/d
Daly
HTI acoustic tow w/ ADCP (tow speed too slow?)
HTI towed w/ net tows
as possible
HTI drift
0.5 h
1/d
HTI on station
as possible
Live net tows
1 h
2/d
Torres
10 m MOCNESS
3 h
1/d (5/sta)
Dive
4 h
1/d
Meat tow
1 h
1/d
UW/nutrients CTD
Perovich
ARGOS drifter on floe (Sta 5?)
+ CTD survey
3-6 h
1x/cruise
Data loggers
Total time open water, 5 d per station
2 ea ADCP
48 h
5 ea CTD
5 h
5 x - 2 ea/d MOC1
20 h
5 x - 1 ea/d MOC10
15 h
5 x live nets (2)
10 h
5 x meat tows
5 h
2 x diving
8 h
Total 111 h = 4.5 d
Total time ice station, 5 d per station
Day operations:
Seals
6 h
Penguins
6 h
Dives
6 h
Ice
6 h
CTD/optics noon
Night operations:
ADCP
1 d - 24 h survey - predator survey, get predator info from Polarstern
MOC-1
8 h
MOC-10
3 h
Live nets
3 h
HTI drift
1 h
15 h other work
6 h for "day" work
21 h
15 d ice sta (3 x 5)
10 d open water (2 x 5)
25 d on sta
+3-4 d transit
= 28 science days, 4 d for weather + additional work
Zhou suggested finding krill first from the acoustic survey and then making tows at that site. The comment was made that the electronics tech should not be involved in the tows. Smith said that the mammal and bird watcher could look for ice. Captain Sanamo suggested using the gangway from the Gould for putting people off the ship for ice station work. Small boats can be launched in the lead of the ship. Martinson said that using the gangway on the portside of the Gould deck could interfere with wire operations while people are on the ice. Garrison indicated that some of the ice work will be compromised if broken up by ships. Costa asked if small boat operations were to be done during MOCNESS tows. Daly indicated that these would be done only in leads and Zhou said that the ship could cut channels in the ice for net tows.
Torres asked about lost time due to possible weather days on the continental shelf. Smith said that in open water, there will be problems working at the ice stations with winds over 35 knots. Fritsen said that ice operations can be done with basket except for conditions of big swells.
Station location/procedures
(1) Obtain predator/prey information from Polarstern
and penguin satellite positions for general area
(2) ADCP survey 20 km grid, locate predators/prey
aggregations
(3) Stop 6-7 h centered around midday daylight
for diving, ice sta, penguins, and mammals
(4) Net tow, etc. during other hours, moving
to new location inside grid
Process station site criteria
Sta 1 - objective to sample shelf, shelf break,
and off shelf communities (ACC)
1000 m isobath (ca 200 km offshore?)
The August process group objected to a station so far off-shore and argued
for the station to be located nearer to shore where they would be more
likely to find ice in Aug.
We agreed to have a Sta 1a and 1b. Sta 1b will be directly shoreward
of Sta 1a. Fritsen will collect samples for microbial biology at
both locations (6 h stop).
The August process group would like to investigate different ice types
and to relocate same ice where drifter was deployed in April/May in order
to examine the temporal
evolution of ice conditions. L. Quetin would like 3 ice stations,
75-100 km apart, recoccupying 2 sites in 7/10-10/10 rafted pack ice.
Sta 2 - objective to sample canyon effects on hydrography, prey and predators. Approximately in axis of canyon.
Sta 3 - objective to sample perennial pack ice,
highest probablity of finding early forming sea ice (R. Smith - buoys deployed
in June at ca. Sta 3 didn't move beyond 6 km for 1.5 m;
C. Fritsen didn't think that ice maps indicated perennial ice at this location.)
Sta 4 - objective to sample fast ice and deep into Marguerite Bay?
Sta 5 - objective to sample large predator aggregations.
The site of this station was especially questioned. D. Costa said
that Sta 5 was located to be in the vicinity of Dion Is,
which had seals and penguins. Aggregations of seals and penguins
during winter were sited approximately at the intersection of Sta 2 and
5 boxes.
The working group then put forward some criteria for selecting the process sites, which are summarized below.
SITE SELECTION CRITERIA
-site 1: open water, axis
of canyon, shelf break
-site 2: hydrography of canyon
(axis of canyon), mouth of Marguerite Bay
-site 3: good chance of having
early forming ice field, midshelf NE of original site 3
-after visiting site 1, move
into shelf until finding suitable ice conditions
-site 1B and 2: camp
-with seals, be flexible to
stop wherever seals are located
-elements of ice studies: deployment
of buoys, ice options, ice characterization (criteria: driven by
biological habitat)
-location of ice for sea ice
studies and krill mesh together
-site 1A (offshelf): Fritsen
reoccupy (8 hrs)
-site 1B (camp): station further
onshore from original site 1
Captin Sanamo said that site 4 is uncharted and
that he is not sure how far into the site the ship will be able to get.
Quetin said that sites 4 and 5 are not desirable for krill (temporal variability
of larvae under the ice and distribution), but Fritsen said that site 4
is desirable for ice sampling. Smith suggested scouting for predators beyond
site 2 as a way to find desirable sites.
PROCESS CRUISE
Dan Costa, who is chief scientist for the July-August process cruise, next led a discussion of personnel and time budget issues for this cruise, which are summarized below.
Personnel Tasks Time Line
Costa 7 tags of seals 6 hr/day
Martinson
buoys (put out early on station)
1-3 hr
optic measurements at noon
2-3 hr
ice properties
5-6 hr
CTD
1 every 1 hr
dig hole
6 hr
ice camp operation
Fraser 10 penguin tags 3 hr/day
Gibson/Garrison
ice sampling
5-6 hr
grind sample
1 hr
6-8 cores
water samples from CTD
(critters and H2O)
Harvey
water from CTDs (organics)
once
(coord. w/ Quetin) krill larvae
coordinate adult larvae sampling
with NB Palmer
krill net tows
1 hr/day
MOCNESS drift
2-5 hr
net through ice drift
2-5 hr
vertical tows
20 min.
Quetin/Ross
ice algae (hole or wire as feasible)
minimum of 2 dive holes
1 hr to make hole
dives (4-5 per day)
1.5 hr each
*(will try to do dive weighting at Palmer Station
to prepare for blue water mode; need 7-8 hours if not done at
Palmer; 5 days/site ideally)
Fritsen said that it is desirable to get into the water early in the day (operational plan) and do optics work at noon. There was general agreement that if a predator is seen, then the ship will stop and the animal will be tagged.
>>> RECONVENE IN PLENARY SESSION <<<
The process group next convened in plenary to discuss joint ship operations with the Palmer group.
Costa summarized some of the process cruise activities as: Fritsen will do microbial studies in open water at site 1 and move in until finding ice; next move into site 2 and if animals are present, then the group will move in to locate an ice camp; next site 3 will be occupied; move into joint ship operations at sites 4 and 5, assuming that the Gould can occupy these sites; and reoccupy sites as possible.
Torres brought up the issue of needing to make exchange between ships the two ships, such as samples for Harvey of adult krill from Palmer to Gould during August cruise. Wiebe said that the exchanges could be handled by zodiac in which collections done by Daly and Torres could be sent to the Gould. Daly asked Harvey how many and how quickly he needs krill samples. Harvey, said that he needs samples that are intact and live, within 1 week, freeze as go, starvation will not be an issue, minimum of 50-100 animals.
Torres asked about the transfer of the IWC person (Debbie Thiele) from the Polarstern to the Palmer. Wiebe said that this transfer will take place about 3 May at about the 4th line or so of the survey grid and could happen by zodiac. He said that radio contact information between the two ships needed. He also said that on the first cruise joint operations will be much easier because of the reduced sea ice cover.
Costa said that there is not a strong desire to get into Marguerite Bay during August and the preference is to reoccupy sites (ice camps where previous studies were done), The real issue is the need is to find animals wherever they may be and if animals are encountered in transit, then the ship will stop.
Wiebe emphasized the need for all planning to be efficient and flexible. The plan is to do stations while stopping to work with animals. After the survey is completed, the intent is for the Palmer to move into heavier ice regions and work with the Gould. He noted that process site 2 is an interesting site because of the bathymetry.
Costa asked if joint operations would be when the survey of Marguerite Bay was finished. Wiebe said yes and Daly noted that the satellite tags may help locate aggregations of animals. Costa indicated that seals go in winter is unknown and that it would be nice to get into Marguerite Bay region to see what animals are there in winter.
Wiebe asked if there were other issues and what do the process cruise people expect survey people to do in terms of sampling during joint operations. Costa that the primary concern is for the Palmer to get the Gould in/out of ice. Wiebe asked about measurements needed in the far field.
Fritsen asked about the window of time for joint operations at end of second cruise. Wiebe said that this had not been done yet and needed to be addressed.
Beardsley next said that he had talked to Chuck
Stearns at the University of Wisconsin about the Automatic Weather Station
deployment. The SO GLOBEC program will obtain from Stearns two weather
stations which will be available for deployment on the first Palmer
cruise. He asked about islands that might be suitable for deployment of
these and how are they are to anchored. Hofmann said that she had checked
on possible sites and that two had been suggested which are not not protected
sites. These are Henkes Island and Faure Island and they are in the vicinity
of site 2. Costa and others made suggestions about anchoring the weather
stations.