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NOAA Ship DELAWARE II Cruise DE 05-14 Benthic Habitat Study October 31, 2005: The Delaware II departs Woods Hole at 1400 enroute to the outer continental shelf surrounding Hudson Canyon Head approximately 100nm Southeast of New York Harbor. This begins the last cruise of the field season, which is DE 05-14 Benthic Habitat Study. The objectives of this cruise are to characterize the benthic habitat and fish productivity in Hudson Canyon and better characterize the extent and nature of deep water coral and sponge habitats. The ship transits Vineyard Sound continuing on a southwesterly course enroute to Hudson Canyon. The sea conditions are 2-3 ft with a southwesterly wind of 15-20 kts. The sea temp. is 14.3C and the barometric pressure is 1021.2mb. November 1, 2005: The Delaware II continues steaming on a southwesterly course to Hudson Canyon and arrives on station at 0500. Hydrographic mapping operations begin at this time in Hudson Canyon, which will be taking place everyday from 0000-1200. These 1-2nm mapping transects are being conducted in the Hudson Canyon in order to better characterize the extent and nature of deep water coral and sponge habitats. At 1218, the ship begins trawling operations with a CTD, a 2-meter beam trawl, and an otter trawl conducted at each station. The sea conditions are 2-3 ft with 12-15 kt winds. Sea conditions build to 6 ft after 2200 hours. The wind direction remains out of the southwest all day with partly cloudy sky condions. November 2, 2005: Bathymetric mapping operations continue as planned in the Hudson Canyon from 0000-1200 with a total linear mapping distance of 35nm. Trawling operations begin at 1200 and continue through the remainder of the day. Two stations are completed with a CTD, a 2-meter beam trawl, and an otter trawl at each station. The sea wave conditions for the day are 5-6 ft with a 20-25 kt breeze out of the southwest. This southwesterly breeze slowly shifts to the northwest by 2200 hours. The present sea temp. in Hudson Canyon is 17.3C with partly cloudy sky conditions and a barometric pressure of 1012.1mb. November 3, 2005: The Delaware II completes 12 hours of hydrographic mapping operations in the Hudson Canyon Area from 0000-1200. These transect lines were 1.5nm in length running from north to south 50 meters apart. Trawling operations began at 1200 with the completion of a CTD in 209m of water and a bottom trawl with the Yankee 36 net. Operations were secured at 1543 due to rough sea and wind conditions. The sea wave height after 1200 hours was 8-10 ft with a wind speed of 30-40 kts. The barometric pressure was 1025mb at 1200 hours, which dropped to 1019mb by 2400 hours. November 6, 2005: The Delaware II continues hydrographic mapping operations in the Hudson Canyon with 1.9nm transect lines running from east to west. The ship completed 38nm of mapping by 1200 and then began trawling operations. Three stations in the Hudson Canyon were completed with a CTD, a beam trawl, and a Yankee 36 trawl at each location. The wind remained out of the southwest through the day increasing to 25 kts by midnight. The barometric pressure dropped 4mbs by the end of the night bottoming out at 1015mb. The visibility remained 10+ nm throughout the day with partly cloudy conditions. November 8, 2005: Hydrographic mapping operations continue in Hudson Canyon with a total of 38nm completed from 0000-1200. The ship's transect lines consisted of 1.2nm lines running from east to west in three Hudson Canyon locations. At 1200, the ship began benthic trawling operations with a beam trawl and yankee 36 trawl conducted at three stations in the north eastern portion of the canyon. The weather continued to cooperate allowing for a full production day with southwesterly winds at 12-25 kts and sea wave conditions of 3-5 ft. The barometric pressure was 1021mb at midnight remaining very constant throughout the day. The Delaware II will continue benthic operations until 1500 on November 9th and then begin steaming back to Woods Hole concluding the DE 05-14 cruise. November 11, 2005 - January 08, 2006: The NOAA Ship Delaware will be dockside in Woods Hole, MA at the NMFS pier conducting winter repairs for the dates listed above. The Delaware II will begin it's first 2006 field season cruise on the 9th of January, which is a NOAA / LMRCSC Cooperative Research Cruise. |