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It is estimated
that fifteen years will be required to complete the Bristol
Bay area with one survey ship. To complete it in shorter time
will require more ships and more modern equipment because weather
conditions prevent an extension of the season either in the
spring or autumn. One possible method would be to obtain more
working days during the working season by permitting an accumulation
of leave (on working grounds only), for overtime and holidays
worked.(1) This year, between
May 15th and September 15th, there were 29-1/2 holidays. By
such an arrangement one could, in effect, lengthen the season
by one month, during the best working weather. The importance
of spending as much time as possible on the working ground is
realized when one sees the frequency of interruptions by more
or less brief storms, and the need to utilize every available
working day or fraction thereof.
The Coast
Survey Officer must consider weather from the standpoint of
visibility necessary for ship and launch hydrography and of
sea conditions not too rough for the successful use of the Fathometer
and sonic-radio buoys, for small boat work and the necessary
contacts with camp parties ashore. The following should be considered
with that in mind.
While one
should not condemn this area because of one season, knowing
that "One swallow does not make a summer," still there are some
outstanding conditions here which are not encountered in other
regions and which tend to limit the amount of work which can
be accomplished in this locality. It should also be noted that
this coast has a bad reputation locally. Arriving at Port Moller
on May 25th, we were greeted with the words, "Well, Captain,
you have a pretty tough assignment." (This is from the "skipper"
of the canning tender STARLING, who has been coming up here
for many years.) And, as if to substantiate his claim, two days
after we left Port Moller the 675-ton, four-masted fishing schooner
SOPHIE CHRISTIANSEN was blown ashore in that very harbor during
a sixty-mile gale. The captain of the FERN, a former lighthouse
tender but now a trading vessel making monthly freight and mail
trips from Seward to the westward and from Dutch Harbor to the
head of Bristol Bay, declares that they can expect their worst
weather on the run from Cape Sarichef to the head of Bristol
Bay.
In spite
of all this, weather conditions were ideal for survey work during
the latter half of May and the month of June and practically
three quarters of our season's work was accomplished during
that period. The additional work that was done after the first
of July was done literally a day at a time. From July 1st to
the end of the season there was only one occasion where we had
two full working days in succession. During September we were
on the working grounds from the 1st to 19th inclusive, and had
only two questionable days for launch work (i.e., it was impossible
to survey the inshore lines).
During July
there were four storms of force six to ten, and five and one-half
days of working weather; in August six storms and five and one-half
days of working weather; from September 1st to 26th eight storms
and four days suitable for working. In early May and September
the prevailing winds are from the north, from which there is
no shelter, and these cause seas of sufficient severity to prevent
the proper functioning of both Fathometers on account of strays
and to make the sono-radio buoys become very noisy. In the autumn,
coincident with the formation of the Siberian high, the low
pressure areas come along with the regularity of eggs out of
a hen; frequently two low pressure areas are on the map at the
same time, and the only difference is that it blows harder some
days than others.
1.
Legislation authorizing such extensive compensating leave would,
however, be required. (Editor)
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