U.S. Department of Commerce / NOAA	/ OAR /  PMEL  / OERD\  \ NMFS / AFSC / RACE/	FOCI
	Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations

Al Hermann, Jeff Napp, Allen Macklin, Ron Reed, Phyllis Stabeno, Peggy Sullivan (rapporteur)

• Six manuscripts have been received for the Bering Sea special issue (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/sebscc/special_issue/) of Deep-Sea Research II (Topical Studies in Oceanography).  About 20 more manuscripts are expected this month.

• Gulf Ecosystem Monitoring (GEM) Workshop: Ned Cokelet, PMEL, and Kevin Bailey, AFSC, are representing FOCI at the GEM workshop, October 12-13 in Anchorage.  For more information on the program and the draft monitoring plan, see http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/.

• Employees update:  Peggy Sullivan, PMEL, came on board during June.  Peggy is a physical oceanography processor/analyst.  Lynn Long, PMEL, retired at the end of September, and will not be replaced.  Jerry Adams, FOCI's NOAA Corps officer, will assume Lynn's data archive responsibilities.  Jennifer Larksbury, AFSC, began work this week.  She will work with Jeff Napp on zooplankton studies.  Bill Williams, University of Alaska Fairbanks, will visit Seattle for one month starting in November to work on Gulf of Alaska circulation modeling with Al Hermann.  AFSC is still seeking replacements for Lisa Rugen and Ric Brodeur.

RB00-07, leg 1 (../../operations/instructions/2000/RB00-07/RB00-07L1R.html), Ned Cokelet - This successful cruise to the Bering Sea slope was FOCI's first use of the NOAA ship Ron Brown.  The cruise was in support of FOCI, SEBSCC. and the North Pacfic Marine Research Program.  It partially addressed objectives for a cruise that was cancelled this spring while the Ron Brown was in repair.  The ship departed Dutch Harbor on 27 August, proceeding to the SW end of the SEBSCC line, and began CTD operations near Mooring 6. CTD operations continued to the continental shelf where the ship left the SEBSCC line and proceeded to the slope-shelf-exchange study area. The trajectory of a satellite-tracked drifter launched a few months earlier showed a cyclonic eddy of ~50 km diameter off the continental shelf. Cruise scientists opted to study this eddy because: (1) it was potentially near enough to the continental shelf to interact with it and push basin water landward, and (2) it rotated cyclonically (counterclockwise) which is of the opposite sense to the anticyclonic eddies usually detected in the SE Bering Sea. The ship began a rectangular grid pattern of CTD casts. Graphs of the transects, available within ~1 hour of transect completion, showed cyclonic eddy flow with maximum velocities of ~25 cm/s, a velocity-maximum core at ~300 m depth, and a diameter of ~80 km. Personnel seeded the eddy with one satellite-tracked drifter that measured ocean color. After the initial slices through the eddy, the ship filled in the sampling grid toward the continental shelf break, looking for signs of on-shelf flow.  After several days of sampling, two more drifters were deployed at the north and south ends of the shoreward side of the eddy study region.  SEBSCC line sampling resumed by repeating several of the stations occupied before the eddy study began, then proceeding onto the shelf toward mooring site 3. Mooring 3's Argos transmitter had ceased transmitting a few weeks before the cruise, and the Brown could not locate the mooring on the surface. Attempts to enable and range upon its underwater acoustic release failed, and  the mooring was presumed lost.  Intensive bio-optical sampling was conducted near mooring site 3.  At dawn on 7 September near mooring site 2, the sea was aquamarine in color indicating the presence of a coccolithophorid bloom. Extra bio-optical sampling was conducted to take advantage of the situation. Mooring 2 was in good condition based upon a visual inspection.  During the northwest transect from site 2 to site 4, periodic attempts were made to contact mooring 3's acoustic release. Surprisingly, a positive response came at a location ~100 km north of mooring 3's original deployment location. A search pattern enabled the ship to range within ~200 m; the position was noted and relayed to PMEL for future mooring recovery (see RB00-07, Leg 2 below).  SEBSCC line sampling proceeded to mooring site 4. Then the ship returned to the eddy study area. The two drifters deployed over 3 days earlier did not show much on-shelf flow, so the seaward side of the cyclonic eddy was sampled. CTD casts were taken to 1500 m filling in the 10 x 10 km grid begun earlier. Bio-optical work focussed on obtaining samples within and outside of the eddy to draw contrasts.  Two drifters were deployed near the southwestern edge of the eddy, and the ship returned to port on schedule.

MF00-11 (../../operations/instructions/2000/MF00-11R.html), Matt Wilson - The NOAA ship Miller Freeman departed Kodiak on 2 September and returned 20 September, completing all objectives.  The primary and secondary objectives involved occupying 43 locations situated on 10 cross-shelf transects between southwest Shelikof Strait and the Shumagin Islands at both day and night. Sampling at each predetermined location, day or night, involved two net-sampling operations. First, a 1-m Tucker trawl (0.333 mm mesh net) was used to collect samples of potential age-0 pollock prey. Second, an anchovy trawl (3-mm codend liner) was fished over a similar net path to sample age-0 pollock, associated nekton, and scyphozoans. The Tucker trawl was fished with a SeaCat CTD profiler, and the anchovy trawl was equipped with a SBE microbathythermograph. Thus, temperature and salinity profiles were collected at each location. The SeaBird 911+ CTD profiler was used at six locations to collect additional CTD data (and water samples) to verify data accuracy. A Simrad EK-500 (38 and 120 kHz) system collected acoustic data throughout the duration of the cruise, but most importantly along each transect and simultaneously with net tows. Acoustic data were also used to direct opportunistic sampling to boost the number of samples from locations where age-0 pollock were relatively abundant. A Methot trawl was also used opportunistically to ensure that the smallest age-0 pollock were being adequately collected with the anchovy net. The Methot was only used at night and only at four locations.  Age-0 pollock were consistently absent along the shelf break and widespread elsewhere. They ranged in size from about 40 to 100 mm SL. Mean size per haul increased from the southwest to the northeast, but this was confounded with the sequence of station occupation. Age-0 catches were generally higher at night, as was mean size per tow, but the same geographic pattern was evident day or night. Eulachon, capelin, and sand lance were also collected but catches have not yet been standardized.

 
RB00-07, leg 2 (../../operations/instructions/2000/RB00-07/RB00-07L2F.html), Bill Parker -  Bering Sea mooring personnel steamed on the RonBrown to the new reported position of mooring 3 (see RB00-07, leg 1, above) but were not successful in communicating with it nor trawling it.  At site 4 they recovered two subsurface moorings, deployed one, and took support measurements around the mooring site.  At site 2 they recovered the surface biophysical mooring and two adjacent subsurface moorings, then deployed three subsurface moorings, and took supporting measurements.  An extensive grid search for lost equipment at this site was not successful.  At site 3, the ADCP and the sediment trap moorings were recovered.  The upper part of the trap mooring, including the sediment trap, had been trawled.  Two subsurface moorings were deployed and support measurements taken. Scientists are re-evaluating the strategy of occupying site 3.

The next FOCI PI meeting will be at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 9 November 2000, in the Cloud Chamber (3/2065). Please submit to Allen Macklin, no later than the day before the meeting, agenda items and fax-ready copies of figures or handouts that you intend to present at the next meeting. Alternately, presentation materials may be posted on the WWW or e-mailed to remote participants before the meeting.

Mail corrections and addenda to the FOCI Coordinator.