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

ATTENDING

Carrie Hadden,  Al Hermann, Art Kendall, Allen Macklin, Jeff Napp, Jim Overland, Ron Reed, Morgan Busby (rapporteur)

• The AFSC FOCI group will host the annual meeting of the Polish Plankton Sorting and Identification Center Advisory Committee, 5-9 June 2000.   The meeting will be attended by five representatives from Poland and seven from NOAA Fisheries Science Centers that use services of the center.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the accomplishments of the center over the past year and plan next year’s work.  Two Polish scientists will remain in Seattle the following week to receive training in ichthyoplankton and zooplankton identification and sample processing procedures.

 
• The Announcement of Opportunity for SEBSCC Phase III research will be published in the Federal Register soon.  FY 2000 SEBSCC research funds have been distributed by the Coastal Ocean Program.

• Phyllis Stabeno and Brad Stevens (AFSC/RACE Kodiak) submitted a proposal for FY 2001 funding by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trust Council.  They propose to deploy a biophysical mooring (OSKAR) with real-time data access offshore of Kodiak.

• There is a shortfall in OAR ship time for this fiscal year and next.  This fall’s cruise aboard the Ron Brown has been shortened by about ten days.  During 2001, 40 days have been approved for the Ron Brown in the spring, and OAR is still determining a solution for fall 2001.  Funds exist to purchase FOCI and tsunami ship time but details are yet to be worked out. The Canadian Coast Guard Vessel Sir Wilfred Laurier is a candidate.  Most scheduling problems have arisen  from operational cutbacks necessitated by rising fuel prices.

• A copy of the FOCI video was provided to the new fisheries research vessel (FRV-40) design committee for them to observe operations at sea.

How do FOCI researchers request ship time for non-base FOCI research, e.g., GLOBEC?  GLOBEC proposals will be looked upon more favorably if they include pre-approved OAR ship time rather than requests for NOS ship time from the Coastal Ocean Program.  This means that ship time must be requested from OAR several years in advance, sometimes earlier than publication of the call for research proposals that the ship time will support!  Presently FOCI includes its base program, SEBSCC, and FATE requirements when requesting ship time from OAR two years in advance.  FOCI’s Field Operations Leaders and Coordinator will meet to discuss future ship requests.

The 2000 field season will continue later this month with cruises aboard the Miller Freeman (April 18) to the southeastern Bering Sea and Ronald Brown (April 27) to Shelikof Strait.

The next FOCI PI meeting will be at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 11 May 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.