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FINAL CRUISE INSTRUCTIONS
NOAA Ship: MILLER FREEMAN
16 April 1997

Cruise No:

MF97-07

Applicability:

These instructions, in addition to the "FOCI Standard Operating Instructions for
NOAA Ship MILLER FREEMAN, 1997", present complete information for this cruise.

Area:

Shelikof Strait and Gulf of Alaska

Itinerary:

Depart Kodiak - 23 May, 1997
Arrive Kodiak - 1 June, 1997
Arrive Seattle - 6 June, 1997

Participating organizations:

NOAA - Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC)

CRUISE DESCRIPTION:

Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) is an effort by academic and federal scientists to understand ecosystems and biological and physical processes that cause recruitment variability of commercially valuable fish and shellfish stocks in Alaskan waters. FOCI comprises Shelikof Strait FOCI, Bering Sea FOCI, and Southeast Bering Sea Carrying Capacity. Presently research is focused on the western Gulf of Alaska and the southeastern Bering Sea to examine the affects of the biotic and abiotic environment on the ecosystem and the early life stages of walleye pollock. FOCI uses four scientific approaches: environmental monitoring, process studies, retrospective analyses, and modeling. Research cruises address the first two approaches.

CRUISE OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of this cruise are:
(1) to continue acquisition of long-term biological and physical time series data;
(2) to conduct a survey of pollock larvae for use in estimating distribution, drift, and mortality rates.
(3) to collect samples of pollock larvae for studies on growth and condition;
(4) to examine the biotic and abiotic conditions in the eventual nursery areas of pollock larvae.

1.0. PERSONNEL

1.1. Chief Scientist:

Mike CaninoAFSC
(206) 526-4174

The Chief Scientist has the authority to revise or alter the technical portion of the instructions as work progresses provided that, after consultation with the Commanding Officer, it is ascertained that the proposed changes will not: (1) jeopardize the safety of personnel or the ship; (2) exceed the overall time allotted for the project; (3) result in undue additional expenses; (4) alter the general intent of these project instructions.

1.2 Participating Scientists:

 Name   Gender/Citizenship  Affiliation
 Mike Canino M/USA NOAA/AFSC
 Annette Brown F/USA NOAA/AFSC
 Jay Clark M/USA NOAA/AFSC
 Kathryn Mier F/USA NOAA/AFSC
 Susan Picquelle F/USA NOAA/AFSC
 Lisa Britt F/USA NOAA/AFSC

1.3 Ship Operations Contact:

Larry Mordock
(206) 553 - 4764
NOAA/PMC (PMC1x4)
1801 Fairview Ave. East
Seattle, WA 98102-3767

1.4 Program Contact:

Dr. Art Kendall
AFSC
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 526-4108
akendall@afsc.noaa.gov

2.0. OPERATIONS

Scheduling of individual activities will depend upon weather conditions and progress of scientific work, therefore, firm advance scheduling of events will not be possible, and a continual dialogue between scientific and ship's personnel will be especially important. To insure fulfillment of all the scientific objectives, the ship is asked to steam at maximum cruising speed whenever time in transit and between stations is greater than one hour.

A standard oceanographic watch will be utilized which consists of a winch operator, a scientific staff of three and a Survey Tech on deck. Operations will be conducted 24 hours a day.

2.1. SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES:

Operations will begin on the east side of Kodiak Island. Several bongo tow stations will be occupied in the vicinity of Stevenson Entrance to detect the presence of pollock larvae in this area. The cruise track will then proceed southwesterly, along the south end of Kodiak Island and proceed towards the Shumagin Islands, surveying the outermost FOCI grid stations. A systematic survey of the FOCI grid stations will then proceed northeasterly back towards Kodiak. The major survey area will extend from Line 8 to the Shumagin Islands from inshore stations to approximately 70 miles off shore. The exact station locations will be determined by the chief scientist once the cruise is underway and will depend upon the distribution of larvae, weather, and available time for survey coverage.

Approximately 120 standard MARMAP bongo tow stations will be occupied during the cruise. At each grid station, a 60 cm bongo tow to 100 m or to 10 m from bottom will be conducted. Additional live bongo tows for larvae may be requested at these stations at the discretion of the chief scientist. CTD casts will not be conducted during this cruise unless requested by PMEL or other FOCI investigators and FOCI Lines 8, 16, or 17 stations are not anticipated to be occupied at this time.

2.2 PROCEDURES FOR OPERATIONS:

The following operations are to be conducted on this cruise. The procedures are listed in the FOCI Standing Operating Instructions (SOI) for NOAA Ship Miller Freeman and reflect anticipated sampling plans as of this date.

MARMAP bongo tows (SOI 2.2.2)
Bongo larval condition tows (SOI 2.2.3.)
Satellite-tracked drifter buoys (SOI 2.2.11)
Radiometer (SOI 2.2.14)

Seachest and Uncontaminated Seawater

Sea surface temperature, conductivity and fluorescence will be continuously sampled. Data from the Sea-Bird thermosalinograph installed in the sonar void seachest shall be sent to the SCS. Uncontaminated seawater from this chest will be pumped to the Chemistry Laboratory and through a fluorometer. The scientists will be responsible for regularly cleaning the cuvette inside the fluorometer and obtaining and processing the calibration samples. Calibration samples will be taken at each bongo station or one hour apart, whichever is more frequent.

The ship's SCS ASCII-Logger feature shall be configured to log one-minute averaged data throughout the cruise, including:

GPS Time
GPS Longitude
GPS Latitude
Water Depth in Meters
Seawater (seachest) temperature
Seawater (seachest) salinity
Laboratory Fluorometer voltage

A standard template file specifying these data types shall be maintained for all FOCI cruises by the ship's SCS manager. ASCII Logger files will be included in the periodic backup of SCS data for distribution at the end of the cruise. The chief scientist may request that these data be made available on DOS-formatted media at the completion of the cruise.

At the beginning of the cruise, the ship's chief survey technician will be responsible for ensuring that the data streams from the instruments are correctly logged by the SCS. During the cruise, the survey technicians are responsible for checking the logger status display once per watch to determine that the instruments are functioning, and for taking salinity calibration samples every other day.

3.0. FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT

The following systems and their associated support services are essential to the cruise. Sufficient consumables, back-up units, and on-site spares and technical support must be in place to assure that operational interruptions are minimal. All measurement instruments are expected to have current calibrations, and all pertinent calibration information shall be included in the data package

3.1 Equipment and Capabilities to be Provided by the Ship

Oceanographic winch with slip rings and 3-conductor cable terminated for CTD,

Wire-angle indicator and readout for oceanographic winch to be used with bongo and tucker trawl,

Oceanographic winch for bongo net sampling with slip rings and 3-conductor cable terminated for electronic Time-Depth recorder. Wire should be capable of 1200 lb loading,

Sea-Bird 911 plus CTD system to be used with PMEL stand (primary system)
(The underwater CTD unit should have mounts compatible with the PMEL CTD stand).

Sea-Bird 911 plus CTD system with stand (back up system)

(Each CTD system should include: underwater CTD, deck unit , tape recorder, weights, and pinger).

10-liter sampling bottles for use with rosette (10 plus 4 spares),

For CTD field corrections: IAPSO water and AUTOSAL salinometer,

Sea-Bird SBE-19 Seacat (backup system),

Meter block for plankton tows,

Wire speed indicator and readout,

For meteorological observations: 2 anemometers (one the R. M. Young system interfaced to the SCS), calibrated air thermometer (wet-and dry-bulb) and a calibrated barometer and/or barograph,

Freezer space for storage of fish samples (blast and storage freezers),

Bench space in DataPlot for PCs, monitor, printer and VCR to fly MOCNESS,

Use of 386 PC in DataPlot for data analysis,

SCS (Shipboard Computer System),

Electrical conection between Rowe winch and DataPlot,

Laboratory space with exhaust hood, sink, lab tables and storage space,

Sea-water hoses and nozzles to wash down nets,

Adequate deck lighting for night-time operations,

Navigational equipment including GPS and radar ,

Safety harnesses for working on quarter deck and fantail.

3.2 Equipment to be Provided by the Project

60-cm bongo sampling arrays,

20 cm bongo arrays,

Spare wire angle indicator,

Electronic BKG computer, printer and software,

Miscellaneous scientific sampling and processing equipment ,

Scientific ultra-cold freezer.

3.3. Scientific Computer System (SCS)

The ship's Scientific Computer System (SCS) shall operate throughout the cruise, acquiring and logging data from navigation, meteorological, oceanographic, and fisheries sensors. The SCS data acquisition node will provide project scientists with the capability of monitoring sensor acquisition via text and graphic displays. A data processing node will be available to project scientists throughout the cruise, configured according to the specifications of the FOCI SCS administrators.
See FOCI Standing Operating Instructions for specific requirements.

The FOCI SCS co-administrators are:

Tiffany Vance: (206)526-6767; e-mail: VANCE@PMEL.NOAA.GOV
Dan Dougherty: (206)526-6844; e-mail: DOUGHERTY@PMEL.NOAA.GOV

3.4. Ultra-cold Freezer Requirements

The scientific ultra-cold freezer will remain on the ship in operating condition from the beginning of the first FOCI cruise until the ship returns to Seattle and the samples within can be unloaded. Since valuable samples will be in the unit, operation must be continuous without interruption. Therefore, the unit should be hardwired into the ships electrical system or connected with a threaded plug. The unit must be securely fastened to a bulkhead or counter, easily accessible, with a minimum of 4" on each side around the bottom. The location, fastening and wiring should be similar to last year. In addition, a weight should be taped to the top of the unit to prevent the lid from lifting in heavy seas.

The freezer has an alarm, but the ship's personnel are requested to check the digital temperature display twice daily to insure that the operating temperature is below -60 degrees C. The unit will be locked between cruises, and a key left with the Chief Survey Tech. In the event that the unit fails, the temperature will maintain for about 12 hours if the lid isn't opened. If the unit fails and cannot be fixed on the ship, the scientific blast freezer should be pre-cooled to its minimum (-38 degrees C), and all frozen specimens should be transferred to it immediately, without thawing. Kevin Bailey (206/526-4243, 4239) must be notified. A daily record of the temperature (digital readout) on the scientific ultra-cold freezer will be submitted to K. Bailey (AFSC) as specified in the FOCI Standing Operating Instructions.

4.0. DATA AND REPORTS

4.1. Data Disposition and Responsibilities:

The Chief Scientist is responsible for the disposition, feedback on data quality, and archiving of data and specimens collected on board the ship for the primary project. The Chief Scientist will be considered to be the representative of the AFSC/PMEL Lab Director for purpose of data disposition. A single copy of all data gathered by the vessel will be delivered to the Chief Scientist upon request for forwarding to the Lab Director, who in turn will be responsible for distribution of data to other investigators desiring copies. Additional data requirements and disposition are listed in the FOCI Standard Operating Instructions.

4.2. Scientific Ultra-cold Freezer Log:

A daily record of the temperature (digital readout) on the scientific ultra-cold freezer will be submitted to K. Bailey (AFSC) upon the ship's return to Seattle.

4.3. Evaluation Report:

One Ship Operations Evaluation Report is required for each leg of the primary project only, using the form provided for that purpose.

5.0. ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS

5.1. Additional Investigations

None scheduled at this time.

5.2. Ancillary Projects:

Ancillary tasks will be accomplished in accordance with the NOAA Fleet Standing Ancillary Instructions.

5.3. Piggyback Projects:

None at this time

6.0. MISCELLANEOUS

6.5. Hazardous Materials

The Chief Scientist shall be responsible for complying with NC Instruction 6280A, Hazardous Waste; policy, guidance, and training, dated February 4, 1991, paragraph 7.g and paragraph 9. By federal law, the ship may not sail without a complete inventory of MSDS, and appropriate neutralizing agents, buffers, and/or absorbents in amounts adequate to address spills of a size equal to the amount aboard.

The following hazardous materials will be provided and controlled by the scientists with the Chief Scientist assuming responsibility for the safe handling of such substances:

Formalin: 37% and 5%
Ethanol: 95%

7.0. COMMUNICATIONS

7.1. A daily JFT schedule will be maintained between KVJ and the MILLER FREEMAN Monday through Friday. Radio contact will be maintained when possible. A scientific progress report will be sent to AFSC via INMARSAT voice, Fax, or JFT at least once a week.

7.2. Since it is sometimes necessary for the scientific staff to communicate with other research vessels, commercial vessels, and shore based NOAA facilities, the Chief Scientist or designee may request the use of radio transceivers aboard the vessel.

7.3 Important phone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses:

AFSC/RACE Fax: (206) 526-6723

MILLER FREEMAN INMARSAT VOICE: 011-872-150-4406
MILLER FREEMAN INMARSAT FAX: 011-872-150-4421

Program contacts:
Phyllis Stabeno -PMEL- (206) 526-6453
Art Kendall -AFSC- (206) 526-4108

PMEL person: PERSON@PMEL.NOAA.GOV
AFSC person: APerson@afsc.noaa.gov
PMC radio room: RadioRoom@rdc.noaa.gov
Direct to ship: person@freeman.pmel.noaa.gov


7.4. The MILLER FREEMAN is equipped with INMARSAT, a telephone/teletype satellite communication system. If the scientific staff uses this system, they will be obligated to pay for their calls, which are estimated at $6.02 per minute and $4 per minute for Telex.

The Chief Scientist or designee will have access to, and assistance provided for transmitting and receiving communications through INMARSAT as needed during the cruise.

7.5 The MILLER FREEMAN is equipped with a cellular telephone. If the Scientific Party uses this system, they will pay for incoming and outgoing calls. Cost is approximately $0.90 per minute, plus applicable long distance fees charged to the ship's number.

8.0. APPENDICES

Appendix 1. List of potential bongo tow stations for MF97-07.


EcoFOCI Project Office
NOAA/PMEL and NOAA/AFSC
7600 Sand Point Way NE
Seattle, Washington 98115
Comments and information:
  EcoFOCI Coordinator

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