June 11, 2018
0500 Local Time
Hi there!
Greetings again from the Sally Ride. We got underway Saturday morning for the 15-day California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) cruise. The organization was formed back in 1949 to investigate the collapse of the sardine fishery off the California coast, and they have an amazing repository of sampling reports and long-term ecological changes for this region. I recommend checking out their website. I actually got to meet a few of the team members during a guided tour of the Sally Ride and dinner with the UCSD Foundation Board this past Thursday and some have done over 100 of these cruises.
It is a 24/7 science operation, and so I am standing the 0000-1200 watch to assist with station deployments and sampling for the Secchi, CTD and various nets (Pairovet, Manta, Bongo). The operations at each station take about 2 hours to complete, and there are 73 of them to get through in the next two weeks. It looks like we may be in for some wind and rough seas as well over the next couple days just to make it more challenging!
Interestingly enough, all of the towed net deployments are done over the starboard side instead of the A-Frame aft. Given the long-term nature of the study, the team have calculations for the ideal speeds and angles for each net. For example, if I ask for “Bongo net speed”, then this means 1.5-2.0 knots or thereabouts so long as the towing cable angle is 45 degrees +/- 3 degrees when the net is deployed 300 meters at a rate of 50 meters/minute and hauled in at 20 meters/minute.
Next week I will be back with more information and pictures about the Whale Acoustic Lab folks who are also on board. See you then!
– Emily