Summer 2012 CalCOFI. The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) are a unique partnership of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries Service and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The organization was formed in 1949 to study the ecological aspects of the sardine population collapse off California. Today our focus has shifted to the study of the marine environment off the coast of California, the management of its living resources, and monitoring the indicators of El Nino and climate change. CalCOFI conducts quarterly cruises off southern and central California, collecting a suite of hydrographic and biological data on station and underway. Data collected at depths down to 500 meters include: temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, silicate, nitrate and nitrite, chlorophyll, transmissometer, PAR, C14 primary productivity, phytoplankton biodiversity, zooplankton biomass, and zooplankton biodiversity.

2014 Spring CalCOFI. The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) are a unique partnership of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries Service and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The organization was formed in 1949 to study the ecological aspects of the sardine population collapse off California. Today our focus has shifted to the study of the marine environment off the coast of California, the management of its living resources, and monitoring the indicators of El Nino and climate change. CalCOFI conducts quarterly cruises off southern and central California, collecting a suite of hydrographic and biological data on station and underway. Data collected at depths down to 500 meters include: temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, silicate, nitrate and nitrite, chlorophyll, transmissometer, PAR, C14 primary productivity, phytoplankton biodiversity, zooplankton biomass, and zooplankton biodiversity.

2016 Summer CalCOFI. The California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) are a unique partnership of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA Fisheries Service and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The organization was formed in 1949 to study the ecological aspects of the sardine population collapse off California. Today our focus has shifted to the study of the marine environment off the coast of California, the management of its living resources, and monitoring the indicators of El Nino and climate change. CalCOFI conducts quarterly cruises off southern and central California, collecting a suite of hydrographic and biological data on station and underway. Data collected at depths down to 500 meters include: temperature, salinity, oxygen, phosphate, silicate, nitrate and nitrite, chlorophyll, transmissometer, PAR, C14 primary productivity, phytoplankton biodiversity, zooplankton biomass, and zooplankton biodiversity.

To investigate the distribution, life history, and interactions of biological communities in the U.S. Continental Region of the NE Chukchi Sea, a survey was conducted from August - September 2017. Acoustic data was collected as part of an acoustic-trawl effort to classify the midwater fish community of the region. The survey was conducted along 0.5 degree spaced transect lines from 67N to 72N between 168.5W and 153.25W. The primary water column acoustic instrument for the survey was a Simrad EK60 scientific echosounder equipped with a Simrad ES38-B 38 kHz transducer and ES120-7C 120 kHz transducer. The ship departed Dutch Harbor, AK on 01 August 2017 and began the survey in the Chukchi Sea on 09 August 2017. The survey ended in Nome, AK on 28 September 2017. The echosounder was calibrated with a 38.1 mm tungsten-carbide sphere via the standard sphere method during installation on 24 July 2017 and again at the start of the survey on 01 August 2017.

To investigate the distribution, life history, and interactions of biological communities in the U.S. Continental Region of the NE Chukchi Sea, a survey was conducted from August - September 2019. Acoustic data was collected as part of an acoustic-trawl effort to classify the midwater fish community of the region. The survey was conducted along 0.75 degree spaced transect lines from 66.5N to 73N between 168.5W and 156.8W. The primary water column acoustic instrument for the survey was a Simrad EK60 scientific echosounder equipped with a Simrad ES38B 38 kHz transducer and ES120-7C 120 kHz transducer. The ship departed Dutch Harbor, AK on 01 August 2019 and began the survey in the Chukchi Sea on 27 August 2019. The survey ended in Nome, AK on 01 October 2019. The echosounder was calibrated with a 38.1 mm tungsten-carbide sphere via the standard sphere method before and after the survey.

2011 COAST. A total of 37 strip transects were conducted across both banks between the depths of 90-390m. Abundance and biomass estimates were calculated for all rockfishes (genus Sebastes), lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus), and Pacific hake (Merluccius productus), however, the primary focus of the analysis was on the following recreationally or commercially important ‘target’ species: greenspotted rockfish (S. chlorostictus), sunset rockfish (S. crocotulus), cowcod (S. levis), bocaccio (S. paucispinis), and bank rockfish (S. rufus). In addition, we described the geological characteristics of the seabed along each transect, examined some aspects of groundfish behavior that may affect abundance and biomass estimates (e.g., height of each fish above the seabed, reaction of fishes to the ROV), and a cursory analysis of the time required to conduct and analyze the results from this survey.

Leeward Oahu Pelagic Ecosystem Characterization (LOPEC-1) (SE1703, EK60). The first primary component of LOPEC-1 on SE1703 was to perform a midwater trawl and bongo net survey from the Oscar Elton Sette to compare to a series of trawl and bongo net surveys from 1951-1978 off leeward Oahu, henceforth referred to as the baseline surveys. The baseline surveys estimated fish composition and abundance for 4 different components of the pelagic community, notably the mesopelagic fish assemblage, shorefish larvae, tuna larvae, as well as a suite of zooplankton taxa from 2 forage availability studies and an early trawl survey. Comparison of current composition and abundances to the baseline composition and abundances after 39-66 years will be a valuable scientific finding to ascertain how the pelagic ecosystem has changed, or not, over that extended time period. The sampling gears used in the baseline surveys from 1951-1978 are 10’ Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl (IKMT), Cobb trawl, and 70cm bongo nets, all of which are available and deployable on Oscar Elton Sette. The second primary component of LOPEC on SE17-03 was to establish a time series of micronekton and plankton for the leeward Oahu area for ecosystem monitoring. Some operations from the baseline comparison component will be part of the new time series with additional surveys of plankton using other sampling gear such as ring nets and other configurations (different mesh sizes) of bongo nets during both the daytime and the nighttime.

NEFSC 2008 Fall Bottom Trawl Survey (AL0803, EK500). The NEFSC bottom trawl survey is a fisheries independent, multi-species survey that provides the primary scientific data for fisheries assessments in the U.S. mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Two bottom trawl surveys are conducted each year, one in the spring and one in the autumn. The survey is a standardized, stratified random design, with stratification based on bathymetry and multiple trawl sites within each stratum. Trawl sites are selected randomly, but the overall ship path is south to north. The survey covers the continental shelf and U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina into the Canadian EEZ. The primary gear is a bottom trawl, with CTD, multifrequency echosounder, and a host of other scientific sensor data collected ancillary to the bottom trawl catches.

NEFSC 2005 Fall Bottom Trawl Survey (AL0509, EK500). The NEFSC bottom trawl survey is a fisheries independent, multi-species survey that provides the primary scientific data for fisheries assessments in the U.S. mid-Atlantic and New England regions. Two bottom trawl surveys are conducted each year, one in the spring and one in the autumn. The survey is a standardized, stratified random design, with stratification based on bathymetry and multiple trawl sites within each stratum. Trawl sites are selected randomly, but the overall ship path is south to north. The survey covers the continental shelf and U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina into the Canadian EEZ. The primary gear is a bottom trawl, with CTD, multifrequency echosounder, and a host of other scientific sensor data collected ancillary to the bottom trawl catches.

Scientists from the Fishery Resource Analysis and Monitoring (FRAM) division at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) led the winter 2016 hake IAT survey aboard the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada, a 63.7-m (209-foot), acoustically quieted Fisheries Survey Vessel equipped for fisheries and oceanographic research. The survey was conducted between January 9 and February 9 (Table 1). The Shimada surveyed from 45.5°N to 31.3°N, beginning at Newport, Oregon, proceeding south to the U.S./Mexico border, and then heading north back to Newport (Figures 1 and 2). Pre-planned (“coarse”) zigzag transects were oriented east-west, with larger offshore diagonals connected via smaller nearshore diagonals. Offshore diagonals, spaced roughly 100 nmi apart at the inshore side, ranged from the 30-m isobath (or as close to shore as was safely navigable) to bottoms depths of roughly 3,500–4,500 m. Nearshore diagonals extended from the ≥30-m contour to roughly 2,000 m. If hake were detected at the offshore end of a transect, the vessel proceeded west to the end of the hake sign and then beyond for an additional 0.5 nmi to ensure that the end of the aggregation was located. When aggregations of spawning hake were detected along a pre-planned transect and confirmed by midwater trawling, adaptive transects, either parallel at a fine resolution (spaced either 0.5 or 1.0 nmi apart) or in a star pattern, were used to determine the spatial extent and size of the spawning aggregation(s). Additional acoustic data were collected to evaluate crepuscular migration (vertical and/or horizontal) of spawning hake aggregations by having the Shimada remain stationary one hour before sunrise to one hour after.