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.

Island Wake Hotspots. Subsurface features were sampled with multi-frequency acoustics, CTD profiles, pairovet and bongo nets sampling different components of the ichthyoplankton and zooplankton assemblages. Juvenile fishes and squid were sampled with an Isaacs-Kidd mid-water trawl (IKMT). Repeat passes of a glider upstream of the area at Point Conception provided detailed sections of temperature, salinity, fluorescence, velocity and acoustic backscatter. Surface plankton will be sampled with manta nets, the Continuous Underway Fish Egg Sampler, thermo-salinograph, and remote sensing. The wakes are expected to be relatively small, with complex sub-mesoscale structure, and strong temporal variability. The primary species focus of this study was small pelagic fish, rockfishes, and squids. However, the full ichthyoplankton community was counted according to usual protocols, and all species from the IKMT were identified, counted and preserved. Calibrated acoustic backscatter data were interpreted using catches from bongo nets and IKMT and predicted frequency-dependent scattering. CUFES data were enumerated and samples preserved according to normal protocols.

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.

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.

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.

Sardine Biomass Survey. Eighty four primary stations were plotted on the survey track with an approximate spacing of 20 - 40 nautical miles. At each station the following activities were performed: a. Deployment of a Seabird CTD down to 200 meters, bottom depth permitting. The self-contained CTD collected depth, temperature, conductivity and oxygen data. b. Standard Pairovet cast down to 70 meters depth deployed concurrently with the CUFES system. c. A CalBOBL (CalCOFI Bongo) standard oblique plankton tow with 300 meters of wire out, depth permitting, using paired 505 µm mesh nets with 71 cm diameter openings. The technical requirements for this tow were: Descent wire rate of 50 meters per minute, held at terminal depth for 30 seconds and retrieved at a wire rate of 20 meters per minute. All tows with ascending wire angles lower than 38° or higher than 51° in the final 100 meters of wire were repeated. Additionally, a 45° wire angle was closely maintained during the ascent and descent of the net frame. d. Standard meteorological data including SST, wind speed and direction, wave height and direction, cloud cover, relative humidity, air temperature and barometric pressure. e. During all transits between stations continuous measurements were made of pelagic fish eggs (CUFES) and acoustic targets using the EK-60. f. A 264 Nordic Rope Trawl with 3.0 meter² foam core doors was towed on the surface at night for a duration of thirty minutes. The 264 NRT was modified for surface trawling with Polyform floats attached to the head rope and trawl wings. The trawls have been modified with marine mammal excluder devices (MMED) to eliminate any possibility of catching marine mammals. Although the probability was very low that the gear being lowered into the water on station will interact with any marine mammals, a marine mammal watch was initiated 30 minutes before arriving on station. If any marine mammals were detected in the area, operations were suspended and the station location moved.

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.

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.

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 (AL0508, 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.