The Ship Will Be Leaving Soon!

The ship will be leaving Newport, Rhode Island on Tuesday August 4. We’ll be going to the US Exclusive Economic Zone North of 37⁰ N latitude, to the southern portions of Georges Bank, 41⁰N. The study area is between approximately the 100M depth contour and the Gulf Stream.

The primary objective is to prepare for the 60 day June/July 2010 abundance line transect survey. The primary objective is, during daylight hours, train observers on the species identifications of warm water cetaceans and test and trial the following: 1) passive acoustic hydrophone arrays, 2) new data entry computers and programs, 3) new equipment to electronically record the distance between the ship and animal, and 4) data collection procedures for the visual cetacean line transect survey. The secondary objective is, during nighttime hours, to examine the distribution of zooplankton in the survey area.

The cruise will be 15 days long.

I’ll be going on board on Monday, August 3 and hope to be able to update this blog frequently.

Please email me at csilver@winnacunnet.org if you have any questions.