ACCESS Cruise Log May 8th - 13th, 2017
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 |
ACCESS cruise transect lines
click for a larger view (1900 x 867 JPG, 588K)
Day 1 – May 9th, 2017 |
TOP |
| Crew | Scientists | |||
| Chris Eubank Brian Yannutz |
Jaime Jahncke Kirsten Lindquist Karen Grimmer Cotton Rockwood Ryan Berger |
Ryan Hartnett Meredith Elliot Carolyn Skinder John Mellor Sierra Helmann |
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| Depart: 7:20am | Return: 5:05pm | |||
| Weather Forecast | ||||
| Winds from the west at 5 to 15 knots; wind waves 1 to 3 feet; Swell 5 to 7 feet from the west at 12 second intervals | ||||
The ACCESS Monterey Bay team and passengers from left to right: Kristin Lindquist, Meredith Elliott, Jaime Jahncke, Sierra Helmann, Ryan Hartnett, John Mellor, Carolyn Skinder, Cotton Rockwood and Karen Grimmer.
Transit time from Monterey to transect line 24 north of Santa Cruz had a low level of fog for the four hour transit. The team completed transect lines 24 and 26. Highlights were a foraging fin whale, a blue whale, approximately 20 humpbacks, a pod of rizzo dolphins, and some widely dispersed Pacific white sided dolphins. A mola mola was also sighted as well as a moderate number of crab pots.
Birds were not numerous, but the highlights were hundreds of fork tailed storm petrels; breeding plumage phalaropes (red necked and red) with large numbers in migration; large number of rhinoceros auklets; migrating loons; and, a foraging group of sabin gulls, phalaropes and storm petrels together.
Jaime Jahncke (Point Blue Conservation Science) and Kristen Lindquist (GFNMS)
Day 2 – May 10th, 2017 |
TOP |
| Crew | Scientists | |||
| Chris Eubank Brian Yannutz Jean de Marignac |
Jaime Jahncke Kirsten Lindquist Karen Grimmer Cotton Rockwood |
Ryan Berger Ryan Hartnett Meredith Elliot Sophie De Beukaleur |
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| Depart: 7:10am | Return: 4:30pm | |||
| Weather Forecast | ||||
| Winds from the west at 5 to 15 knots; wind waves 1 to 3 feet; Swell from the west at 3 to 5 feet with 12 second intervals | ||||
Completed all planned work for Lines 27 and 30. We motored past Point Pinos for Line 30 and then across the bay north to Line 27 for oceanographic sampling and marine mammal/seabird/crab pot observations. Numerous euphausiids were caught in the Tucker Trawl. Brown phytoplankton were seen as we moved closer to shore as well as different types of tunicates such as doliolids (west stations) and jellies.
collecting and processing of krill, salp, worms from hoop net and Tucker trawl
salp, krill (euphausiid), and worms
Marine mammal highlights included 20 humpback whales and a juvenile elephant seal. For birds we saw a significant number of red and red necked phalaropes and sooty shearwaters. We also saw numerous black footed albatross on station (rafting up and mooing to each other) and some Pacific and common loons. Three wilson’s warblers took a ride on the R/V Fulmar both inside and outside the vessel.
black footed albatross
Early in the morning purse seiners were busy fishing for squid as we headed over to Point Pinos, and later in the day the salmon fleet were heading out of Santa Cruz harbor.
purse seiners busy fishing for squid
Day 3 – May 11th, 2017 |
TOP |
| Crew | Scientists | |||
| Chris Eubank Jean de Marignac Steven (deck hand) |
Jaime Jahncke Kirsten Lindquist Karen Grimmer Cotton Rockwood Ryan Berger |
Ryan Hartnett Meredith Elliot Geoff Shester Andrea Trease Bridget Hoover |
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| Depart: 7:20am | Return: 6:20pm | |||
| Weather Forecast | ||||
| Winds from the west at 5 to 15 knots; wind waves 1 to 3 feet; Swell 3 to 5feet from the west at 12 second intervals | ||||
looked like the weather might break as we left the breakwater... and it did!
Today’s weather has been the best all week, and so we decided to make it the long day. We departed from Monterey at 7:10am and the plan was to complete transect Lines 25 and 28, which we were able to accomplish due to less wind.
one of the five orcas we saw today
more playful actiivty by the marine mammal eating orcas we saw today
For marine mammal highlights we sighted 5 Orcas were next to the second sampling station (not on effort), which included a 1 sub adult male, one female with a calf, and 2 sub adult females. 400 Pacific white-sided dolphins were also sighted, and 45 Humpbacks, as well as numerous sea lions. Rizzo dolphins were seen right outside Monterey harbor on the way to Line 25. We also saw a 10-foot white or salmon shark right next to the vessel yet was on the port side so not recorded. On Line 28 we saw a blue whale and numerous humpbacks feeding with sea lions.
dorsal fin of a blue whale
It was a pretty quiet bird day, yet we did see 7 albatross trailing the killer whales to look for morsels, a few of Ashy storm petrels, numerous sooty shearwaters, and a flock of 60 whimbrel flew by the boat. In the oceanographic station we saw 2 octopi, numerous salps, polychaetes, fish larvae, and brown algae at station ME. We transited to Line 28 at 4:30pm which goes just south of Moss Landing, and returned to Monterey harbor by 6:30pm.
blue whale tail (no wonder Sanctuaries chose the whale tail as it's logo!)
Day 4 – May 12th, 2017 |
TOP |
| Crew | Scientists | |||
| Chris Eubank Jackson Jean de Marignac |
Jaime Jahncke Kirsten Lindquist Karen Grimmer Cotton Rockwood |
Ryan Berger Ryan Hartnett Meredith Elliot |
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| Depart: 7:30am | Return: 2:00pm | |||
| Weather Forecast | ||||
| Winds from the west at 5 to 15 knots... increasing to 20 to 30 knots in afternoon; wind waves 1 to 3 feet; Swell 5 to 7 feet from the west at 12 second intervals | ||||
We completed line 29 and line 295 and started work on line 285 from E to EZ. Weather became too rough on 285 so Captain Chris called it a day. It was very windy and harder to spot marine mammals. We were still able to observe approximately 25 humpbacks, a very large group of Risso dolphins and a single harbor porpoise, as well as numerous vessels.
For birds, it was pretty quiet with the exception of a number of fulmars which may be related to the gray whale calf kill yesterday. We also saw a raft of sooty shearwaters. Low number of solitary crab pots were sighted.
retrieving the Tucker trawl with zooplankton samples
For oceanography, we sampled using the Tucker trawl at Line 29 at Station M, then west to east to complete Line 29 with all oceanographic stations W, M, ME, E. The Tucker trawl sampled at M (1), CTD (4), Hoop (4), Phytoplankton HAB (2), the Niskin (4), and the Ocean Acidification sampling (Surface and Bottom Alkalinity and pH, 8), and Nutrients (5) one of which was 200m at W. The Tucker trawl collected an abundance of ctenophores in the first sample and some pyrosome, which is a colonial tunicate, and some amphipods.
the Tucker trawl as it comes aboard
Below is the adjusted transect map with additional stations. We did not sample stations 275 or 265 during this cruise, yet were able to complete all planned work.
click for a larger view (849 x 771 JPG, 113K)
Phytoplankton samples were dropped off at the Monterey post office at 3:30pm on 5/12/17 for delivery to county health department for analysis of pH and alkalinity.
Day 5 – May 13th, 2017 |
TOP |
| Crew | Scientists | |||
| n/a | n/a | n/a | ||
| Depart: n/a | Return: n/a | |||
| Weather Forecast | ||||
| n/a | ||||
No log for May 13th as the cruise was cancelled due to worsening weather conditions