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Current Cruise: TC-01-01 Coral Reef Assessment January 31- March 01, 2001
February 26, 2001
The Townsend Cromwell is now headed North Northeast and making 9 knots as we get ever
closer to Honolulu. At this speed we should arrive first thing Wednesday morning. After 29 days at sea, Honolulu
will be a welcome sight. Seeing friends and family on the pier make it all the more welcome.
After working
for 2 days at Palmyra Atoll and 3 days at  Kingman Reef, we
have completed our data collection for this cruise. The work will continue through the 5 day transit from Kingman
Reef back to Honolulu. All of the observations that were written down are being transferred to computer files so
that they may be further processed. The last of the invertebrate samples are being "pickled" in a mixture of
formalin and alcohol for long term storage. Algae and other samples are being labeled and frozen for later
identification. The computer keyboards are clicking away as reports are written and data are processed.
Digital camera tapes are being played back to capture still photographs so that we can show them to you.
The composite pictures shown last week represent a few hours of work because of the process of capturing them from
the tape, editing them, arranging them in a single image and writing captions. Much of this was done by two
knowledgeable students from the University of Hawaii. Many
thanks to Brian Greene and Brian Zgliczynski. The digital still pictures in this update were provided by them as
well.
Considering the short time we had at each island, we accomplished a remarkable amount of data
collection. Here are some excerpts from the Chief Scientist's preliminary cruise report.
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Cruise Totals:
Towed diver habitat surveys/fish counts - 31 (100km)
Drift habitat
surveys - 9
Fish REA stations - 32
Benthic REA stations - 32
Shallow water CTDs - 105
500 m
shipboard CTDs - 18
Sonobuoy acoustic signatures - 20
Fish/invertebrate traps - 40 (10 lost)
ADCP
current transects - 7690 km
Terrestrial contaminant assessments - 3 islands
Terrestrial biological surveys
- 4 islands
Established DGPS monuments - 2
It is with great pleasure that we have had the opportunity
to share some of the preliminary results of our 2nd successful coral reef assessment cruise to the U.S. Line and
Phoenix Islands of the central equatorial Pacific. Until we began our surveys on the Cromwell in March 2000, these
islands and atolls were the nation's least known coral reef ecosystems. After these 2 multi-disciplinary reef
assessment cruises, we have made significant progress in improving our knowledge and understanding of these reef
ecosystems. We believe we now have good initial species inventories of fishes and corals of the shallow reefs
(although we will continue to find many new records) and have started the process of establishing species
inventories for invertebrates and algae. We now have the preliminary data to begin making initial estimates of
distributions, abundance's and sizes of the ecologically and economically important fish taxa of the shallow reefs.
Our towed diver surveys have now collected sufficient data to characterize the shallow benthic habitats surrounding
each of the islands and atolls and produce the first-ever GIS-based habitat maps of these remote coral
reef
ecosystems.
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As we finished the project we had a stark reminder of our vulnerability as
we explore these remote regions of the Pacific Ocean. Our inflatable boat was transporting divers to the last dive
site on the last project day when their boat was literally bitten by a shark. Fortunately the coxswain was able to
safely bring the partially deflated boat and its divers back to the ship. What a way to end the project!
Next week we will be underway again. This time it will be in support of the Protected Species Investigation
project. We will be transporting scientists and their equipment to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to set up
field camps.
Biologists from NMFS and USFWS monitor these fragile ecosystems through most of the spring,
summer, and fall. Check back with us to see how it's going.
Other Updates from this cruise:
Feb 01 Feb 05 Feb 14 Feb 19 Feb 26
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