This week the NOAAS TOWNSEND CROMWELL will bewest and south of the Hawaiian Islands conducting an oceanographic investigation for the National Marine Fisheries Service Honolulu Laboratory. The Chief Scientist, Oceanographer Mike Seki has written a short description of the objectives of this cruise:

The TOWNSEND CROMWELL is now on a 15 day cruise called, "Bigeye Tuna Oceanography". The main focus of the cruise is to look at the oceanography of areas frequently fished by commercial longline fishing vessels that target bigeye tuna. Results from the survey will hopefully help develop a better understanding of the relationship between the environment and catches of bigeye tuna.

For this survey, the ship is traveling southward from Hawaii on a course that will take the scientists through the North Equatorial Current and back. To look at the oceanography, scientists aboard the ship are lowering an instrument package called a CTD (conductivity -temperature - depth) through the water at evenly spaced stations along the cruise trackline. The sensors that make up the CTD furnish valuable information about such things as the water temperature and saltiness (salinity) while the unit is lowered through the water. These data in turn provide insight into the ocean currents and structure. Water samples are also collected to measure the amount of nutrients and chlorophyll that help define the ocean productivity.

Thanks Mr. Seki. Next week we will be a few hundred miles north of the equator continuing our work. In addition to CTDs we will tow an Issacs-Kidd mid-water trawl net to catch small fish and other organisms. Together with the CTD data, the trawl data will help to characterize the oceanographic and biological setting in these fishing grounds.

Update from 5/3/01

Last Modified 5/29/01

http://atsea.nmfs.hawaii.edu/