NOAA Teacher at Sea: Karen Rasmussen
Ship: R/V Tatoosh
Geographical area of the cruise: Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary
Date: July 7, 2011
Cruise to: Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary
Crew: Rick Fletcher, Nancy Wright, Michael Barbero, and Karen Rasmussen
Time: Start 6:30a.m.
Mission
The first part of mission is to conduct Multibeam mapping and to collect ground-truthings at the LaPush/Teahwhit areas of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. We will also service the OCNM buoy, Cape Alava 42 (CA42). The second week of this mission is to explore the Teahwhit Head moorings, ChaBa and sunken ships, and North and South moorings.
Weather Data from the Bridge
Winds Lt. Confused seas
W. swell 5 to 7’ Waves 2’
Risk factor 18
Science and Technology Log
We were up at 5:00 a.m. and on the road to La Push, WA. Before leaving the dock, Michael and I measured out 100 meters of rope that will be tied to the CTD. We recorded as follows:
Number of/Color of tape Meters
1 Red 5
1 Yellow 10
2 Black 20
3 Black 30
4 Black 40
1 Green 50
1 Green/1 Yellow 60
1 Green/2 Yellow 70
1 Green/3 Yellow 80
1 Green/4 Yellow 90
2 Red/1 Blue 100
The tank of the boat was filled and all equipment was working. We completed a sound velocity test using a Seacat CTD which measures conductivity, temperature, and depth, as well as density. This device is deployed off the back of the vessel and receives information about ocean chemistry by taking multiple readings throughout the water column. Sound velocity data are used to measure the speed of sound in water, one of many factors used to correct multibeam data.
We found out that there are over 185 sunken vessels in the Marine Sanctuary. There are also 13 NOAA moorings within the Sanctuary. Multibeam surveys of two mooring sites off of La Push were successfully completed this morning. We also began another survey of the sunken ship, Milky Way. However high seas and high winds forced us to return to the harbor before the survey was complete.
I saw only two sea lions and one sea otter today. There were many sea birds including pelicans and puffins.
Personal Log
We had pretty rough seas today. We had to come in to port early today because of small craft advisory, so we docked at 2:30. We went back to ONRC (Olympic National Resource Center) in Forks this afternoon. Rick and Nancy are going over data. We plan on going out tomorrow to Cape Alava to continue with multibeam data collection. I enjoyed driving the Tatoosh today. The swells were amazing.
