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Michael Gutiérrez Santiago: Newport Hydrographic Line, August 18, 2022

Lea esta publicación en español: Michael Gutiérrez Santiago: Línea Hidrográfica de Newport, 18 de agosto de 2022

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Michael Gutiérrez Santiago

 NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada

August 12 – August 25, 2022


Mission: Pacific Hake Survey

Geographic Area of Cruise: Coasts of Washington and Oregon

Date: August 18, 2022


Weather conditions from the bridge:

Latitude: 4539.9725N
Longitude: 12422.9606W
Temperature: 63°F 
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Barometer:  1017.2mb

Michael poses for a photo to show off his gear: orange Grundens (rubber overalls) over a black sweatshirt, an orange life vest, a yellow hard hat, and sunglasses.
Ready for plankton sampling!

Science and Technology Log

Newport Hydrographic Line

One way scientists assess the health of our ocean’s ecosystems is to take samples of zooplankton and ichthyoplankton (fish eggs and larvae), both on the surface of the water and at depth. Observations of these plankton can inform us greatly about productivity at the bottom of the food chain, spawning location and stock size of adults, dispersal of larval fish and crabs to and away from nursery areas, and transport of ocean currents.

The Newport Hydrographic (Newport Line) is an oceanographic research survey conducted by NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University scientists in the coastal waters off Newport, Oregon.

Researchers have collected physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic metrics along the Newport Line every two weeks for over 20 years. This twenty-plus year dataset helps us to understand the connections between changes in ocean-climate and ecosystem structure and function in the California Current.

Data from the Newport Line are distilled into ocean ecosystem indicators, used to characterize the habitat and survival of juvenile salmonids, and which have also shown promise for other stocks such as sablefish, rockfish, and sardine. These data also provide critical ecosystem information on emerging issues such as marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, hypoxia, and harmful algal blooms.

a map of the coast of Washington and Oregon. the land is shaded gray, while the water includes a few blue lines indicating underwater topography. Though there are not grid lines, labels mark the latitude lines from 43 degrees North to 47 degrees North and the longitude lines from 125 degrees West to 123 degrees West. Midway, between 44 and 45 degrees North, a short red line extends horizontally out from Newport to the 125th meridian. It's labeled "NH Line"
Newport line

Barometer of ocean acidification and hypoxia in a changing climate

Global climate models suggest future changes in coastal upwelling will lead to increased incidence of hypoxia and further exacerbate the effects of ocean acidification. The Newport Line time-series provides a baseline of biogeochemical parameters, such as Aragonite saturation state—an indicator of acidic conditions. Researchers can compare this baseline against possible future changes in the abundance of organisms (e.g., pteropods, copepods and krill) sensitive to ocean acidification and hypoxia.

Equipment used

  • a net, which includes long mesh tubing extending from a ring, hangs in the air from a point above the photo's frame. a crewmember, wearing hard hat and life jacket, grips the ring with his left hand and reaches toward a rope attached to the net with his right hand. three other crewmembers are visible around the net.
    Vertical/half meter net
  • a net, which includes long mesh tubing extending from a ring, hangs in the air from a point above the photo's frame. a crewmember, wearing hard hat and life jacket, facing away from the camera, reaches over the rail of the ship to lower the end of the suspended net into the water.
    Getting the vertical net in the water
  • an illustration of a research vessel with a vertical net deployed off its side. the net looks like a white cone, pointing downward, ending in a red cannister.
    Vertical net deployed vertically in the water from a research vessel

A vertical net is a ring net with a small mesh width and a long funnel shape. At the end, the net is closed off with a cylinder (cod-end) that collects the plankton. It is deployed vertically in the water from a research vessel. It is mostly used to investigate the vertical/diagonal stratification of plankton. This allows the abundance and distribution of mesozooplankton to be determined.

  • a cable lowers a bongo net onto the ship's deck. the bongo net, name for bongo drums, is actually a pair of nets: two rings side by side hold up the nets made of long mesh tubing that narrow until they end in attached cannisters. a crewmember, wearing a hard hat and a life vest, leans to look at something around the back of the net.
    Bongo net
  • a crewmember, wearing a hard hat and life vest, hoses down the mesh tubing of one side of the bongo net. the top of the net hangs from a cable about 12 feet above the deck so the crewmember can rinse the tubing while standing.
    Washing the sample down the bongo net
  • an illustration of a research vessel with a bongo net deployed off its stern. the net looks like a pair of white cones, pointing horizontally away from the ship, ending in red cannisters.
    A bongo net is drawn horizontally through the water column by a research vessel

A bongo net consists of two plankton nets mounted next to each other. These plankton nets are ring nets with a small mesh width and a long funnel shape. Both nets are enclosed by a cod-end that is used for collecting plankton. The bongo net is pulled horizontally through the water column by a research vessel. Using a bongo net, a scientist can work with two different mesh widths simultaneously.

  • Michael, at left, holds up the net while Toby, right, uses a hose to spray down the mesh tubing at the end. Both Michael and Toby wear rubber pants, rubber boots, life jackets, and hard hats.
    Assisting Toby with Isaacs-Kidd net
  • three crewmembers, wearing hard hats and life vests, hold different portions of a large fishing net that is attached to cables extending out of frame. One steadies the net spreader, a horizontal metal bar. Another grasps the webbing. We can see a wide piece of metal toward the front that is bent like a wide "V". The belts of the crewmembers' vests are each clipped to brightly covered, stretchy tethers to prevent them from falling overboard.
    Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl
  • a diagram of the shape and dimensions of the Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl. labels identify the net spreader (horizontal metal bar), depresser (v-shaped metal plate), and bridle (short cables extending from the edges of the net opening, coming to a point). the net opening is 4 feet 8 inches wide by 5 feet 9 inches tall. the main portion of the trawl net extends 20 feet 6 inches long; it attached to a finer mesh net that is 5 feet 8 inches long.
    Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl dimension

Isaacs-Kidd midwater trawl collects bathypelagic biological specimens larger than those taken by standard plankton nets. The trawl consists of the specifically designed net attached to a wide, V-shaped, rigid diving vane. The vane keeps the mouth of the net open and exerts a depressing force, maintaining the trawl at depth for extended periods at towing speeds up to 5 knots. The inlet opening is unobstructed by the towing cable.

What we got?

a close-up view of a hand holding a clear jar with a white lid. This jar contains the sample collected by the vertical net. Since this net targets plankton, the sample mostly looks like cloudy, yellowish water.
Samples from vertical net
a close-up view of the contents of a white container, perhaps a bucket. This contains the sample collected from the bongo net. It's a soupy mixture of plankton, zooplankton, krill, and at least one small fish.
Samples from bongo net
  • a close-up (possible magnified) view of a petri dish containing organisms sampled by the Isaacs-Kidd net. mostly crustaceans and larval fish. The petri dish rests on a bright blue background that creates a sharp contrast with the somewhat translucent creatures.
    Isaacs-Kidd sample
  • close-up view of a pile of many, many krill. they look like clear pink tubes with black dots for eyes.
    Krill from the Isaacs-Kidd

Personal Log

SHARK ATTACK!

That’s right, our underway CTD was attacked by a shark.

a view through a metal rigging of a pully with a cable extending down to the ocean's surface. there is no longer anything attached to the cable.
R.I.P.

On a bright and sunny day, the science team decided to launch the underway CTD, but things didn’t go as planned! Retrieving the uCTD back to the ship we saw a big dorsal fin zigzagging close to the uCTD, until we noticed that the uCTD was no longer attached to the line, therefore we had no choice that to cancel the uCTD. You should have seen all of our faces; we couldn’t believe what we saw. We think it could have been a:

a stock image of a white shark swimming underwater.
White shark
a stock image of a salmon shark swimming underwater.
Salmon shark
view of a hand holding an underwater conductivity, temperature, and depth (uCTD) profiler. in the background is a painting on a cabinet door of a white ship sailing through waves and somewhat fantastical deep sea creatures swimming below.
underway CTD
(what the shark ate)

CTD stands for conductivity (salinity), temperature, and depth and it enables researchers to collect temperature and salinity profiles of the upper ocean at underway speeds, to depths of up to 500 m. Ocean explorers often use CTD measurements to detect evidence of volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, and other deep-sea features that cause changes to the physical and chemical properties of seawater.

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean, as seen from an upper deck of NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada. The trawl net frame, davits, and other equipment on the fantail are visible in silhouette.
Sunset on board

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