Cruises

0204JD CalCOFI Cruise Scientific Report 4 - 11 Apr 2002

CalCOFI Cruise - The second week of the Spring CalCOFI cruise of 2002 has been routine and since the weather has been good there have been few complaints. Preliminary data indicates although sardine egg counts are lower than expected they are spread over a very large expanse of ocean. Two possible explanations may be a weak California Current has allowed sardines to spawn over a wider area or that the current is well offshore and has left spawning areas relatively unrestricted. Nevertheless the patterns we are seeing seem unusual. This in turn has caused us to extend our cruise pattern on the northern lines of our standard CalCOFI cruise track to investigate high egg counts in the offshore areas. Ten meter temperature anomalies as compared to CalCOFI 50-year mean are still predominantly negative in the near shore areas and less so offshore of the Channel Islands where our salinity measurements verify the flow of the California Current.
Investigations into the Santa Barbara Basin reveal it has yet to flush out as it periodically does when conditions are right. Oxygen values from the sea floor to 40 meters above bottom are barely out of the blank range. Denitrification continues to chew away at nitrate concentrations in the same bottom waters. While surface productivity is nowhere near its peak with nitrate concentrations nearly four micromoles per liter.
Our trusty bird observer from Pt. Reyes Bird Observatory reports that bird numbers seem to be generally low, even on the more productive inshore transects. Shearwaters are noticeably absent from much of the area with perhaps a total of 8 Sooty Shearwaters seen on transects thus far: perhaps an indication of an impending El Nino? On April 8th when passing by and just to the north of Santa Cruz Island there were at least 12 pairs of XantusÌ Murrelets observed as well as reasonable numbers of CassinÌs and Rhinoceros Auklets. Pacific Loons, Surf Scoters, Brant and Phalaropes continue to move north in small numbers. Marine mammals noted in the past week were 3 Fin Whales near San Nicholas, 1 Humpback, a few scattered small groups of Pacific White-sided and Common Dolphins, 1 large school of Northern Right Whale Dolphins and 3 CuvierÌs Beaked Whales off San Clemente Island.
None of us will forget the ever present vellela jellyfish, especially those of us who have to fish them out of the nets after each and every tow. This is much to our chagrin after previously reporting that we had left them in our wake back at Dana Point. While our days at sea are soon coming to an end we will look back on them with sweet memories of camaraderie on the deck, in the lab and at the bountiful banquet at meal times. The cooks are treating us all so well we eat like we have been starving. Our thanks go out to the captain, and the crew of the R/V David Starr Jordan for making it all possible. - David Wolgast (Plots of the egg counts and ships' cruise tracks can be viewed at www.calcofi.org under the heading: cruise information.)
David Wolgast, IOD/SIO

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