cowles's blog

We began our salinity feature tracking exercise in shallow water, just south of the entrance to Willapa Bay. We collected water samples and CTD profiles, then steamed south along the 124 7.0 W Longitude line, mapping surface properties and upper layer velocities. We did additional CTD casts north and south of the entrance to the Columbia River. We then tracked plume features through a modified 'radiator' pattern, and did CTD tow-yo series along each of the crossings of the southern portion of the plume.

We worked through the night to complete the WB line with CTDs at WB-9 and WB-5. We then moved north to the Grays Harbor (GH) line and did CTDs at GH-3, GH-6, and GH-10 before collecting water for primary production and extended sampling at GH-16. Addition CTD water sampling stations were GH-21, GH-26, and GH-36, with additional CTDs obtained at GH-31 and GH-41.

The night team continued with CTDs at CM-15, CM-20, CM-25, and CM-30, completing the CM line about 0200. Our first cast on the Columbia River (CR) line occurred at first light at CR-7, with water collections for primary production incubations and routine sampling.

We saw a number of fishing boats leaving the Columbia
River to begin a day of fishing in these productive coastal waters. We worked offshore along the CR line, and collected samples at CR-15, CR-30 and CR-40. As the sun set, we began work along the Willapa Bay (WB) line, with CTDs at WB-30, WB-23, and WB-19.

The water sampling team worked the early AM hours processing water from deep CTD casts at NH-55. We continued to enjoy calm seas as we worked inshore along the Newport Hydrographic line, completing stations NH-45 and NH-35 before water sampling and primary production experiments at NH-20. Following NH-20, we did CTDs at NH-25, NH-15, NH-10, NH-5, and NH-3. In addition to the samples from NH-20, water samples were obtained at NH-10 and NH-3.

We departed the dock in Newport OR at 9:50am after loading equipment and personnel for Leg 2 of this CMOP cruise. Weather conditions were foggy with little wind and the sea state was calm.

We began CTDs on the Strawberry Hill (SH) line at 12:30pm under overcast skies. By midnight we had completed stations SH-10, SH-15, SH-30, SH-50, SH-70, SH-100, SH-d, and SH-f. Water sampling occurred at SH-30, SH-70, and SH-f. We observed a few humpback whales and porpoises near SH-70, a new experience for several members of the science team.