Saturday, October 30, 2010

Rough Seas on Georges Bank

Peter Wiebe captured a wave coming over the rail soaking the deck!
Kaylyn here, reporting some bad weather out here on Georges Bank! We finally received our fixed HTI Green Bomber system working and we steamed out to Georges Bank. When we arrived we were faced with some pretty big seas. We were able to deploy the Greene Bomber so we can start collecting acoustic data! Unlike the Bomber the Hammerhead (the broadband acoustic system) is more fragile and can't be deployed in really bad weather. Choppy seas also means the whale observers Reny and Kelly couldn't survey today because the swells are high and full of whitecaps. Tim our bird observer stood out in the strong wind and the cold all day, and saw many species of birds. The zooplankton team braved the rolling wet deck to deploy the VPR at two stations, before the weather got even worse. The good news is the Greene Bomber is going strong and allowing us to collect acoustic data and plan locations for a MOCNESS tow in the future. We are seeing krill-like returns on the instruments!
Deploying the Greene Bomber photo credit: Peter Wiebe
VPR Cast in High Seas (from left to right Gareth, Kaylyn, Nick, Dave, Patrick, Wu Jung, and Phil) photo credit: Peter Wiebe
Wave Came up over the Stern (from left to right Kaylyn, Nick, Patrick, and Wu Jung) photo credit: Peter Wiebe
Nick trying not to stumble walking on a rolling ship!

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