Project Information

Title: Biophysical Observation Aboard Alaska Marine Highway Systems Ferries 040699

Project Year and Number: 2004: 040699

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: None

Principal Investigator (PI): Ned Cokelet (NOAA )

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: Calvin Mordy, Scott Pegau

Project Website: http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/GEM/alaska_ferry

Research Location: Alaska Coastal Current, Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract: The Alaska Coastal Current flows counterclockwise along the edge of the Gulf of Alaska carrying the river runoff, nutrients and plankton that fuel the productive coastal-marine ecosystem. As seen in satellite images, a strong “chlorophyll front” develops in summer between the nutrient-poor region to seaward and a productive region around Kodiak Island that extends northward to the Kenai Peninsula. Conventional wisdom predicts that the Gulf ecosystem should not be productive because the average wind pattern favors downwelling oceanic conditions that fail to restore nutrients to the sunlit upper layers. The chlorophyll front presents a natural study area over which low and high productivity regions lie in close proximity. The Alaska Marine Highway System ferry M/V Tustumena crosses this front over 280 times each year. We propose to instrument the Tustumena to measure physical and biological oceanographic parameters across the Alaska Coastal Current and in Prince William Sound. This will begin a GEM oceanographic monitoring program in the Gulf that will lead to understanding nutrient replenishment and document ecosystem trends for years to come.


Proposal: View (712 KB)

Reports:
Annual Report FY04: View (29 KB)
Annual Report FY05: View (186 KB)
Annual Report FY06: View (213 KB)
Annual Report FY07: View (263 KB)
Final Report: View (8,226 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available