Project Information

Title: Biophysical Observations Aboard Alaska Marine Highway System Ferries 070699

Project Year and Number: 2007: 070699

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: None

Principal Investigator (PI): Ned Cokelet (NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory)

Assisting Personnel: Calvin Mordy, Scott Pegau

Research Location: Prince William Sound and Alaska Coastal Current

Restoration Category:

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract:

Oceanographic monitoring is essential to deliver real-time ecosystem information for public and advisory use, to provide boundary conditions for numerical models and to put the marine ecosystem into an historical perspective that can reveal long-term developmental, climatic and anthropogenic changes. For example, in Prince William Sound (PWS) it is important to monitor water temperature because it affects the Pacific herring fishery through alterations in spawning timing, metabolic rate and feeding, and wintertime resistance to disease. Salinity affects circulation, therefore herring larval dispersal. Circulation models used to predict herring larval drift require periodic calibration to actual temperature and salinity observations to give realistic results. In September 2004, we installed an EVOS-funded monitoring system aboard the Alaskan ferry M/V Tustumena that operated in two oil-spill areas, PWS and the Alaska Coastal Current (ACC). The monitoring system measures water temperature, salinity, and indicators of essential nutrients, phytoplankton biomass, freshwater influence and sediment load. The system operated successfully in PWS until May 2005 when the ferry was reassigned to ACC routes only. We propose to add a similar oceanographic monitoring system in PWS to the Alaskan ferry M/V Aurora, a volunteer observing ship that transits the sound daily. These observations will complement the present data set. Furthermore, we propose to continue Tustumena’s ACC measurements at marginal cost to monitor essential biophysical variables in the coastal Gulf of Alaska.


Proposal: View (1,517 KB)

Reports:
Final Report: Not available. For current status, please contact us.

Publications from this Project: None Available