Environmental Monitoring Program
CINEMar/Open Ocean Aquaculture Annual Progress Report for the period 1/01/05 through 12/31/05
Principal Investigator: Larry G. Ward, Raymond Grizzle, and James D. Irish
I. Accomplishments
A. Scheduled Tasks
The primary goal of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Open Ocean Aquaculture (OOA) Environmental Monitoring Program is to determine if the aquaculture activities are impacting the environmental quality of the inner shelf environment. In order to determine the environmental impact, the substrate, benthic community, and water column in the vicinity of the OOA field site is routinely monitored. Factors such as biodiversity and abundance of infaunal and epifaunal communities, sediment organic buildup, detectable changes in dissolved oxygen levels, and concentrations of suspended particulate matter are used as indicators to track environmental impacts. In addition, dissemination of the results of the environmental monitoring is a priority.
Specific tasks for the Environmental Monitoring Program include the following.
1.) Routine field monitoring of the water column and substrate at and near the OOA field site (Figure 1) in order to comply with permitting needs and to address environmental concerns. This includes semi-annual (spring/summer and fall) benthic surveys to monitor infaunal assemblages (box coring), epifaunal assemblages (bottom videography), and bottom sediment organic content (box coring).
2.) Monthly observations from May to October of water quality (total suspended sediments , % particulate organics, and chlorophyll) and physical characteristics of the water column (e.g., salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, light transmission, chlorophyll-a fluorescence, and photosynthetically available radiation).
3.) Deploy, maintain and upgrade the environmental monitoring buoy system at the OOA field site in order to provide high-resolution, time-series observations of critical environmental parameters (e.g., waves, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and cholorphyll-a fluorescence).
4.) Monitor occurrence of listed marine species in the OOA field area.
5.) Continue implementing environmental information transfer protocols that provides physical, biological, and water quality information to all project participants, federal and state regulating agencies, and other interested parties in a timely fashion.
6.) Continue developing a streamlined and focused monitoring program that will comply with permitting and environmental needs and be at a scale appropriate for private OOA enterprises.
B. Progress on Tasks
1. Field Monitoring of the Benthos
Sampling Protocol. In 2006, the new benthic monitoring protocol for infaunal, epifaunal, and bottom sediment monitoring that was developed in 2005 was utilized (see Ward et al. 2005 for a complete description). The new protocol includes a more spatially detailed sampling array at the field site and places more stations within potential “impact” areas for fecal matter and food wastes. However, instead of quarterly sediment sampling, semi-annual cruises are conducted in the spring and in the fall. The station array consists of 20 permanent sampling sites that are distributed in the following manor: 4 stations (1, 2, 3, 4) at the edge of the grid within the “impact zone”; 4 stations (5, 6, 7, 8) in the "mixing" zone”; 6 stations (9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17) in a "farfield" zone; and 6 stations (13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20) in the "distant farfield" zone (Figure 2 and Table 1).
Infaunal Benthos. During 2006 infaunal benthos were sampled on June 13th (spring survey) and October 3rd (fall survey). During each cruise, the stations were located as close as possible to the 20 permanent benthos monitoring stations as sea conditions would allow (Figure 3 and Table 2). During each cruise, one sample was taken at each station with a Wildco box corer that has a design sampling area of 0.0625 m2. The sediment inside the box corer was subsampled for infauna with a 10.4 cm ID (0.0085 m2) acrylic core tube, and an aliquot of the remaining sediment taken for particulate organic analysis and for archiving (for grain size analysis if needed in the future). The contents of the 10.4 cm core tube were washed on a 0.5 mm mesh sieve, and the remaining box core contents were washed on a 5 mm mesh sieve. The residue from both sieves was fixed in 3% formalin for 3 to 5 days then transferred to 70% isopropanol for preservation. In the laboratory, all invertebrates from both samples (5 mm mesh and 0.5 mm) were removed under 3x magnification, sorted by major taxa, identified (to family level in most cases), counted, and weighed (wet weight of preserved specimens).
The overall approach to data analysis was a comparison of a variety of benthic parameters across the four predicted pollution effects zones described above (Sampling Protocol). The measured parameters (for both the 0.5 mm and 5 mm size fractions) included total taxa, community densities and biomass (alcohol-preserved wet weight), taxonomic diversity (several calculated indices), and the ratios of percent composition (based on densities) of selected pollution "tolerant" (oligochaetes, capitellids, cirratulids, ampeliscids) and "intolerant" (nuculids, paraonids, ampharetids) taxa. The data were analyzed graphically and by ANOVAs to test for differences in means of each parameter among the four potential pollution effects zones.
Sediment Organic Content. Subsamples of the bottom sediment collected during the spring (June 13th) and fall (October 3th) benthic sampling cruises (Figure 3 and Table 2) for characterizing infaunal species assemblages were analyzed for particulate organic contents via loss on ignition (LOI). Each sample was dried, heated to 450° C for four hours and the weight loss determined (modified from Ball 1964).
Epifauna. Benthic epifauna was monitored at the OOA field site in 2006 on June 12th (spring survey) and on October 31st (fall survey). Videography was taken at the 20 permanent monitoring stations (Figure 4) using a bottom camera system (UNH Hubbard Camera). The Hubbard Camera system is composed of a video camera mounted on a frame with synchronized strobe lights and an integrated positioning system (GPS). During each cruise the camera is suspended near the bottom (within 50 cm) and 6 to 10 minutes of downward looking video is taken. The video from each station is analyzed by clipping the video to isolate the highest quality segment, subsampling the video frames from ~30 to 1 per second to match the GPS positioning information, and subsequently analyzing each new scene in the video for bottom characteristics (sediment type, roughness), visible burrow characteristics (size, density), and epifauna. The inclusion of laser beams at known distances apart in each scene allows the total area of the bottom viewed to be determined. Depending on sea conditions and water clarity, quantitative assessments of the surficial sediments, sediment texture, bedforms, epifauna, burrows, tracks, trails, crabs, lobsters, and occasionally fish are obtained.
Water Quality. Water samples for water quality analyses were collected monthly in 2006 from May 27th to October 4th (Table 3A). During each of these cruises, water samples were taken at three locations: adjacent to the environmental monitoring buoy (IB), updrift of the grid and cages (UD); and downdrift of the grid and cages (DD) (Figure 5). Each updrift and downdrift station was located as close to the fish cages as sea and wind conditions allowed. During 2006, the updrift and downdrift directions were determined from a shipboard 300 Hz Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). Essentially, the currents were measured at ~22 m and the average direction determined. However, results of this method were inconsistent, and the drift direction had to be estimated from surface currents as well. In addition to the monthly water quality monitoring, a cruise was conducted on November 1st that included the station adjacent to the instrument buoy and two far field stations located several km away from the OOA field site (Table 3B and Figure 6). The November 1st cruise was added to provide additional water quality observations at the OOA field site, as well as locations well away from UNH aquaculture activities. At each station during all cruises, water samples were collected with 5-L Niskin bottles at three depths: surface; 22 m below the surface; and within 5 to 6 m of the bottom. Each water sample was analyzed in the laboratory for total suspended sediment concentration (after Banse et al. 1963), organic particulate content (estimated by LOI after Ball 1964), and chlorophyll concentrations (after Strickland and Parsons 1968).
Physical Characteristics of the Water Column. During each monthly monitoring cruise in 2006 from May 27th to October 4th, water temperature, salinity, light transmission, chlorophyll-a fluorescence, and PAR (photosynthetically available radiation) profiles were measured through the water column with a SeaBird SBE-25 CTD data logger with associated integrated sensors. The profiles were done at the same three stations where water samples were collected for water quality analyses (described above in Water Quality). In addition, dissolved oxygen concentrations and percent saturation were determined at the three depths where total suspended sediments, particulate organics and chlorophyll concentrations were measured (surface, 22 m, and 5 to 6 m off the bottom). The dissolved oxygen concentrations were determined by Winkler titrations on water samples collected with a 5-L Niskin bottle using the methods described in Strickland and Parsons (1968).
2. Environmental Monitoring Buoy
Deployments and Sensors. The environmental monitoring buoy was deployed three times during 2006, keeping the turn around and servicing times as short as possible (Table 4). A description and schematic of the mooring used in 2006 is given in Table 5 and Figure 7. Note that two Seacats with nearly identical configurations were included on the environmental monitoring buoy in 2006. The lower Seacat had a pressure sensor in order to provide tidal and weather forced sea-level elevation observations (Table 6). An ADCP was also included at the bottom of the mooring. In addition, a new cable design for relaying data from subsurface sensors to the surface buoy (coil-cord conductor described in the Important Results and Findings section) was included on the buoy during two of the deployments as an engineering test.
Servicing and Calibrations. Between all deployments, the mooring and instrumentation were cleaned, inspected, and batteries replaced. The data recovered from each instrument was examined through raw plots (e.g., Figure 8 and Figure 9) and listings to determine if any failures had occurred. Before redeployment, the fully assembled system was run to assure proper functioning. Prior to the first deployment in 2006, the sensors were returned to the manufacturer for evaluation and calibration. (The calibration was done during November and December 2005.) A final part of the calibration/data quality assurance effort was the routine comparison of the moored observations with the CTD and water sample profiles taken by the shipboard survey component of the Environmental Monitoring Program. These comparisons provided a general indication of potential problems that may exist in the moored sensors (e.g., drift). This effort is still underway
Dissolved Oxygen Sensors. A critical and difficult measure of water quality on environmental moorings is dissolved oxygen. To help assess the quality of the dissolved oxygen observations obtained by the UNH OOA environmental monitoring buoy sensors, an Aanderaa Optode was acquired for comparison with the Sea-Bird SBE-34 Clark electrode technology oxygen sensor (used on past deployments). Although the Optode was first deployed in the Fall 2006 on a nearby Testbed mooring, the instrument was moved to the Environmental Monitoring Mooring during the December 2006 servicing for deployment alongside the Sea-Bird sensor in 2007. Other efforts to improve dissolved oxygen sensor quality included working with the UNH Center for Ocean Observing Technology. These efforts will continue in 2007.
Mooring Upgrades. As time and funding permitted, efforts were continued in 2006 to develop two complete mooring systems in order to become fully operational (long-term goal). In 2006, a third Seacat with oxygen, fluorometer and turbidity sensors was acquired and added to the system. Near-future needs identified in 2006 included a complete Seacat system and two complete release systems. In addition to hardware needs, standardized documentation protocols of servicing and mooring assemblies are required. Efforts in 2006 included documenting servicing and setup of instrumentation. Checkout sheets were developed and utilized for each sensor system. Sheets for each measurement system, the releases, and a final sheet for the whole buoy system are now in use. Finally, a complete list of replacement mooring components that need to be acquired and how often they should be replaced was finalized
Coil-Cord Conductors. High stretching rubber tethers used to supply the required compliance for the environmental monitoring mooring prohibit electrical signals and power from being transmitted between the surface buoy and subsurface instruments. To overcome this difficulty, a coil-cord concept (Paul and Irish 1998) was built and tested as part of the ongoing monitoring effort. The coil-cord, which is similar in design to a telephone headset cord, was wrapped around an elastic tether (Figure 10 and Figure 11). Due to the ability of the coil-cord to stretch with the elastic tether, the surface buoy was able to move freely with the sea surface while still allowing data to be transmitted. The mid-water sensor package, located at 22 m and below the rubber tether, was hard-wired through the coil-cord to the surface buoy, allowing the subsurface data to be telemetered to shore together along with the data collected on the surface buoy (meteorological, sea surface temperature and salinity and accelerometer data).
Buoy Observations in Support Aquaculture Engineering. The design of new fish cages, moorings and feed buoys, as well as modeling the effect of the environment on these structures, requires accurate information on the types of wave and current conditions that occur in the natural environment. In the past, the observations from the environmental monitoring buoy have been used by the OOA engineering program to help in the design and modeling efforts. However, in the most recent study of the behavior of the “SBIR” cage, the currents at ~4 m depth were needed. The ADCP system on the environmental monitoring buoy can not measure currents this close to the sea surface due to side lobe reflections. Therefore, in order to provide the required observations at the 4 m depth, a MAVS current meter was added to the environmental monitoring buoy system (see Figure 7 and Figure 8). This data was then made available to the OOA engineers in order to provide the required current measurements to compare with load cell observations of tension and modeling efforts.
3. Monitoring of Listed Marine Species
During 2006, the monitoring of marine mammals and sea turtles in the vicinity of the OOA site consisted of a collaborative effort by UNH and the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation. This collaboration has been in place since 2002. Briefly, from May through November 2006, trained naturalists and internists on whale watch cruises identified and recorded locations (using handheld GPS units) and other data on the species sighted. Species distribution maps were produced using ArcGIS software.
4. Environmental Monitoring Information Transfer
The environmental monitoring activities, site description information, and databases have been synthesized and made available in annual progress reports (e.g., Ward et al. 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005), an internal technical report (Ward et al. 2001), and outside publications. The internal reports are available on the OOA web site. Web based availability presently exists for selected data generated by the environmental monitoring buoy system on a computer in the Jere Chase Ocean Engineering Laboratory (http://www.unh.edu/oe) and on the OOA web site (http://ooa.unh.edu/). Portions of this database is also made available, along with selected real-time telemetered data from the environmental monitoring buoy, online via WebCOAST. Eventually, old data will be archived and made available on this web site as well.
5. Refinement of Monitoring Protocols
As discussed in the benthic and water quality sections of this report, the number of stations and frequency of sampling was significantly altered in 2005 (Ward et al. 2005). These changes resulted from meetings with New Hampshire Fish and Game, New Hampshire Environmental Services and the United States Environmental Protection (EPA) agency. In addition, the changes in the sampling protocol reflect the results of the analyses of observations collected at the monitoring site since 1997. The environmental monitoring program will continue to be modified as needed based on additional reviews and discussions with the permitting agencies, as well as synthesis of the databases and literature.
C. Important Results or Findings
1. Benthos
Infauna. Inspection of the bar charts for both spring and fall, as well as 0.5 mm and 5 mm mesh benthic data, showed no obvious trends for any of the univariate community data (density, biomass, taxonomic richness) or the ratios of pollution tolerant/intolerant taxa relative to the predicted pollution effects zones (Figures 12 through 15). One way ANOVAs on each of the three univariate benthic community parameters also showed no significant differences among the four zones for either sampling period (all p values >0.05). However, one analysis could be considered “marginally” significant (p=0.0564): 0.5 mm mean taxa during fall (Figure 14) with the “Farfield” and “Distant Farfield” zones likely being higher than the “Impact” and “Mixing” zones. Although not significantly different (p=0.1048) from the other zones, the mean taxa during the spring sampling period was also lower in the “Impact” zone than the others. Taken together these data might be an early signal of increased organic loading to the seafloor under the cages, but density and biomass increases (as would also be expected) were not observed. In addition, the LOI values for the spring and fall sampling of the bottom sediments did not indicate a buildup of organic debris in the sediments (discussed in the next section Bottom Sediments)
As organic input initially increases to the seabed in areas with relatively low organic content (such as the present study site), total community density and wet weight (biomass) typically will increase as a result of increased energy flow through the community (Pearson and Rosenberg 1978; Grizzle and Penniman 1991; Diaz and Rosenberg 1995; Nilsson and Rosenberg 2000). Hence, if organic waste deposition from excess fish food and feces was affecting the benthos, a pattern of increased densities and biomass would be expected at all or some of the four sites within the "impact" zone. As already noted, no such trends were observed.
In addition to univariate community assessments, potential changes in taxonomic composition of the infaunal communities that might be pollution-related were examined in two ways. First, ratios of the densities of pollution tolerant taxa (oligochaetes, capitellids, cirratulids, ampeliscids) and pollution intolerant taxa (nuculids, paraonids, ampharetids) were calculated and compared. Pollution intolerant taxa were in the majority at all 20 sites, with only one sample where pollution tolerant taxa represented >50% of the animals collected at that site: site 8 in the mixing zone during spring (Figure 12). Otherwise, there were no obvious trends among the pollution effects zones (Figures 13 through 15). Rankings by taxa also showed very similar trends across the four pollution effects zones, with spionid polychaetes and nematodes dominating in all four zones, followed by nuculid bivalves and paraonid polychaetes (both pollution intolerant taxa) in most areas for spring and fall sampling periods (Table 7). These data suggest that the benthic communities in all four zones were dominated by infaunal taxa that are relatively intolerant of organic pollution, suggesting no or only minor impacts on the seafloor.
The second taxonomy-based approach involved calculating various ecological indices (Table 8). Each index distills the community taxonomic composition data into a single number that is largely determined by the number of taxa in the sample ("diversity" indices) and/or the relative distributions of the taxa by number in the sample ("evenness" indices). Hence, each represents a different measure of community characteristics. Generally, the value of each index is expected to decrease as pollution levels increase. However, this may not always be the case, especially for relatively low levels of organic input. In any case, differences among the four pollution effects zones would be expected. No formal analyses were conducted of the indices, but a comparison by pollution effects zones, indicates very similar values for samples from all four zones (Table 8). Again, suggesting that no impacts on benthic communities were detectable.
In conclusion, the infauna data for 2006 generally show no detectable impacts to the seafloor by the aquaculture activities. However, the (marginally significantly) lower means for total community taxa in the Impact zone for both spring and fall may be early signs of increased organic loadings. These parameters will continue to be carefully monitored during the 2007 spring and fall sampling.
Bottom Sediments. In general, the bottom sediments at the OOA field site are largely composed of low organic (usually <2.5% LOI), muddy sands, although slightly coarser sediments and small amounts of gravel can be found adjacent to the nearby bedrock outcrops (Ward et al. 2001). A number of bedrock outcrops occur near the field site that range in size from 10 to 100 m in width and have elevations usually less than 5 m. In addition, extensive bedrock outcrops occur to the south and west of the field site (see Figure 2). Comparison of the results of the previous bottom sediment surveys from 1997 to 2005 show no seasonal or year to year variations in sediment grain size (Ward et al. 2005). Consequently, grain size was not determined in 2006. However, the sediment samples have been archived for future analyses if needed. Comparison of the loss on ignition (%LOI) values from the spring and fall benthic survey for 2006 indicated no change in the particulate organic content of the bottom sediments (Figure 16). This is true for samples taken at the stations within the predicted impact areas for fish wastes (excess food and feces), as well as far field. In fact, there has been no consistent change in the organic content of the bottom sediments at the UNH field site since the beginning of the monitoring period in 1997.
Epifauna. To date, a total of 15 videography cruises have been undertaken since 2002 to track possible changes in benthic epifauna at the OOA field site. In contrast to previous years, comparison of the spring and fall 2006 epifaunal surveys showed some differences in total numbers of several species (Figures 17 through 20). Most noticeable was an increase in the number of northern sea stars at the northwest and southeast corners of the grid (stations 1 and 3, respectively) during the June 12th cruise and at the southeast corner during the October 31st survey (Figure 17). On June 12th, an average of 3.41 and 0.97 northern sea stars per square meter were observed at stations 1 and 3, respectively. On October 31st, an average of 0.06 and 2.83 organisms per square meter were observed at stations 1 and 3, respectively. Although the cause of the increase in numbers of the northern sea star is not clear, certainly the fall increase was at least partially related to cleaning of biofouling from fish cages. The organisms and organic debris removed from the cages and grid while cleaning would provide a short-term food source that would attract scavengers such as sea stars. The high numbers of sea stars may also be related to the strong storm activity that occurred the previous several days before the October 31st survey. The strong bottom currents associated with this storm may have scoured the bottom causing some bivalves to be exposed, providing a food source. The October 31st survey also indicted more shell debris was on the seafloor at most of the stations which also would be related to storm activity and bottom scouring (Figure 20). In either case, once the temporary food supply was depleted, it is likely the northern sea stars dispersed as was seen at station 1 between the June 12th and the October 31st cruises.
One-way ANOVAs on each of the epifauna measurements showed no significant differences (all P values >0.05) among the four zones for both sampling periods in 2006. Hence, no pollution effects that occurred consistently across the impact zones were detected in the epifauna data. The increased number of northern sea stars observed in 2006 was likely associated with short pulses of a food source such as cleaning of the cages or a storm uncovering bivalves. Most likely, the additional food on the bottom was quickly consumed, after which the sea stars dispersed. However, we will continue to monitor the epifaunal population to identify any potential trends.
2. Water Quality
Total Suspended Sediments. Total suspended sediment concentrations, the organic fraction of the suspended sediments (base on loss on ignition), and chlorophyll concentrations varied little between the instrument buoy, updrift and downdrift stations (Table 9). There were seasonal trends in concentrations and organic contents in response to phytoplankton blooms or storm events, but all values observed were within expected ranges for the various depths, seasons, and locations on the inner shelf of New Hampshire. Based on these results, no evidence of the aquacultural activities affecting these water quality parameters was observed.
Dissolved Oxygen. Typically, dissolved oxygen saturation values were 100% or greater (saturated or supersaturated) near the surface and then decreased with depth at all three stations (Table 10 and Figure 21). In addition, very near saturated or supersaturated conditions occurred at the 22 m depth from May through the July cruises. However, the % saturation at 22 m depth decreased from August to October to values between 82% and 88%. The near bottom (4 to 6 m off the bottom) dissolved oxygen % saturation decreased from above 90% in May and June to a low of 72% in September and October. However, the absolute concentrations of dissolved oxygen never decreased below 6.80 mg L-1.
The moored time-series observations also showed the trend towards lower dissolved oxygen concentrations and % saturation in fall 2006. In addition, the time-series observations also indicted variations in concentrations and % saturation over tidal periods indicating horizontal gradients of oxygen exist at the mooring site as well. However, a problem with the dissolved oxygen sensors on the buoy causes a steady drift toward lower concentrations, precluding the determination of the absolute dissolved oxygen values. This drift will be corrected with the shipboard dissolved oxygen measurements, which use Winkler titrations, in 2007.
The lower % saturation near the bottom is attributed to cooling of the water column and the annual variations in dissolved oxygen concentrations that occur in this region of the Gulf of Maine. To examine this further, an additional cruise was conducted on November 1, 2006 during which the station adjacent to the instrument buoy was occupied and two far field stations were sampled one northeast of the Isles of Shoals ~9 km from the OOA field site and the other ~3 km southeast of the OOA field site (Figure 6 and Table 11). Dissolved oxygen concentrations showed a similar pattern at all three stations including the far field sites with near saturation at the surface, decreasing with depth to 68% to 71% saturation near the bottom. In addition, the concentrations of dissolved oxygen measured at 20 m below the surface at the GoMoos buoy C in Casco Bay (43°34’10” N, 70°03’18 W, total depth = 46 m) and at 50 m below the surface at the GoMoos buoy A in Massachusetts Bay (42°31’40” N, 70°33’59” W, total depth = 65 m) were similar to the values measured at the OOA field site (Figure 21). The GoMoos data was obtained from http://www.GoMoos.org.
Based on the monitoring conducted during this study and the observations at far field stations, no changes in the dissolved oxygen concentrations was attributed to the aquaculture activities.
Physical Characteristics. Vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, light transmission, flourescence and PAR were taken during the monthly monitoring cruises from May to October 2006 (Figures 22 to 29). During the May 27th cruise, the water column was stratified with respect to temperature and salinity. High freshwater discharge during spring 2006 lowered the salinity near the surface to ~28 psu. However, the salinities below the relatively shallow halocline remained between 31 and 32 psu. By the July 14th cruise, the water column was less stratified with respect to salinity and surface values had returned to ~31 psu. The halocline weakened over the rest of the year, but surface salinities remained lower than bottom waters as several freshwater pulses occurred during the summer. In contrast, the water was strongly stratified with respect to temperature with a major thermocline at less than 5 m in May, deepening to between 15 to 20 m by August. The water column remained stratified with respect to temperature though October, finally beginning to mix in November. This pattern of the water column transitioning from vertically mixed in winter to highly stratified in summer is typical for the Gulf of Maine. Light transmission, a measure of water column turbidity, generally ranged from 50 to 70%, depending on primary productivity in the water column, river runoff, or storm resuspension. The lowest light transmission values occurred in May, most likely related to the high river discharge in the area. The fluorescence concentrations were not calibrated with samples from the field site, so the absolute values are not reliable. However, the relative trends are considered reasonable. As expected, the flourescence values generally increased from the surface to a depth of 5 to 20 m below the surface as a result of primary productivity, then decreased towards the bottom. An example of a phytoplankton bloom can be seen on May 27th.
2. Environmental Monitoring Buoy
Salinity. Observations from the environmental monitoring buoy from 2006, as well as previous years, are being reviewed with the goal of developing the climatology of the inner shelf off of northern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and southern Maine. However, this analysis was only initiated in 2006. Nevertheless, a cursory review of the 2006 observations indicates unusually low salinities (approaching 20 psu) 1 m below the surface in the spring (Figure 8 and Figure 9). The freshening of the water column is also seen at the 22 m depth, but was not observed close to the bottom. These low salinities in the surface waters resulted from the large river runoff following heavy spring rains that occurred in spring 2006.
Results of the Field Test of Coil-Cord Conductors. The first field test of the coil-cord system was during the mid-December 2005 to February 2006 environmental monitoring mooring deployment. During this field test, the coil-cord system and tether performed very well. Data was transmitted as expected and the hardware showed no wear or signs of failure. Following the December to February deployment, the system was cleaned and redeployed at the end of March. However, during this deployment, data telemetry stopped before retrieval in mid-July due to a Seacat battery running down (see blue records inFigure 9). Although there was no visible mechanical damage to the rubber tether and coil-cord assembly, it appears that the coil-cord conductors were flooded by seawater. Initial assessments indicted the seawater was “wicked” into the cable by the rope strength member. An improved coil-cord cable system has been designed to prevent flooding through the strength member in the future. If this proves successful, the high-stretch conductive mooring element will be a viable candidate for powering sensors down the cable (lowering underwater instrumentation costs by not having to provide power in the sensor) and recording data that is telemetered up the wire to the buoy (again reducing underwater instrumentation costs by not having to store the data). This will allow the high-stretch conductive mooring element to be used for buoy-based observatories where the advantages of elastic compliance can be realized and data can be routinely telemetered to shore for distribution on the Web. The design and the results of the field testing was presented at the Oceans 2006 Conference in Boston and published in the proceedings (Irish et al. 2006).
3. Listed Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles
The occurrence of listed marine mammals and sea turtles in the region and near the OOA field site from May 21 to November 5, 2006 are shown in Figure 30 and Figure 31. During this period, a number of sightings of finback and a few humpback whales were recorded in the vicinity of the OOA field site. However, no listed species was observed in the area. In addition, no incidents related to marine mammals or turtles have occurred at the OOA field site and no impacts have occurred since the beginning of aquaculture activities in 1997.
4. Web Serving of Data
An important goal of the environmental monitoring program is to rapidly process both buoy and cruise observations and serve the data on the Web for use by other OOA investigators, outside scientists studying the Western Gulf of Maine, and resource managers. However, because of funding limitations and the needs for new hardware, this effort has progressed slowly. However, temperature and salinity data records from the top, mid-water and bottom sensors from the environmental monitoring buoy are now served on the Web. In addition, all data from the water quality cruises since 2004 are available. A server has been setup that is accessed through the Ocean Engineering web site Links button (http://www.unh.edu/oe) and allows access to a table of deployments by date and quantity (e.g. temperature from 03/28/2006 to 07/16/2006). By clicking on the table entry, a plot of the data is shown on the screen, and by clicking on the series name, a flat ASCII file is presented. This link is also on the general OOA Web site and the WebCoast site (http://ooa.unh.edu/, and http://www.cooa.unh.edu/webcoast/webcoast.jsp, respectively).
D. Difficulties Encountered
No unanticipated problems occurred during 2006 for the benthic and water quality monitoring program, or the mooring operations. However, we have some concern over the loss of insurance coverage for the environmental buoy. Previously, the instrumentations and mooring was insured through Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This is no longer an option and any loss of mooring equipment will have to be absorbed through the program.
E. Anticipated Success in Meeting Project Objectives on Schedule
We expect to accomplish all tasks and objectives of the project within the scheduled time frame.
F. Reports, manuscripts, and presentations resulting from the project
Irish, J.D., S.J. Boduch and W. Paul. 2006. Coil-cord conductors on elastic moorings. Proceedings of Oceans06, Boston MA, Sept.
II. Tasks and Activities for Next Reporting period
A. Tasks for the next reporting period
The tasks for the next reporting period (2007) will be the same as those described in this report for 2006 for the benthos and water column monitoring. In addition, the tasks for the environmental mooring operation remain the same in 2007 as was described in this report with the addition of several focus areas including: improving the moored measurements of dissolved oxygen; completing the processing of past data (including oxygen and turbidity); and continuing the efforts on the “climatology” of the Western Gulf of Maine.
B. Brief work plan to accomplish these tasks.
The workplan for the benthic monitoring (infauna, epifauna, sediment organic content) and water quality monitoring (suspended material, physical characteristics, and dissolved oxygen) in 2007 will be basically the same as for 2006 (described in section I of this report). The benthic cruises for boxcoring and videography are scheduled for May and October, 2007. The water quality sampling cruises will start in May 2007 and continue at approximately monthly intervals to October 2007. The environmental monitoring buoy activities will include the regular servicing and cleaning of the system, deployments (~3 months long), and yearly instrument calibrations. In addition, the acoustic releases will be replaced in 2007. Collaborations will include cruises for in-situ calibrations, improving moored measurements of dissolved oxygen and other water properties as appropriate, comparison of SeaBird and Aanderra sensors on the buoy, and assessment of biofouling effects on the sensors on the buoy. Data analyses and processing for the environmental monitoring buoy will include processing archived data and developing quality control for dissolved oxygen, fluorometer, and optical backscatter data. This database will be used to develop the climatology for the western Gulf of Maine (using OOA data and historical databases). Finally, efforts will continue to become an operational observatory.
C. Concerns or difficulties
No concerns or difficulties are foreseen in continuing the environmental monitoring program within the boundaries of the program described within this and the earlier reports.
III. Expenditures
No major difficulties are expected.
IV. References
Ball, D.F. 1964. Loss-on-ignition as an estimate of organic matter and organic carbon in non-calcareous soils. Journal of Soil Science 15:84-92.
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