Back in 1997 the ARCO Alaska (as she
was then known) carried out a 2000 nautical mile
pilot tow of a CPR from Valdez, Prince William
Sound Alaska to Long Beach, California. This was
the first ever CPR tow in the Pacific. This pilot
study provoked interest and the North Pacific
Marine Science Organisation (known as PICES, an
organisation of government delegates and scientists
from six north Pacific rim countries) supported
the idea of regular CPR tows to provide baseline
data on the plankton populations of the North
Pacific.
Funding was granted by the North Pacific Marine
Research Initiative and SAHFOS approached ARCO
Marine (now Polar Tankers) and Seaboard International
Shipping Company to tow CPRs on two routes; the
Alaska to California route (towed by the Polar
Independence and the Polar Alaska) and a second
route from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Japan
(towed by the Skaubryn). The first tows took place
in 2000 and since then SAHFOS has completed 5
north to south routes in each year (7 in 2002)
and 1 east to west route in 2000 and 2001, with
3 in 2002-2004. The east to west route is the
longest ever CPR tow, covering almost 3500 nautical
miles. The final report from the NPMRI funded
project is available: A Continuous Plankton Recorder Monitoring Program for the NE Pacific and Southern Bering Sea.
Since 2002 the project has received funding from
the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council’s GEM
program and also the North Pacific Research Board.
We are grateful for their support, and also for
the generous volunteer assistance of the shipping
companies, the ships and their officers and crew.
Polar Tankers were unable to tow the CPR after
the end of 2003 and so in 2004 a new route was
started between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and
Cook Inlet, from the Horizon Kodiak. This shorter
route will be towed more frequently.
The pictures of the CPR deployments shown here
were taken by the crew of the Skaubryn
The North Pacific Ocean is poorly sampled and
so the CPR data have been primarily used to establish
baselines of distribution patterns and seasonal
cycles of plankton. The first results have been
published (click here for pdf file) which describe
the latitudinal variations in development of a
key copepod, Neocalanus plumchrus.
Batten, S.D., Welch, D.W., and Jonas, T. (2003).
Latitudinal differences in the duration of development
of Neocalanus plumchrus copepodites.
Fisheries Oceanography, 12 (3), 201-208. (View
PDF version of abstract)
Other results that are currently ‘in press’ describe:
1. How large anticyclonic eddies influence plankton
distributions –
Batten, S.D and Crawford, W.R. The influence of
coastal origin eddies on oceanic plankton distributions
in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. Deep Sea Research
II
2. How the El Niño event of 1997/98 may
have caused a change in the plankton abundance
and composition in the open North Pacific –
Batten, S.D. and Welch, D.W. Changes in oceanic
zooplankton populations in the North-east Pacific
associated with the possible climatic regime shift
of 1998/1999. Deep Sea Research II
Two collaborative projects began in 2002. The
first involved the installation of a thermosalinograph
on the Polar Alaska to collect temperature,
salinity and eventually chlorophyll data along
the transect. These physical/chemical data will
be used by us to help explain the plankton distributions.
Contact: Steve Okkonen at University
of Alaska Fairbanks,
The second project involves a marine bird and
mammal observer on board the Skaubryn
recording sightings along the transect. In June
2002, over 112,000 sightings were made on one
transect between Vancouver and Japan. Comparing
these distribution data with the plankton populations
may reveal information on trophic interactions.
Contact: Bill
Sydeman at Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation
Science (PRBO).
In 2003 some of the CPR servicing and sample
processing was moved to the west coast of North
America. Prof Bob Benda at the Prince
William Sound Community College coordinates
the Polar Alaska servicing while technicians
at the Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo BC
(David Welch’s group) coordinate the Skaubryn
servicing, Dave Mackas’ group at Institute of
Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC carry out some sample
processing. Both institutes are part of Canada’s
Department of Fisheries and Oceans and have a
collaborative agreement with SAHFOS.
EVOS Annual Project Report 2007 word document
North Pacific Research Board Project Final Report word document
Annual Report 2003 is available to download.
In 2003 and 2004 we were testing the concept of
‘fast-response’ analysis. A sub set of the collected
samples was processed quickly, the data compared
to previous years of data, and an assessment made
of the ecosystem. Summaries of the results from
this analysis are posted
here.
Feedback, comments and suggestions would be most
welcome and should be directed to Sonia Batten
(Pacific Project Coordinator) at soba@sahfos.ac.uk
The data are freely available and requests should
be sent to Sonia Batten at soba@sahfos.ac.uk
or Darren Stevens at dpst@sahfos.ac.uk
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