Palmer LTER, LMGould 03-01
18 January to 24 January 2003
Weekly SitRep No. 3

During the third week of the Palmer LTER January cruise (18 to 
24 January) we completed our planned work in the northern 
section of the mesoscale grid.  At the beginning of the week (18 
January) we completed a second high density grid designed to 
relate Adelie penguin foraging behavior to the marine 
environment.  The first HD grid serves as a baseline because it is 
always a 10 km by 20 km grid in the same location.  The location 
of the second high density grid this year was based on information 
from satellite tags on penguins nesting on islands near Palmer 
Station.  The vast majority of the locations were in Wylie Bay,  
and between the shore and a semi-circle with a 10 km radius from 
Torgerson Island.  Most of the locations were also in the western 
region of this semi-circle.  Based on these observations, we did 
simultaneous bird and bioacoustic surveys in semi-circles at 3.7, 7 
and 10 km from Torgerson Island, with CTD casts at 3 key 
locations along the way.  Prior to starting high density grid #2, we 
did 3 net tows in the Wylie Bay region.  One of the tows netted us 
3 halibut tubs full of krill.  This is only the second time we have 
been able to do a high density grid based on satellite information 
from the Adelies foraging in the region.  We anticipate an 
interesting comparison between the results from the two types of 
high density grids. 

For most of the week we were occupying the standard stations on 
the 400 and 300 lines, moving seaward from the midpoints of 
Lavoisier and Adelaide Islands respectively.  There were 18 total 
stations, with 2 deep stations off the shelf at the end of each line.  
The weather started to deteriorate at the seaward end of the 300 
line.  We attempted to start the 200 line, but were weathered out 
after 1 net tow at 0530 on 24 January.  With winds gusting over 40 
kts and a swell of up to 15 ft, we left the outer stations, and moved 
shoreward.  We were able to work a station within the mouth of 
Marguerite Bay (200.-020) that evening before starting toward 
Rothera for our scheduled day of cross-calibration of instruments 
and comparison of data from the two long-term seasonal studies.  
Unlike previous years, this station inside the mouth of Marguerite 
Bay did not show extraordinarily high fluorescence and low pCO2 
values.  After our call at Rothera we return to occupy other stations 
within Marguerite Bay and will see if this station was unusual or 
similar to others this year.

Raytheon personnel, Captain Verret and the crew of the LM Gould 
provided excellent support this past week, and we thank them all.  
During the rough weather at the deep stations on the 300 line, we 
lost one of the water bottles on the rosette.  Pete Dal Ferro (MT) 
and Liz Caporelli (MPC) went through all the water bottles to 
check the attachments and ensure that the loss would not be 
repeated.  Fred Stuart (ET) continues to send the CTD data to 
Doug Martinson at LDEO.  A comparison of the two conductivity 
sensors and the salts run by Jordan Watson (MST) has been 
satisfactorily completed.

With greetings from all the Palmer LTER scientists,

Robin Ross, Chief Scientist for 03January LTER, BP-028 (PIs L 
Quetin and R Ross) Hugh Ducklow, PI, BP-045
Wendy Kozlowski, BP-016/032 (PIs, M Vernet and R Smith 
respectively) Heidi Geisz, BP-013 (PI, B Fraser)