Obsolete - AFSC/RACE/EcoFOCI: 2010 Chukchi Acoustics, Oceanography, and Zooplankton (CHAOZ) Study - 1AE10

Data collected on this cruise included the following: acoustic recordings of marine species detected by sonobuoys; oceanographic measurements including water temperature, salinity, dissolved nutrient concentrations, chlorophyll concentrations, zooplankton net and acoustic samples; date, time and location of all sightings of marine mammals and seabirds as well as group characteristics; photographic data for individual identification.

We deployed 24 moorings in the working area (17 passive acoustic, 1 activie acoustic, 6 oceanographic). In addition to the mooring and oceanographic work, the vessel will transited to Barrow Canyon and attempted to recover (without success) 3 moorings lost the previous year.

There are three goals for this study:

- Determine general presence and detailed movements of bowhead, fin, gray, and humpback whales in oil and gas lease areas using long-term passive acoustic recorder arrays, sonobuoys, shipboard visual observations, and opportunistic satellite tracking.

- Monitor ecosystem change through the use of long-term biophysical moorings, shipboard observations and climate numerical models.

- Assess the response of the whales to environmental changes (including climate and anthropogenic use of the area) by integrating the biophysical, passive acoustic, and large whale biology data sets.

These findings will be useful for formulating designs of mitigation for such activities. In particular, these data will be used to support National Environmental Policy Act analysis and documentation for Chukchi Lease Sales, Draft Proposed Programs, and monitoring, as well as ESA consultations, Marine Mammal Protection Act permitting, and preparation of Biological Evaluations and Biological Opinions. In addition to the passive acoustic recorder and oceanographic instrument deployments, which are the focus of this study, a passive acoustic survey (using sonobuoys) and visual observation survey was undertaken during transit to and from the mooring sites.

The specific objectives are:

1. Assess the year-round seasonal occurrence of bowhead, gray, and other whale calls in the Chukchi Sea.

2. Track individual whales through a hydrophone array to estimate relative abundance whenever practicable.

3. Evaluate whether changes in seasonal sea ice extent is resulting in a northward shift of Bering Sea cetacean species such as fin, humpback and North Pacific right whales.

4. Provide long-term estimates of habitat use for large whale species and compare this with annual ice coverage in order to establish predictive variables to describe large whale occurrence.

5. Estimate the extent to which variability in environmental conditions such as oceanic currents, water temperature and salinity, and prey abundance influence whale distribution and relative abundance.

Loaded by batch 3763, 12-05-2012 12:32

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/operations/2010/1AE10/CHAOZ2010_CruiseReport.pdf

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User must read and fully comprehend the metadata prior to use. Applications or inferences derived from the data should be carefully considered for accuracy. Data will reside at either NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) or the Alaska Fisheries Science Center depending on data type. Acknowledgement of NOAA/NMFS/AFSC or NOAA/OAR/PMEL, as the source from which these data were obtained in any publications and/or other representations of these, data is suggested.

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See InPort entries 26373, 26275, and 26570