2024 Fall and 2025 Winter Northeast Ecosystem Monitoring Cruises Completed
The Ecosystem Monitoring Survey is the most comprehensive, ongoing program exploring marine resources and oceanographic conditions in the Northwest Atlantic. Its ocean measurements help understand and predict changes in the shelf ecosystem that affect fisheries productivity.
About the Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise
The Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise, or EcoMon, helps understand and predict changes in the Northeast shelf ecosystem throughout the year, which influence the productivity of fisheries. EcoMon’s comprehensive shelf-wide ecosystem data (hydrography, ocean chemistry, plankton) and analyses support everything from fisheries stock assessments to research on the North Atlantic right whale.
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EcoMon maintains a long term record of ocean measurements going back more than 40 years. The cruises typically collect data in the Mid-Atlantic Bight, Southern New England, Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine.
Core sampling data from EcoMon Surveys help us understand ocean acidification as well as changes in:
- Distribution and abundance of zooplankton and larval fish
- Water temperature
- Salinity
The physical and chemical conditions that EcoMon measures help scientists understand:
- Ecosystem productivity
- Fish spawning
- Larval recruitment
- Species distribution
The Ecosystem Monitoring Cruises’ long term plankton abundance and distribution data is publicly available.
Fall 2024 Ecosystem Monitoring
The Fall Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise aboard the NOAA Ship Pisces collected samples at 81 stations between October 27 and November 13, 2024. Because of needed ship maintenance, sampling was limited to the Mid-Atlantic Bight and Southern New England. In addition to improving our understanding of the Northeast shelf ecosystem, the data collected will help scientists evaluate the effects of marine development in the region.
The science team collected sea surface temperature and salinity measurements and measurements of current speeds at the surface and at depth. They collected physical oceanography data using a conductivity, temperature, and depth instrument. They also collected sonar data throughout the water and nutrient and dissolved inorganic carbon samples at various depths using a rosette water sampler.
The team collected plankton samples using Bongo nets to better understand the foundation of the marine food web—fish larvae, crab larvae, copepods, and small jellyfish. Scientists use the larval fish and egg samples to learn more about fish stock spawning and help estimate stock abundance. Additionally, they collected pteropod (planktonic snail) samples to study the effects of ocean carbonate chemistry on shell-building organisms at the base of the food web, which help sustain fisheries.
Finally, trained observers documented marine mammal, seabird, and sea turtle sightings to track their migration patterns and determine how they find food and habitat during their journeys.
The 2025 Winter Eco-Mini: Small to BIGelow
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February in the North Atlantic is never boring. During the Winter Ecosystem Monitoring Cruise from February 14-19, the team had 2 days of ideal sampling weather aboard the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow followed by 3 days anchored in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, because of a storm. During the first 2 days, the scientists and crew completed 24 plankton and hydrographic tows with Bongo nets and conductivity, temperature, and depth instruments. They took 4 samples for genetics work on zooplankton diversity with the University of Connecticut. They also took 14 pteropod (planktonic snail) samples.
At anchor in Narragansett Bay, collaborating University of Connecticut professor Zofia Baumann performed a tidal study by collecting seawater from the ship's flow-through water sampling system during the outgoing, low, incoming, and high tides. The survey team filtered seawater to obtain pico, nano, and microplankton samples, which will be analyzed for methylmercury and chlorophyll, and compared with samples taken at 4 different stations during the "at sea" part of the cruise.
To groundtruth satellite imagery and develop improved ocean color-based phytoplankton pigment models, University of Rhode Island graduate student Rowan Cirivello sampled water from 2 depths at our conductivity, temperature, and depth stations, coinciding with a satellite overpass. Cirivello applies sophisticated medical technology to answer oceanography questions, focusing on microscopic picoplankton (from 0.2–2.0 μm) in water samples. The flow-through water sampling system ran throughout the cruise. An Imaging FlowCytobot—an automated submersible microscope—also imaged phytoplankton, even while the ship was at anchor.
The Bigelow's officers, crew, and science team worked together to complete as much sampling as possible during the limited ship time and weather window available.