GLOBEC Georges Bank Executive Committee Meeting
September 15, 1997
Coastal Institute Building
URI
Attending: P. Wiebe, L. Madin, S. Gallagar, J. Bisagni, T.
Durbin, G. Lough, D. Mountain, K. Wishner, R.
Groman, D. Busch
The meeting began at 10:00 AM. Peter asked for additions to the
agenda. Discussion of the need for a COP representative on the
committee and of a letter by Peter to UNOLS concerning vessel
needs for next year were added to the agenda.
I. Future Scientific Meetings
The Phase III open meeting:
Charlie Flagg had raised concern about possible
dates of the proposed Phase III meeting because he is
organizing this year's Middle Atlantic Bight Physical
Oceanography Meeting (MABPOM) on 6-7 November. The options for
the Phase III meeting were the 30-31 Oct (Thursday-Friday) or 3-4
Nov (Monday - Tuesday). Since some investigators indicated an
inability to attend on the earlier dates and the later option
would not directly conflict with the MABPOM meeting, the
Committee voted for the 3-4 Nov dates. For location the options
were a hotel around Boston, the NE Aquarium, UMass South
Dartmouth or the Mass Maritime Academy. The first two allowed
easier access for those flying into Boston, but could be more
difficult for local attendees (e.g., parking, traffic) and be
more expensive for everyone. UMass would not be a 'neutral'
location - which, while not critical, was felt by some to be
desirable if possible - and does not have a large facility
available. The Mass Maritime has new, larger facilities (size
was a problem identified after the last meeting there). The
Committee voted for the Mass Maritime Academy location for the
meeting.
ICES/Baltimore (Sept 1997):
Peter indicated that the ICES session should be a significant
event for the program, with many good presentations and posters.
It provides an international exposure for our results and offers
the opportunity to interact with our European colleagues.
AGU/ASLO Ocean Sciences (Feb 1998):
Peter passed out the description of the special session scheduled
for the meeting - which is entitled "Climate variability,
fisheries resources, and the dynamics of plankton populations in
the Georges Bank/Gulf of Maine/Scotian Shelf region of the
northwest Atlantic". The deadline for submission of abstracts is
Oct 9 (by e-mail or hard copy) or Oct 16 if submitted by the Web
site. An announcement will be sent out to ggball to remind
them of this session and the deadlines.
The intent is to publish another volume or two of manuscripts -
similar to the DSR special issue. DSR has expressed interest in
publishing another volume. Continental Shelf Research is another
option - although it also is Elsevier Science LTD. The papers
presented at ICES and/or at AGU/ALSO would be logical
contributions. An announcement will be sent to ggball about a
future volume, with suggested submission dates for manuscripts.
A final meeting note was that Peter has been invited to give a
presentation about GLOBEC at the AAAS meeting in Philadelphia the
week after the Ocean Sciences meeting. He will contact
investigators for input.
Mini data analysis/synthesis workshops:
Some support has been received by the program to support
junior researchers and students to attend the ICES or other
meetings. These funds could also support future small meetings
for data analysis and/or synthesis related to particular topics.
EXCO will need to consider, with input from ggball, how to best
use these funds.
II. Field Work in 1998
The committee considered four suggestions made by Ann Bucklin for
Broad Scale protocols:
1. Have a test station soon after leaving the dock - to
insure everything is working and people see the
operation. EXCO feels it is a good idea, but should be
at the discretion of the Chief Scientist.
2. MOCNESS electronics troubleshooting - need some
additional training for the technicians who operate the
MOCNESS. A one day course on MOCNESS troubleshooting
will be arranged sometime before the first cruise -
probably in December.
3. Technical support for the MOC-10: this past year the
nets were left on the frame between crusies, and
routine maintenance was not always done. For the
coming year EXCO feels that better planning will need
to be done to insure pre- and post-cruise work gets
done.
4. MOCNESS protocol should be rewritten to have faster
payout and haul in speeds on deep stations. This issue
will be addressed at a meeting of the Broad Scale PI's,
probably in early December.
Equipment requirements and suppliers:
Equipment needed and supplier in months with cruises scheduled
Month N J F M A M J O D
MOC 1 N ( W or U ) N N W W
Pump U U U U U U
MOC 10 N W W W N N
CTD N N N N N N
Bongos N N N N N N
Green Bomber W W W
Reeve Net
where N is NMFS, W is WHOI and U is URI.
MOC-10 nets 8 WHOI 3 need repair
8 NMFS all need repair
need to check if the nets are worth repairing
MOC buckets need to check the count. Need 20-25 for
a cruise
MOC flow meters need to check the count
need to calibrate the flow meters
Electronic systems URI - 1 16 bit
NMFS - 3 "
WHOI - 1 "
since no overlapping cruises, these should
not be a problem
Donna will contact the PI's and collate the information on
the instrument systems, and provide the results to Peter.
Broad Scale Station 32:
A recommendation was made to give this station a higher
priority since skipping it creates a rather large hole in
the central portion of the bank. EXCO agreed that the
priority should be changed to priority 2. Ted Durbin will
decide if a pump should actually be done at the station.
III. NE Pacific GLOBEC meeting:
The Northeast Pacific GLOBEC program has begun, with initial
proposals for retrospective analyses, modelling and prototype
monitoring being funded. The program had a first meeting of the
PI's in Seattle on August 18-19. David Mountain and Steve
Bollens attended, representing the Georges Bank program. They
provided an overview of the Georges Bank program, including how
the program is organized and operates.
IV. Methods for serving zooplankton data via GLOBEC/JGOFS
directly from an Oracle database
Peter Garrahan and Bob Bowen (both of URI) have been instrumental
in establishing an Oracle database for the URI GLOBEC zooplankton
data and making it available through the WEB, and both sat in on
this session. Bob Groman reviewed the underlying requirements
and philosophy of the GLOBEC/JGOFS database management system.
He then indicated how this system will connect directly to the
URI Oracle zooplankton database. This will be a separate path to
the database, and not replace the present access via Durbin's web
page. Bob hopes to have this ability implemented within a
month.
The committee discussed the need to get other taxonomic data sets
similarly available. A mini-workshop for PI's who have this data
was suggested in early December to expedite getting these data
sets into the database.
V. EXCO Minutes
The committee agreed the minutes should be posted on the web
page.
VI. Review of policies on cruise reports and timeliness of
reporting
Three reports for cruises from this past season still have not
been submitted. The committee felt that the need for timeliness
should be stressed to all Chief Scientists. To a large extent
the report should be able to be finished when the ship arrives at
the dock. No significant effort for post-cruise input should be
needed. The Chief Scientist's package contains a summary of what
is required for the cruise report.
VII. COP representative
EXCO has not had a representative from the COP Georges Bank
program since Mike Fogarty went to U of Maryland. The committee
should discuss this with COP to see if another representative can
be identified.
VIII. Letters to funding agencies by EXCO members
The committee agreed that, to avoid any confusion, any letters
about programmatic issues from committee members to the program
managers or related NSF/NOAA offices should specifically indicate
whether they are writing for themselves or representing the
committee.
The meeting adjourned at 3:10.