Broad-Scale Station Protocol

1996 Protocol

The Broad-scale cruises will carry out CTD, zooplankton, fish larval and acoustic surveys of Georges Bank and adjacent waters in addition to the ship's suite of meterological measurements. On each survey cruise, thirty nine (39) of these stations are called the "Standard Stations". They are located to provide a uniform, bank-wide coverage. The remaining stations are located equidistant between each pair of standard stations. At these "in-between sites", Bongo tows will be taken. This new protocol will be followed during the 1996 Broad-scale cruises. Other "in-between" stations (i.e. off the straight line cruise track) have been identified as desirable, but due to time constraints they cannot be routinely accomodated. If extra cruise time is available, the chief scientist can decide to visit these sites as well.

There are two types of standard stations defined for broad-scale cruises:

full stations where MOCNESS1, MOCNESS10, CTD, Pump, and Bongo data are collected;
partial stations where Bongo, MOCNESS1 and CTD data are collected.

Each "Standard Station" is assigned a priority number, from 1 to 4. Priority 1 and 2 stations are "full stations" and priority 3 and 4 stations are "partial stations". Priority 1 stations are "more important" than priority 2 stations, etc. If circumstances require the chief scientist to drop any of the core stations (due to weather or other ship delays) the Chief Scientist is requested to follow the station priorities as show here. All intermediate stations are to be viewed as having a priority of 5, that is, lower than the standard stations.

Once the standard stations and intermediate stations are taken, the Chief Scientist can return to interesting areas for additional station work at his/her discretion. However, given the length of the cruise, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient time for any additional stations.

The following was proposed by David Mountain in May 1996:

At the last ExCo I indicated that the next (and last for '96) broad scale cruise would do ichthyoplankton bongos on track line, half way between the established 39 standard stations. After discussing this with Wally Morse, Peter Berrien and John Sibunka - after considering the catches on the May survey - we have a different plan.
Because most of the larvae will have become juveniles, the in-between bongos would not be worth the time. Instead, the intent will be to do the 39 standard stations, and to add a MOC 10 to all stations < 100m depth (about 15 or so stations). This should maximize our sampling of the '96 cod and haddock year classes - and on ALBATROSS IV take less time than the bongos would have required.

Note that in 1995, standard station #25 was on the Scotian Shelf at -65.68 while in 1996 and thereafter it was moved westward to -65.848 to be in the NE Channel.

For additional information, including a table of positions and their priorities, see the Broad-Scale Station Plan for 1996.

For the Broad-scale Station protocol used during the 1995 field year, click here.

Last modified: December 16, 2003