FleetLink Meeting
May 22, 2001
MIT Sea Grant Office

Present: R. Barnaby, A. Bucklin, K. Ekstrom, C. Goudey, R. Groman, G. Williams

Absent: D. Holsom, D. Mountain, C. Pendelton, P. Wiebe

The meeting started at 10:20am at MIT's Sea Grant Office.

Updates

Cliff: The Adopt a Boat proposal was funded. They will use FleetLink and video links as well as personal contacts. Cliff: The FleetLink Shrimp proposal was not funded. He will resubmit it to NMFS cooperative research funding. He will explain the alert process better.

Rolie: The 15 minute (maybe 20 minute) video will be done within two weeks. We discussed putting the video on-line, into downloadable pieces. Rolie will get extra copies for the participants (20). Ann will make a cover. Bob will make 8 copies on CD-ROM for the PI's.

Ann: We discussed Consortium-funded projects and the fact that the Commercial Fisheries News wants to publish the accepted 38 projects. People present thought that would be okay to do. She also wants to establish "Project Development" funding, to fund small, $25,000 letter proposals. This is especially targeted to those people who don't have much experience in writing long proposals.

Ann will get 20 copies of the Sea Technology article.

Gary: The NetSensor and the Deckmate were designed to operate on nine volts and he assumed there would be a regulator to provide the nine volts. But this didn't happen and the 12 volts supplied damaged the circuits in the Deckmate. There have also been some improvements in the software, especially during debugging. The display software that Ken wrote, called the NetSensor display software, is running under Windows 98, first addition. It does not run on Gary's machine, which is using Windows 98, second addition. Gary will try to put the first addition operating system up on an old machine to test it out. Ken will give Gary a copy of the first addition. Alternatively, Ken can get the service pack for Visual C+ to address the output problem. Bob will look at WHOI for a CD-ROM for first addition also. Ken will provide the exact version number. In the meantime, Gary is working on the other parts. But the boat is leaving the dock tomorrow at 9:00am. Ann suggested getting the data using an alternative sensor, from Onset Computers, on Craig's boat. (It doesn't have an RF-link; it doesn't give the pressure at the same time; it is not as accurate and it is not automated.) The renewal money and other funds (Cliff) wants to do several specific experiments. These data will not be telemetered but will be hand-carried to Bob after the trip. We'll use the alternate sensor until Gary's NetSensor is ready. Gary requested that all Deckmates be returned to him for repair.

Ken: Craig's vessel's computer is here. Ken expected to hand Craig his computer today, but Craig isn't here today so Ken will hand-carry the computer and the alternate temperature sensor (with software) and instructions to Portland later today. He will also bring back the Deckmate for repair, protecting the connector on the vessel. Ken will ask Craig to transmit data. But Ken said that Criag's MET sensor doesn't work. Ken will contact Gary with what he finds out. Ken also said that the Adventurer has a transmitter that is stuck on transmit. Gary will have someone take a look in three days, if possible. Sea surface temperature should be available for telemetering.

Experiments

We discussed what experiments the vessels could do before July 15 with the remaining FleetLink funds. The experiment need not be tied to fishing, and if it is in a non-fishing area, then it won't be a fishing cruise. Gary would like to go. Ann mentioned an e-mail from David Mountain suggesting an experiment.

Lunch at 11:50am.

Data Policy

We need to talk to each of the vessel owners. We decided that the data policy with respect to protecting the origin of the data changes for each trip/experiment. But we will wait until the sensors are working before having this conversation. We revisited the idea of including the vessel name, position, time, MET and SST data in the public web site.

Bob asked what historical data people thought should be viewable on the public web site at this point in time. All felt that the current/live data plus one or two days of older, historical data should be viewable via the public web site.

We also revisited the data policy for "Scientific Use". We agreed that scientists would have access to the full data sets with permission of the vessel owners whose data are requested.

There was interest expressed in having vessel comments e-mailed to the FleetLink PI's as well. Bob will look into this. Actually, Ann suggested that everyone get a copy of what the vessels send in. Bob will implement this.

It was clear from our discussions, that the decision to stop telemetering data from the vessels had sent the message to the captains that the project was somehow stopped and the participants had lost much of their interest. Bob said that in retrospect, while telemetering minute data was viewed as crucial to our project, we should have decided to send one record per hour to hold down costs, but more importantly to keep the interest of the participants. It also would have provided data to the National Weather Service and shown us which vessels were having equipment troubles.

Budgets

Ann assumes that people's budgets are now fixed, and her remaining funds (~$6,000) will be used for one or more science experiments. Hopefully, there will be FleetLink II funds July 15.

There will be no no-cost extension, so invoices for payments need to be in by June 15th. Ann asked Bob to send in an invoice for all the funds to insure they are committed prior to June 15th. Bob also needs to send in a letter requesting additional funds be added to his budget.

System Status

Ken developed a means to send e-mail to any captain using FleetLink. This is working and planned for Cam's system. Cam's SST needs to be moved and fixed and his sensor mast is blocked during certain orientations. It has to be repositioned forward and higher. Bobby's system is now working after replacing the system. Gary is prepared to work on problems, but he needs to know that there is a problem and that the vessel is available. Owners and captains can/should use the fleetlink_i@fleetlink.net address with their schedules and any problems they have. If any PI receives a phone or direct message, pass it along to everyone.

NEFMC Proposal Planning

Letters are due in June. Maybe Peter and Cam will do something. Ann, with Pinggou He as lead, may send in a letter as well for fish behavior (video) with FleetLink's net sensor data, something like "Fish behavior in their habitats". Can also address "Adaptive sampling" and data assimilation topics for the "armchair scientist".

NWS/GTS Update

Bob had nothing new to report about the National Weather Service.

Fish Pricing Data Available for E-mail to Vessels

Bob reminded people that the fish landings information can be e-mailed to captains and/or boat owners. But there are cost considerations. Perhaps it could be sent to the owners and they could forward those messages that are useful. Cliff suggested that the information could be e-mailed to any vessel that sent in FleetLink data at noon. But he also suggested that Bob look to see if they want the file anyway even if they aren't telemetering. Bob should check with Ken on the status of the e-mail reading before contacting the vessel owners, but be prepared to e-mail these data when requested. It was also suggested to send the captains and owners a sample so they see what it looked like. Cliff asked it the data could be taylored for each requestor so that information about only certain species were e-mailed. Bob said this would be possible if the fish report had a more or less fixed format. Bob will look into it.

Review Original Proposal

We attempted to go through the original proposal to see how well we fulfilled our original list of tasks. Towards the end of this review, time grew short, so that few notes were taken. However, Ann felt we had done well.

Task 1a - held informal meetings with one on one and one on many on their turf. There was also a formal meeting at UNH during a GLOBEC Georges Bank meeting.

- Questionnaire done. Analyze questionnaire. Not done yet. Becky may do it. Rollie to get data to Ann.

- Participated in Fish forums.

1b - Not workshops, but brought people into our meetings. Workshops have to come after the system is fully working.

2 - ASLO meeting, Alberkerky meeting, American Meteorological Society meeting, Fish Forum.

2a - LENA subsystem is Wheelhouse
Modular suite of sensors - yes
Did 4 systems.

2b - we are close for an operational NetSensor

2c - Yes, Wheelhouse
Athena
GUI

- Field names, instrument names - yes

2d - Real-time data telemetry - Yes

2e - Fabrication and bench-testing of sensor systems

Data servers distributed - no, all at WHOI

2f - Installation on fishing vessels and at-sea system evaluation

2g - Demonstration phase using two commercial fishing vessels - using three vessels


Last modified: May 29, 2001