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RVs Ernest and Roald
The key component to the LINKES project is the small boat survey operations that occur in the waters near Livingston Island. These waters are not well charted and have highly varying bathymetry so the larger vessel can not survey these areas. We know these regions are highly productive from small boat operations conducted in 2000, 2002 ( small boat and buoys ), and 2004; as well as from foraging tracks from the sea birds and marine mammals that the group at the Cape Shirreff field camp has studied. By instrumenting small (19′) inflatable vessels, we can survey areas that no other Antarctic vessels can. Of course, this survey work also requires the ability to endure cold temperatures and wet conditions, although nothing like the original Antarctic explorers had to endure (e.g. Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen, the namesakes for our nearshore survey vessels).

The Ernest I contains an aluminum insert built by Leif Knutsen and featured a single-frequency, split-beam EY500 echosounder, a WeatherPak 2000 meteorological station, motorized down-rigger for deploying a SBE 19 SeaCat CTD and digital underwater video camera, redundant GPS systems, redundant VHF radios, Raytheon 24 n.mi. radar, several laptop computers for recording data and a battery bank to power the system.  The Ernest II replaced the aluminum insert with a metal-framed dodger which offers more protection from the elements and includes many of the same features of the Ernest I with several changes including: the echosounder is a dual-frequency ES60 system and surface temperature and salinities are recorded by a SBE MicroCAT.

The Roald has a similar dodger to the Ernest II, however its instrumentation is a multibeam acoustic system (SIMRAD SM 2000, supplied by Jeff Candiotty of Simrad, USA) and associated geographical positioning sensors. A specialized deployment arm system (designed by Derek Needham and David Demer) allows two people to deploy and recover the multibeam system from the small boat. The RV Roald was jointly funded by: The UK Royal Society / NERC (Natural Environment Research Council); Simrad, USA; the U.S. AMLR Rrogram; and SWFSC’s Advanced Survey Technologies Program.

RV Ernest – Meteorological Observations

On the roof of the RV Ernest (both I and II) is a WeatherPak 2000 meteorological station (identical to the ones mounted on the RV Yuzhmo with the exception of the PAR sensor). The weather station data is recorded by the laptop inside the weathertight case and displays meteorological information such as wind direction and speed, air temperature, and (most importantly) atmospheric pressure. We use the meteorological information to make decisions about which survey tracklines to run and when to head back to our mooring at Cape Shirreff when the weather may turn for the worse.

RV Ernest – Video and Net Sampling

The RV Ernest uses a digital videocamera in a waterproof housing to collect video data about the scattering layers observed in the ocean and can deploy a small ring net to catch specimens in the upper most portion of the water column. The camera is connected by a cable to the ship where a small hand-held monitor is used to determine when the video system is in the middle of a krill patch. The data from the camera allow us to sea-truth the acoustic data, as well as provide information regarding the krill’s behavior and orientation in the water column.

RV Ernest – Surface Temperature and Salinity

The SeaBird MicroCAT is attached to the echosounder mounting arm and collects temperature and salinity values at approximately 1 m depth every 15 sec during the survey. Given the turbulent nature of the upper water column in the nearshore area, where seas are typically between 1 – 4 m, the waters sampled by the MicroCAT are well-mixed and often reflect changes in atmospheric temperature. However, the salinity records do indicate changes in surface salinity throughout the survey area. This data is complementary to the hydrographic information collected aboard the RV Yuzhmo.

RV Roald – Multibeam Acoustics

A second instrumented small boat participated in the nearshore survey this year. Andrew Brierley and Martin Cox (Univ. of St. Andrews) are collecting multibeam acoustic data using a SIMRAD SM 2000 system, supplied by Jeff Candiotty of SIMRAD, which is being used to conduct a detailed bathymetric survey of the canyon to the east of Cape Shirreff as well as water column backscatter data. Martin was on the boat running the system which collects data that can also be used (if the animals are not feeling too shy) to observe predator and prey interactions in situ. Additionally, the multibeam data can be compared (although not directly) to the echosounder data collected by the RVs Ernest and Yuzhmo. The multibeam acoustic survey was jointly funded by: The UK Royal Society / NERC (Natural Environment Research Council); Simrad, USA; the U.S. AMLR Rrogram; and SWFSC’s Advanced Survey Technologies Program.

Bird and Mammal Observations

For the 2006 field season, personnel onboard the RV Ernest (Steve Sessions, Joe Warren) and Roald (Adam Jenkins, Martin Cox) worked with Jarrod Santora on identifying and recording information about the bird and mammal predators seen in the nearshore area.  Anecdotal observations during previous field seasons have indicated that if penguins are observed then the echogram will show large krill patches in the water column, as well as the fact that baleen whales are regularly observed feeding in the nearshore area during the survey. However, this year we are attempting to collect quantitative data regarding these predators which can be integrated with the observations made from the RV Yuzhmo.