Meeting the Reuben Lasker

Meilina Dalit

This is an expedition with many moving parts, and today we added the R/V Reuben Lasker, a NOAA ship, into the mix. We rendezvoused with the ship at an offshore upwelling front (the boundary between cold, nutrient-rich upwelled water and warmer offshore water) that was identified by our fleet of autonomous vehicles. A team funded by the Keck Institute for Space Studies is using observations and models to intelligently direct the AUVs to areas of special interest.

The Reuben Lasker is in Monterey Bay conducting NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center’s annual rockfish survey through a series of midwater trawls. Meanwhile, the R/V Western Flyer and long-range AUV Aku (equipped with a third-generation Environmental Sample Processor) is following behind, collecting water samples from the same depths as the trawls.

Researchers aboard the Flyer will analyze their samples in the lab for comparison with Aku’s data and the physical specimens (animals and algae) collected by the Reuben Lasker’s trawl nets. The sampling surveys conducted by both ships will corroborate the data acquired by the autonomous vehicles. These experiments help researchers imagine a future in which a multi-platform, autonomous observing system could provide accurate, real-time data of oceanographic conditions in Monterey Bay.

During coastal upwelling conditions, cold surface water coming in contact with moist air produces fog. This afternoon we saw a shallow layer of fog while sampling along an upwelling front.