Spawning Cod Glider Mission

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution


Stellwagen Basin, Gulf of Maine, December 2015


Study objectives

A glider was deployed in Stellwagen Basin between Massachusetts Bay and Stellwagen Bank in the western Gulf of Maine to locate and study spawning cod and to characterize the occurrence, distribution, and habitat of cetaceans. The glider was equipped with instruments to (1) detect cod that were tagged with acoustic transmitters, (2) record the low-frequency sounds that male cod make on the spawning grounds, (3) record, detect, and classify baleen whale calls, (4) record mid-frequency whistles produced by dolphins, and (5) measure oceanographic conditions (including temperature, salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence, and turbidity).

Principal Investigators: Chris McGuire (The Nature Conservancy), Micah Dean (Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries), Bill Hoffman (Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries), Doug Zemeckis (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth), Sofie Van Parijs (NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center), Leila Hatch (NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary), and Mark Baumgartner (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)


Platform Map





Platform Information

Slocum glider we10




Questions

Please email Mark Baumgartner at mbaumgartner@whoi.edu. For a general desciption of the detection system and the autonomous platforms, visit dcs.whoi.edu.


Acknowledgements

The glider was expertly prepared and deployed by Ben Hodges (WHOI), with assistance from the captain and mate of the R/V Auk. Support for the deployment and operation of the gliders was provided by NOAA and The Nature Conservancy. The DMON acoustic instrument was developed by Mark Johnson and Tom Hurst at WHOI. Support for the development, integration, and testing of the glider DMON/LFDCS was provided by the Office of Naval Research and the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Advanced Sampling Technologies Working Group in collaboration with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center's Passive Acoustics Research Group (leader: Sofie Van Parijs).


Home