North Pacific CPR Survey
Sonia Batten - Senior Scientist, SAHFOS Canada
SAHFOS conducted a trial tow in the north Pacific in 1997 at its
own expense and was then invited to attend the North Pacific Marine Science Organisation's
(PICES) 1998 annual meeting and talk to their Monitoring Task
Team about what the CPR could do. Very little biological monitoring
was occurring in the oceanic regions of the North Pacific and PICES wanted to address this. Funding was
subsequently found for a 2 year program of CPR sampling along two
transects in 2000 and 2001: one 3,500 nautical mile great circle
route from the Straits of Juan de Fuca between Canada and the US,
across the Gulf of Alaska and southern Bering Sea to the coast of
Japan and a second shorter transect in the NE Pacific from
California to Alaska.
Since then further funding has been obtained to maintain these
transects, although the north-south transect has also originated in
the Straits of Juan de Fuca since 2004 and there has been no
sampling south of 48°N. For the last few years PICES has coordinated a funding consortium that
supports the Pacific survey and which has 5 members: the North
Pacific Research Board (NPRB), Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee
Council (EVOS), Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO),
SAHFOS and in-kind support from Dr Sanae Chiba, JAMSTEC in Japan,
who has personal funding to analyse the western Pacific
samples.
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Processed Samples 1997, 2000-2010
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In contrast to the North Atlantic routes, samples are not
collected year round but monthly between April and September on the
north-south transect and 3 times per year in spring, summer and
autumn on the east-west transect. Much of the sample analysis is
carried out by SAHFOS staff in Plymouth, but since 2003 Doug Moore
has been cutting and processing the Pacific samples in British
Columbia and analysing 25% of them before sending the western
Pacific samples to Japan and the remainder to SAHFOS.
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The newest VJ ship - Courtesy of Sonia Batten,
SAHFOS
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Already experienced with zooplankton through his work with DFO,
Doug went to SAHFOS in 2003 (and again for a refresher course in
2008) and received training in servicing the CPR, carrying out CPR
analysis and identifying phytoplankton. Doug meets the east-west
ship on its return to port in British Columbia (BC) and services
the CPR, setting it up for the next tow and taking the samples to
the lab. A collaborative agreement with DFO at their Institute of
Ocean Sciences, Sidney, BC, enables us to have a CPR microscope
station and some bench space in the plankton lab. There are
technicians in Alaska, also trained by SAHFOS, who service the
north-south transect CPR each month and send the sample rolls to
Doug for processing. Mark Savoie & Gary Lawley of Kinnetic Labs
are based in Anchorage where the north-south transect
terminates.
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Alaskan Technician Training at SAHFOS - with Graham
Hosie
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Sample processing and analysis protocols are identical to that
used for the Atlantic survey with the exception that generally only
every 4th sample is processed. This is because of funding
limitations, although all samples from the Alaskan shelf are
analysed due to a particular focus of some of the funders. The
Pacific Survey is now in its 12th consecutive year, has a total of
4545 analysed samples in the database (to the end of 2010) with
many more archived and has generated 14 primary publications to
date.