| The Okeanos Explorer (EX) will transit from Honolulu, HI to San Francisco for the
winter inport and drydock period. During the transit, the EX will perform 24-hour
multibeam survey, deploy XBT casts every six hours, and test a sub-bottom profiling
instrument. A two-part project, CAMEO: Trans-Pacific Plankton Comparison 2010, through
Survey of Opportunity Requests has been accepted to be performed during the transit.
For the first part, the EX will tow a Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) to collect
phytoplankton and zooplankton samples across a long transect to describe species composition
and evaluate diversity gradients, and to estimate species occurrence at the surface.
For the second part, the science team will deploy a Manta net and scoop a bucket (for
tiny particles) approximately four times a day to sample the surface layer for marine
debris typically seen in this area of the Pacific for enumeration and chemical analyses. |