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60 st / May 2016 www.sea-technology.com Zooplankton Observations In Pangnirtung Fiord Sarah Fortune, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Colum- bia and guest student at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in collab- oration with Dr. Steve Ferguson from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and University of Manitoba and LGL Ltd. and VDOS Global LLC, conducted several days of zooplankton back- scatter observations in Pangnirtung Fiord with colocated Optical Plank- ton Counter data. The four-frequency (125, 200, 455 and 769 kHz) AZFP with cage and foatation from ASL's lease pool was shipped to rendezvous with the Arc- tic equipment. The collected data demonstrate the potential to record rapid and fne- scale zooplankton data in a way For- tune couldn't before. She anticipates conducting feld research this summer in Cumberland Sound to study bow- head whales' feeding behavior. Better Fisheries Management Could Double Populations With improved fshing approach- es, the majority of the world's wild fsheries could be at healthy levels in just 10 years and global fsh popula- tions could double by 2050, accord- ing to a study by researchers from UC Santa Barbara, the University of Washington and the Environmental Defense Fund. By 2050, applying the same im- proved fshing approaches could in- crease profts from the world's ocean fsheries by 204 percent—enough to provide a signifcant source of pro- tein for an additional 500 million people. If reforms were implemented to- day, three-quarters of exploited fsh- eries worldwide could attain popu- lation goals within 10 years—and 98 percent by midcentury. The team used a massive database of 4,713 fsheries representing 78 percent of the ocean's catch. GRIDSAT Testing At ICEX 2016 The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) tested a Geo-Referencing Identifca- tion Satellite (GRIDSAT) tag project at the U.S. Navy's Ice Camp Sargo, a temporary station on top of a foating ice sheet in the Arctic as part of Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2016, a fve-week ex- ercise to assess the operational readi- ness of the U.S. Navy's submarine force and advance scientifc research in the Arctic. The deployment and communica- tion of the system were tested, and several marking devices were left on the ice foe for long-term duration studies. Deployment was done by he- licopter aerial drop of two GRIDSAT tags with foe spikes and by manually inserting one GRIDSAT tag using an ice screw technique. If an oil spill were to occur in the Arctic, both de- ployment methods would be utilized to tag and track spilled oil trapped under or encapsulated in Arctic sea ice. The GRIDSAT radio/GPS marking device can be left on an ice foe to track the movement of the foe and entrapped oil up to nine months. Jason ROV Upgraded To Handle More Activity The $2.4 million upgrade to the Jason ROV, funded by the U.S. Na- tional Science Foundation (NSF), was a 12-month-long project conducted by engineers at Woods Hole Oceano- graphic Institution (WHOI), which de- signed and built the vehicle, that in- creased the vehicle payload and range of activities and streamlined vehicle operation. The ROV is part of the Na- tional Deep Submergence Facility. This upgrade increased the sys- tem's lift capability from 400 lb. to 2 tons of scientifc samples and instru- ments from the seafoor and eliminat- ed its companion vehicle, Medea, for these operations. During a Jason mission, the ROV pilot, navigator and engineer oper- ate the vehicle from a control van on the ship's deck while Jason sends HD video in real time from the seafoor through its cable tether. Scientists in the control van observe and direct biological and geological sampling. The upgrade enables Jason to per- form maintenance to seafoor infra- structure related to the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative and Ocean Networks Canada's cabled observatories effciently and with re- duced need for deck space. The upgrade comprises: new big- ger and stronger cable tether with break strength of 70,000 lb.; a modi- fed AHC winch to accommodate the new cable; a new launch and recovery system to accommodate the increased payload rated to 15,000 lb.; a new vehicle frame capable of withstanding the increased loads; a new swappable heavy-lift tool skid that will be used for these lift op- erations; new science tool skid with increased space and payload for sci- entifc equipment; and additional fo- tation to accommodate the increase in weight of the new frame. Ocean Circulation in Other Planets Could Affect Life The salt levels of oceans on distant Earth-like planets could have a ma- jor effect on their climates, according to new research from the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of East Anglia, which re- veals that the circulation in extremely salty or fresh water extraterrestrial seas would infuence their temperatures— and could make for more habitable conditions for alien life. Computer models of ocean cir- culation on exoplanets were used to see what would happen when their oceans had different salinity levels than Earth. They considered oceans with very low salinity (similar to fresh water), salinity similar to the average value of Earth's oceans, and high sa- linity (similar levels to the Dead Sea). Earth circulation involves warm water moving toward the poles at the surface, before being cooled, then sinking at high latitudes and traveling toward the equator at depth. The new research shows that oceans on other planets with a much higher salinity could circulate in the opposite direc- tion, with polar water fowing toward the equator at the surface, sinking in the tropics and traveling back toward the poles at depth. There is a simi- lar pattern emerging for fresh water oceans. These circulation patterns would result in a dramatic warming in the polar regions, which might extend a planet's range of habitability. ST ocean research