Dispatch 24: Re-deployment of BGOS Mooring D (74N, 140W)

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Dr. Mary-Louise Timmermans

August 13, 2011

The early sunshine soon turned to fog for the re-deployment of Beaufort Gyre Observing System Mooring D. The anchor-first deployment took just three hours to complete, with all members of the mooring team and Deck Department working together proficiently on the foredeck. As for the other two mooring deployments, Winchman Ed Bridgeman used the ship’s crane to position the acoustic releases, bottom pressure recorder and 3800 lb anchor for attachment to the A-Frame to begin the deployment. John Kemp (WHOI) and Boatswain Rico Amamio attached the sequence of backup buoyancy floats in yellow hard hats (13 sets of 4 glass balls) and deployed the other mooring components over the starboard side of the Louis, using Yale grips when the mooring needed to be stopped off to change wire spools. On this mooring, there are two MMPs which will profile the full water column. Once all the instruments and wire were in the water, the flotation sphere, with instrumentation mounted in the top to measure ice draft and ocean currents, was lowered over the side. Our mooring operations were completed for this cruise when Jeff Pietro released the hook holding the top of the sphere to let the mooring settle into place to record water-column properties for another year.

Science activities will conclude after several more CTD/Rosette and zooplankton net casts before the Louis must be anchored off Tuktoyaktuk for refueling (weather permitted) on Monday.

Last updated: October 7, 2019