2007 Spring Survey

April 14, 2007...Let's Try This Again

2007-04-17T04:19:00.000-07:00

With 10 foot waves, the 2nd run of Lake Erie didn't happen. But, we did get the chance to hit the Lake Huron stations that we had to skip originally. Here's the recap:

April 12, 2007...Day 13

2007-04-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

We finished sampling Lake Ontario today around noon. ONFO was 85 meters deep and had a surface temperature of 2.70C.

Now, we're docked in Rochester, NY for the night. Some of us are going to get off the boat for a while to grab some dinner. We plan to be back underway at 8:00am tomorrow.

April 11, 2007...Day 12

2007-04-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

We've almost finished with Lake Ontario. Here's our station recap for the day.

April 10, 2007...Day 11

2007-04-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

Again, I must apologize for the delay in updating the post. One of the risks we take when we come out on the ship for a month is lack of communication with the shorebound world. In other words, the internet has been down for a few days. I'm hoping it'll stay up long enough for me to get you updated on our progress so far. For now, I'm only going to input the text version. If the connection stays up long enough, I have some other great pictures to post as well.

What a busy day. We finished sampling Lake Erie, went through the Welland Canal (pictures to come later), picked up some new science crew member, and started sampling Lake Ontario.

We finished sampling Lake Erie very early today, ending with station ER10, which had a surface temperature of 0.49c and a total depth of 33 meters.

The average turbidity (particles in the water causing cloudiness) of the Central Basin was greater than 4 NTU, which calls for us to resample the lake. We plan to do this after we sample Lake Ontario, weather permitting, of course. Right now, the weather seems to be picking up here, so hopefully on the way back, it'll be a little calmer.

After finishing up with Lake Erie, we headed for the Welland Canal, which only took 6.5 hours to get through.

After the Welland, we picked up 3 new science crew members at Fort Niagara, NY. I also got the chance to tour the old fort there (some more pics).

We set sail again around 5pm, heading for our first station on Lake Ontario, ON12, which was reached at 7:23 pm. This station had a total depth of 104.5 meters and a surface temperature of 2.75C.

We finished our day at ON25 at 9:40 pm. The total depth was 136.0 meters and the surface temperature was 2.65C.

Told you it was a long day. Can't wait for tomorrow!!

Coast Guard Station at Fort Niagara

Main building inside the Old Fort Niagara

Draw Bridge Entrance to Fort Niagara

Musket firing

Sampling Equipment

2007-04-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of some of the sampling equipment we use out here on the R/V Lake Guardian.

Board Chemistry Instruments

(Upper Left = Alkalinity pH probe, Upper Middle = pH meter, Upper Right = Conductivity meter, Lower Left = Turbidity meter)

Hood area where we preserve water for nutrient analysis and prepare water for Dissolved Oxygen analysis.

Rosette bottles - Bottle used for collecting water

Casting the Rosette

Retrieving the Rosette

The instrument on the bottom of the rosette takes readings such as Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature, Depth, and Chlorophyll.

Collecting water samples from the rosette

April 9, 2007...Lake Erie and Snow

2007-04-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

We finished all but one station on Lake Erie today. The last one should be finished around midnight tonight and then we'll be on our way to the Welland Canal and Lake Ontario. Here's a summary of the stations...

For those of you COSEE 2006 alums out there, remember that rain that chased us around Lake Erie last summer? Well, now it's the snow. Check it out:

Snowfall on Lake Erie

April 8, 2007...Lake Erie Egg Day!!

2007-04-12T10:59:00.000-07:00

We made it to our first station in Lake Erie early this morning. Because there are so many stations in this lake that come close together, I'm just going to list them in a chart format so it'll be easier for you to follow.

While sometimes, it seems like it's all work on the boat, we do manage to make some time for fun also. Below, you'll see some pictures of our egg decorating party. Enjoy!!

Jeff, Amy, and myself decorating eggs

Decorated eggs

More decorated eggs

April 8, 2007...Well, We Tried....

2007-04-09T06:19:00.002-07:00

We left Tawas City at 8:00am planning to sample the rest of Lake Huron. The weather however, had different plans for us. While the waves died down, the temperature now forced us to halt sampling. So, we've decided that for now, we're going to skip sampling the rest of Lake Huron and move on to Lake Erie. We should be arriving in Detroit, Michigan sometime later this evening and plan to head out to begin Lake Erie sampling early in the morning. Again, I'll keep you updated as we go.

Lake Guardian docked at the Tawas City State Dock

Storm that we passed through going to Tawas City

Tawas City Light House

April 4, 2007...Day 5

2007-04-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

We arrived at HU32 at 1:10am. The total depth was 83.0 meters and the surface temperature was 0.76C.

With only that one station finished today, we're heading to port because of the strong winds that are picking up in the Southern half of Lake Huron. We'll be docking in Tawas City, Michigan shortly and may be docked there for as long as 3 days. Right now, the weather reports say that the winds should die down by Friday evening. I'll post again as soon as the sampling resumes.

April 3, 2007...Day 4

2007-04-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

We transited through the Straits of Mackinac early this morning and are now beginning to sample Lake Huron.

At 4:10am, we arrived at HU61. The station depth was 116.0 meters and the surface temperature was 0.82C, much colder than any we've seen so far.

We arrived at HU54M at 7:00am. The surface temperature was 1.41C and the total depth was 126.0 meters.

HU53 came next at 10:00am. The total depth was 90.5 meters and the surface temperature was 1.26C.

We reached HU48 at 12:20pm. The total station depth was 110.0 meters and the surface temperature was 1.44C.

At 3:04pm, we arrived at HU45M. The surface tempertaure was 1.47C and the total depth was 96.4 meters.

The final 2 stations of the evening were HU37, which had a total depth of 73.6 meters and a surface temperature of 1.08C, and HU38, which had a total depth of 135 meters and a surface temperature of 1.9C.

We've been told that the weather is going to pick up later tonight and we may have to head to shore. I'll update you as I learn more.

April 2, 2007...Day 3

2007-04-05T19:33:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the end of Day 3, with 3 more stations down.

We arrived at MI41M at 12:30am. This was our deepest station yet with a total depth of 259 meters. The surface temperature was 3.27C.

At 3:30am, we reached MI40. The surface temperature there was 2.74C and the total depth was 166.0 meters.

After this station, we hit a bit of bad weather and had to wait a bit. What we thought might turn into a 12 hour delay in sampling ended up only setting us back 3 hours.

We reached station MI47 at 3:40pm. It's total depth was 189.5 meters and the surface temperature was 2.56C.

April 1, 2007...Day 2

2007-04-05T17:54:00.001-07:00

Today was a busy day....5 stations in all, 2 of which were Master stations (These are designated by an "M" following the station name.) Master stations are different from regular stations in that they tend to be deeper than regular stations. We also collect water from more depths at these stations versus the regular stations.

We hit MI18M at 12:40am. Total depth was 159.0 meters and surface temperature was 3.29C.

At 5:10am, we reached station MI23. The surface temperature here was 2.80C and the total depth was 90.5 meters.

8:30am was the arrival time for MI27M. Total depth was 103.0 meters and the surface temperature was 2.59C.

We arrived at MI34 at 12:20pm. The station had a total depth of 155.5 meters and a surface temperature of 2.66C.

We reached our final station of the day, MI32 at 7:10pm. This station had a total depth of 160.3 meters and a surface temperature of 2.5C.

Again, I've included a map of our progress so far.

March 31, 2007...Let the Sampling Begin

2007-04-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hello again!! I must apologize for the delay in getting out this update. We've been having some internet troubles and are now back up and running. Our Spring sampling officially began at 2:17pm today when we hit station MI17. The total depth of this station was 99.3 meters and the surface temperature of the water was 2.78C.

Station MI11 followed at 5:40pm. Total depth was 125.3 meters and the surface temperature was 2.9C.

We finished up the day with MI19. Surface temperature was 2.7 and the total depth was 89.2 meters.

That's all for today. I'll keep you updated as we progress. I've included a map of the current stations below.

March 31, 2007...Setting Sail

2007-04-02T08:22:00.001-07:00

And...we're off. The 2007 Spring Survey aboard the R/V Lake Guardian has begun. We left our home dock in Milwaukee, WI this morning at 10:30am and are expecting to hit our first station on Lake Michigan around 2:00 this afternoon.

For those of you who are new to my updates, my name is Jackie Adams. I'm a grantee on placement at the U.S EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO). This is my 3rd year out on the Guardian, and I still love it as much as my first time.

Just to give you some background information on what we test for on the R/V Lake Guardian. We're an EPA research vessel that travels around all 5 Great Lakes sampling water. We have a limnology program (water chemistry), and a biology program. My office does the limnology part, collecting water and running board chemistry. We also filter the remaining water and preserve it for nutrient analysis later. The board chemistry is quite simple. We test the pH, alkalinity, conductivity, and turbidity of the water right here on the ship. I'll include some pictures of those instruments later. The biology program monitors for chlorophyll, phytoplankton, benthic (sediment) sampling, and zooplankton. The ship runs much slower than one would think. We actually travel at an average of 12 nautical miles per hour. 1 mile = 0.89 nautical miles, so think around 12 miles per hour.

Like I said earlier, we're scheduled to hit our first station of the survey around 2:00pm today, so I'll post an update later.

If you have any questions while I'm out that you'd like to ask, please feel free to e-mail them to me at: Adams.Jacqueline@epa.gov. I'll answer them as soon as I can get to them. :O)