Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/10/2012 - 05:14
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Oceanographic Conditions of Bowhead Whale Habitat

Hello! My question for you is how long does the instruments take to collect the data?

Mon, 09/10/2012 - 09:24

Lisa Seff

Hi Brooke! Nice to hear from you and that's a really good question and their are several answers. When we take the boat along a path called a transect we stop at various points to collect data using instruments. Last nights transect went out about 25 miles and took us 18 hours to complete. We finished at about 2:30 in the morning! At one point it seemed like we were surrounded by whales which was pretty neat! Anyway, some of those instruments like the TDR (temperature depth recorder) and the ADCP (acoustic Doppler current profiler) generate data that we can download immediately to computers on the boat to help the researchers determine where to conduct their plankton net tows. The Acrobat is actually attached directly to a computer so that Dr. Campbell can control it's wings and flight patterns underwater and so that the data can go directly to his computer. This data is then combined with instrumental data that may not get downloaded until the end of the trip. Finally the moorings that we set may sit out in the ocean for weeks, or in the case of the yellow mooring a year, before they're brought to the surface. Once they are the data downloads pretty quickly. (20 minutes - a few hours for the most part).Thanks so much for your question. Look forward to seeing you next week!
take care and safe seas,
Lisa