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EK60 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During FR0904

Published by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce | Catalog Last Checked: April 12, 2026 at 08:41 PM | Dataset Last Updated: April 11, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Sardine Biomass Survey. Eighty four primary stations were plotted on the survey track with an approximate spacing of 20 - 40 nautical miles. At each station the following activities were performed: a. Deployment of a Seabird CTD down to 200 meters, bottom depth permitting. The self-contained CTD collected depth, temperature, conductivity and oxygen data. b. Standard Pairovet cast down to 70 meters depth deployed concurrently with the CUFES system. c. A CalBOBL (CalCOFI Bongo) standard oblique plankton tow with 300 meters of wire out, depth permitting, using paired 505 µm mesh nets with 71 cm diameter openings. The technical requirements for this tow were: Descent wire rate of 50 meters per minute, held at terminal depth for 30 seconds and retrieved at a wire rate of 20 meters per minute. All tows with ascending wire angles lower than 38° or higher than 51° in the final 100 meters of wire were repeated. Additionally, a 45° wire angle was closely maintained during the ascent and descent of the net frame. d. Standard meteorological data including SST, wind speed and direction, wave height and direction, cloud cover, relative humidity, air temperature and barometric pressure. e. During all transits between stations continuous measurements were made of pelagic fish eggs (CUFES) and acoustic targets using the EK-60. f. A 264 Nordic Rope Trawl with 3.0 meter² foam core doors was towed on the surface at night for a duration of thirty minutes. The 264 NRT was modified for surface trawling with Polyform floats attached to the head rope and trawl wings. The trawls have been modified with marine mammal excluder devices (MMED) to eliminate any possibility of catching marine mammals. Although the probability was very low that the gear being lowered into the water on station will interact with any marine mammals, a marine mammal watch was initiated 30 minutes before arriving on station. If any marine mammals were detected in the area, operations were suspended and the station location moved.

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  • Water Column Sonar Data Map Viewer

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  • AWS Cloud Storage Bucket

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  • Water Column Sonar Data Archive Homepage

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  • Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords

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  • International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Sea Area ("Limits of Oceans and Seas" publication S-23)

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Earth Science > Oceans > Ocean Acoustics > Acoustic Scattering Earth Science > Oceans > Aquatic Sciences > Fisheries Earth Science > Oceans > Ocean Acoustics Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Marine Ecosystems > Pelagic Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Marine Ecosystems Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Marine Ecosystems > Benthic Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Aquatic Ecosystems Earth Science > Oceans > Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography > Bathymetry

Complete Metadata
@type dcat:Dataset
accessLevel non-public
contactPoint 
                                            {
  "fn": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:ncei.info@noaa.gov"
}
describedByType application/octet-steam
description Sardine Biomass Survey. Eighty four primary stations were plotted on the survey track with an approximate spacing of 20 - 40 nautical miles. At each station the following activities were performed: a. Deployment of a Seabird CTD down to 200 meters, bottom depth permitting. The self-contained CTD collected depth, temperature, conductivity and oxygen data. b. Standard Pairovet cast down to 70 meters depth deployed concurrently with the CUFES system. c. A CalBOBL (CalCOFI Bongo) standard oblique plankton tow with 300 meters of wire out, depth permitting, using paired 505 µm mesh nets with 71 cm diameter openings. The technical requirements for this tow were: Descent wire rate of 50 meters per minute, held at terminal depth for 30 seconds and retrieved at a wire rate of 20 meters per minute. All tows with ascending wire angles lower than 38° or higher than 51° in the final 100 meters of wire were repeated. Additionally, a 45° wire angle was closely maintained during the ascent and descent of the net frame. d. Standard meteorological data including SST, wind speed and direction, wave height and direction, cloud cover, relative humidity, air temperature and barometric pressure. e. During all transits between stations continuous measurements were made of pelagic fish eggs (CUFES) and acoustic targets using the EK-60. f. A 264 Nordic Rope Trawl with 3.0 meter² foam core doors was towed on the surface at night for a duration of thirty minutes. The 264 NRT was modified for surface trawling with Polyform floats attached to the head rope and trawl wings. The trawls have been modified with marine mammal excluder devices (MMED) to eliminate any possibility of catching marine mammals. Although the probability was very low that the gear being lowered into the water on station will interact with any marine mammals, a marine mammal watch was initiated 30 minutes before arriving on station. If any marine mammals were detected in the area, operations were suspended and the station location moved.
distribution 
                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Water Column Sonar Data Map Viewer",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/water-column-sonar/index.html?surveys=FR0904&instruments=EK60",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Interactive map viewer to allow discovery and access to water column sonar data",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "AWS Cloud Storage Bucket",
    "accessURL": "https://registry.opendata.aws/ncei-wcsd-archive/",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "AWS Cloud Storage provides additional public access to water column sonar data through the NOAA Big Data Project",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Water Column Sonar Data Archive Homepage",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/wcd/",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Web page containing information on the water column sonar data archive.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Keywords",
    "accessURL": "https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Sea Area ("Limits of Oceans and Seas" publication S-23)",
    "accessURL": "https://iho.int/",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Publication of Sea Areas is maintained by IHO.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  },
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "NCEI Contact Information",
    "accessURL": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/contact",
    "mediaType": "text/html",
    "description": "Information for contacts at NCEI.",
    "describedByType": "application/octet-stream"
  }
]
identifier https://data.noaa.gov/waf/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC/MGG/Sonar_Water_Column/iso/xml/FR0904_EK60.xml
issued 2009-04-15T00:00:00.000+00:00
keyword 
                                            [
  "Earth Science > Oceans > Ocean Acoustics > Acoustic Scattering",
  "Earth Science > Oceans > Aquatic Sciences > Fisheries",
  "Earth Science > Oceans > Ocean Acoustics",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Marine Ecosystems > Pelagic",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Marine Ecosystems",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Marine Ecosystems > Benthic",
  "Earth Science > Biosphere > Ecosystems > Aquatic Ecosystems",
  "Earth Science > Oceans > Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography > Bathymetry",
  "Earth Science > Oceans > Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography > Seafloor Topography",
  "North Pacific Ocean",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI > National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "DOC/NOAA/NMFS > National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce",
  "Vertical Location > Water Column",
  "In Situ/Laboratory Instruments > Profilers/Sounders > Acoustic Sounders > WCMS > Water Column Mapping System"
]
language 
                                            []
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2018-04-11T00:00:00.000+00:00
publisher 
                                            {
  "name": "NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
rights otherRestrictions, otherRestrictions
spatial -117.1157,30.20867,-125.34525,37.82227
temporal 2009-04-15T22:04:00+00:00/2009-05-08T00:14:30+00:00
title EK60 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During FR0904

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