Operations focused on continental shelf and shelf-break waters between the NC-VA border and St. Lucie Inlet, Florida, between 18-200 m deep. Leg 1 consisted entirely of sonar mapping during the ship's northward transit, beginning at St. Lucie Inlet, FL. On legs 2 and 3, we deploy traps with attached video cameras at a variety of stations in the U.S. South Atlantic. Traps have a single line connected to two surface buoys. On legs 2 and 3, vessel operations will occur over a 24-hour workday. Trapping, video, hook-and-line sampling, and CTD operations occured from approximately 0700 to approximately 1900 each day. The time between 1900 and 0700 each day was used for transit to the next day’s sampling stations, multibeam sonar mapping, or for hook-and-line sampling. The calibrated EK-80 was continuously ran to collect acoustics data for fish during trap deployment and retrieval. The FPC supplied the ship with GPS points of most trap/video sampling locations, and trap sampling commenced at approximately 0700 each morning. Six traps were deployed off the stern of Pisces (down the stern ramp while the vessel is traveling at approximately 4.5 kt) over the course of approximately 20 min, one trap being deployed at a time and no closer than 200 m from another trap. After a group of six traps are deployed in an area, a single CTD cast was conducted, and then traps were retrieved after each trap has soaked for approximately 90 min (but no more than 150 min).

Note: Plan for Leg 3 was to last August 28-September 8, 2023 (12 DAS); instead of returning to Morehead City, NC, the Pisces pulled in to Norfolk, VA on August 30 due to mechanical issues and to avoid hurricanes Franklin and Idalia. One set of traps was successfully deployed and recovered (and one CTD cast performed) during Leg 3, and multibeam bathymetry data were acquired with the Kongsberg EM2040 on both days of Leg 3.

The Pisces departed Norfolk, VA on September 11 for Leg 4 and pulled back in to Norfolk on September 22 to avoid a storm ("Leg 4a"). The Pisces departed Norfolk again to continue Leg 4 on September 25 and returned to Norfolk on September 29 ("Leg 4b").