New station log

The blog for the new station has been changed to http://srvi2-log.blogspot.com .

Temporary Station Take-Down

The Integrated Coral Observing Network (ICON/CREWS station within the Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve in St. Croix was taken down during the week of June 19 so that it could be upgraded to a stronger, sleeker and more extensible design, essentially the same design utilized at the La Parguera, Puerto Rico station. When re-installed in July, the station will have sea temperature, salinity, PAR and UV (305, 330, 380nm) at shallow and near-bottom depths, rather than just shallow (nominal 1m), and will also provide dew point and relative humidity data. The ease with which the station was taken down highlights an important concept for coral reef managers; namely, that the structure can be considered temporary, yet still strong enough to withstand heavy storms. The station will be more easily extended for additional instrumentation as the need and funding arise; e.g., for ocean acidification, PAM-fluorometry, nutrient, ocean currents, acoustic telemetry from the canyon, underwater Web cam, or other studies. For more information, contact Jim.Hendee@noaa.gov.

Status

I believe Dave Ward was there on April 1st to swap out the satellite
transmitter, leaving the small antenna on the station.  At that point,
we started getting intermittent transmissions again after a silent
period that began on February 23rd.

The underwater BIC failed on Sunday, April 2nd.

Transmissions stopped entirely again on Friday, April 28th.  I think I
heard second-hand from Louis that this was when Dave went back to put
the original (larger) antenna back on the the station.  Dave still has
the smaller antenna in storage somewhere.

-- Mike J+

SRVI1 underwater BIC has failed

Note that recent data indicates that the Underwater BIC at St. Croix has failed. The (corrupted) transmissions resumed from SRVI1 on Saturday, April 1st, following Dave Ward's replacement of the satellite antenna and transmitter. There followed a total of 7 "good" reports from the Underwater BIC over a period of 27 hours (all other transmissions did not make it through). Then Sunday afternoon, the following day, we received a BIC report with only 71 readings in the hour instead of the usual 120 readings. The next time the station talks to us (11PM), the Underwater BIC has gone silent. The full timeline (times in EDT) is:

  Sat Apr 1,  2 pm : SRVI1 resumes (corrupted) transmissions

  Sat Apr 1,  7 pm -
  Sun Apr 2, 12 pm : we receive 7 full measurement counts from the
                     underwater BIC in this period (120 counts)

  Sun Apr 2,  4 pm : underwater BIC reports only 71 counts

  Sun Apr 2, 11 pm : underwater BIC starts reporting 0 counts

With SRVI1, the problem could be any number of things but probably it's either a cable failure or one of the wiring connections pulled loose in the datalogger box. My feeling is that it's unlikely to be an instrument failure. Recall that the underwater instruments at SRVI1 are connected by cables zip-tied down the outside of the stick and this has proven to be an extremely unreliable workaround for the failure of the internal cable bundles.

-- Mike J+

Update

The instruments were cleaned. The basket was lowered, the transmitter and antenna were replaced. A loose antenna connection was found. All other equipment appeared to be operating normally. The team removed the ground-truthing C.T.

Maintenance Update

On Friday, March 3rd, I made an inspection of the pylon at Salt River and made the following observations. The pylon was visually inspected both above and below the water. All underwter instruments and cables appeared to be in tact with no apparent damage. The antenna and tower were also in good condition. I cleaned the light sensor as well.

After the inspection, we were about two miles off shore, between the pylon and Christiansted harbor when we sighted the tremendous splash of water from a Humpback whale breechng the water. The whale made a surface dive and we observed the fluke rise out of the water. The whale then rolled on it's back and waved it's pectoral fins back and forth above the surface. It was quite a display.

After trying to take multiple photographs of the incident with my cell phone, I realized that in my great excitement, I was pushing the wrong button. Therefore, no photo evidence of the event.

Cheers,
Signing for David (Sue)

station not transmitting

The station stopped reporting for unknown reasons some time after 2pm, February 23rd, EST. We're looking into the problem.

cheers, Jim

Service Trip

The instruments were cleaned and all equipment appeared to be in working order.

Dave Ward

Service

The instruments were cleaned and all equipment appeared to be in working order.

Dave Ward.

Additional Notes for Nov 30 trip

Distance between underwater BIC (Radiometer) and Presure sensor on CTD: 83 cm

Groundtruthing CT swapped- removed FSI s/n 1486d-23oct01

Deployed:
Anemometers
S/N 53517
S/N 53518
BIC Underwater
S/N 2104U 1039
CTD
S/N 1641 31 AUG 05

SRVI1 Maintenance Trip Report

Executive summary for Maintenance Trip, Nov 28 - Dec 2, 2005

• Equipment Replacement-
• Broken off lightning brush replaced.
• Wind Birds (Anemometers) and magnetic compasses replaced.
• CT (Conductivity-Temperature) groundtruth instrument replaced.
• CTD (Cond/Temp/Depth) instrument replaced.
• Surface Irradiometer (BIC) replaced.
• Underwater Irradiometer (BIC) replaced.
• Satellite Transmitter replaced.
• Cables for all replaced instruments also replaced.
  

Visited potential site for ICON deployment on west end of island.
Discussed performing SRVI1 structure upgrade at Columbus Cove/Salt River
marina with marina.

--
Louis Florit, Research Associate
University of Miami/CIMAS
NOAA/Atlantic Oceanographic Meteorological Laboratory
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149
Phone:  (305) 361-4445

Coral colors

Dave Ward reports that in the last 10 days to two weeks the colors have started returning to the corals. Maintenance trip is scheduled for today.

Jim Hendee

SRVI1 : data from groundtruth CT updated

I've updated the table of readings from the times when the CT "Groundtruthing" instrument was connected to the CREWS station in St. Croix. Note that 3/15 was the maintenance trip when the CT, CTD and BICs were originally configured and programmed; 6/30 was the maintenance trip to repair the two malfunctioning BICs; and the CTDs were switched out during the 7/22 visit. All other data are from maintenance visits by Dave Ward.

Note also that the timing of the CT connection has been perfect for the last two visits on 7/22 and 8/16, giving us a full hour of CT readings before, during, and after maintenance. Our thanks and appreciation to Dave Ward for paying such close attention to the timing!

This information is being sent out by email and also posted to the SRVI1 blog.

                  CT for Groundtruthing      CTD permanently Deployed
                  ========================   ========================

Date        Time   Cond   Temp   Salt  Cnt    Cond   Temp   Salt  Cnt
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
03/15/2005   156  56.27  26.42  36.24   10   56.40  26.45  36.31   10
03/15/2005   256  56.22  26.38  36.24   10   56.35  26.41  36.31   10
03/15/2005   356  56.17  26.33  36.24   10   56.28  26.35  36.31   10
03/15/2005   456  56.04  26.21  36.24   10   56.16  26.23  36.31   10
03/15/2005   556  56.02  26.20  36.24   10   56.17  26.23  36.32   10
03/15/2005   656  56.05  26.22  36.24   10   56.20  26.25  36.33   10
03/15/2005   756  56.05  26.21  36.25   10   56.20  26.24  36.33   10
03/15/2005   856  55.99  26.16  36.24   10   56.14  26.19  36.33   10
03/15/2005   956  55.90  26.09  36.23   10   56.05  26.12  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1056  55.85  26.05  36.23   10   56.01  26.08  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1156  55.85  26.05  36.23   10   56.01  26.08  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1256  55.89  26.08  36.23   10   56.04  26.11  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1356  55.91  26.11  36.23   10   56.06  26.13  36.32   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
04/13/2005  1456  57.05  27.22  36.18    8   57.72  27.60  36.36   10
04/13/2005  1556  57.37  27.64  36.08   10   57.80  27.66  36.37   10
04/13/2005  1656  57.51  27.75  36.10   10   57.93  27.77  36.38   10
04/13/2005  1756  57.65  27.86  36.11    4   58.05  27.86  36.39   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
05/18/2005  1556  57.66  28.45  35.67   10   57.85  28.51  35.76   10
05/18/2005  1656  57.67  28.50  35.64   10   57.86  28.52  35.76   10
05/18/2005  1756  57.83  28.53  35.73    2   57.89  28.54  35.76   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
06/10/2005  1456  58.27  28.81  35.82   10   58.27  28.86  35.79   10
06/10/2005  1556  58.33  28.86  35.83   10   58.30  28.88  35.79   10
06/10/2005  1656  58.25  28.88  35.76    7   58.25  28.91  35.73   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
06/30/2005  1956  57.16  29.07  34.86    4   -9     -9     -9       0
06/30/2005  2056  -9     -9     -9       0   -9     -9     -9       0
06/30/2005  2256  57.46  29.31  34.90   10   57.76  29.33  35.09   10
07/01/2005  2356  57.41  29.28  34.88   10   57.77  29.31  35.11   10
07/01/2005    56  57.40  29.28  34.88   10   57.76  29.30  35.11   10
07/01/2005   156  57.42  29.28  34.89   10   57.76  29.31  35.10   10
07/01/2005   256  57.40  29.27  34.88   10   57.74  29.30  35.09   10
07/01/2005   356  57.58  29.26  35.01   10   57.73  29.29  35.09   10
07/01/2005   456  57.53  29.24  34.99   10   57.71  29.27  35.10   10
07/01/2005   556  57.48  29.22  34.97   10   57.70  29.25  35.10   10
07/01/2005   656  57.45  29.22  34.95   10   57.66  29.25  35.08   10
07/01/2005   756  57.36  29.22  34.89   10   57.60  29.25  35.03   10
07/01/2005   856  57.35  29.20  34.90   10   57.58  29.23  35.04   10
07/01/2005   956  57.32  29.20  34.88   10   57.59  29.23  35.04   10
07/01/2005  1056  57.26  29.21  34.83   10   57.41  29.24  34.91   10
07/01/2005  1156  57.30  29.23  34.84   10   57.18  29.26  34.74   10
07/01/2005  1256  57.28  29.25  34.82   10   57.50  29.27  34.95   10
07/01/2005  1356  57.25  29.27  34.78   10   57.51  29.29  34.94   10
07/01/2005  1456  57.18  29.31  34.70    2   57.66  29.35  35.00   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
07/22/2005  1556  57.30  29.14  34.91   10   57.34  29.13  34.94   10
07/22/2005  1656  57.39  29.19  34.93   10   57.44  29.20  34.96   10
07/22/2005  1756  57.43  29.25  34.92   10   57.47  29.24  34.95   10
07/22/2005  1856  57.48  29.27  34.94    3   57.66  29.37  34.99   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
08/16/2005  1456  57.64  29.32  35.01    2   58.46  29.55  35.40   10
08/16/2005  1556  58.60  29.64  35.43   10   58.52  29.64  35.38   10
08/16/2005  1656  58.82  29.79  35.47   10   58.72  29.78  35.41   10
08/16/2005  1756  58.73  29.72  35.46   10   58.63  29.72  35.39   10
08/16/2005  1856  58.81  29.77  35.48    1   58.71  29.76  35.42   10

Bleaching status update

This (below) is a 2-meter transect on each side of the cable just like last year.

We also changed out the CTD and ground truthed. Let Mike know that the lightning rod came off and broke a blade on the Northern most wind bird.

Dave Ward

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[spellings in the field...so don't complain!]

	7/22/2005
Side	Species	Depth	Score	1= pale
West				2= Some white
	P. astorides	52	1	3= More than 50% white
	Madracis	46	1	4= Mostly all white
	M. annularius	36	1
	M. annularius	37	2
	M. Franksi	36	1	Transect is 4 meters wide
	P. porities	35	1	times the length of the cable
	M. alcecornus	33	2
	D. stragosa	33	1
	meandrina	33	1
	D. stragosa	32	1
	M. favulata	30	2
	D. stragosa	29	3
	A. agracities	29	2
	M. alcecornus	28	2
	D. stragosa	28	2
	D. labarinthaformus	28	1
	D. stragosa	28	1
	D. stragosa	21	1
	D. stragosa	20	1
	P. astorides	20	1
East
	A. agracities	19	2
	D. stragosa	20	1
	M. complanata	20	1
	D. stragosa	22	1
	M. alcecornus	25	3
	M. alcecornus	26	1
	M. annularius	27	1
	D. stragosa	30	1
	M. alcecornus	30	3
	P. porities	32	2
	D. stragosa	32	3
	D. stragosa	35	3
	D. labarinthaformus	36	1
	M. alcecornus	38	3
	P. astorides	39	2
	M. alcecornus	50	2
	Plating agricia	53	2

SRVI1 maintenance, June 29 - July 1

Dave Ward, Louis Florit and Mike Jankulak worked at the SRVI1 CREWS station from Wednesday, June 29th through Friday, July 1st, 2005. This is a brief breakdown of the work that was done:

June 29th, AM: Dave Ward lowers the station and installs the ladder. We attempt to measure voltage leaks to the ocean but the tests are inconclusive. High voltages are measured even when all instruments are disconnected from the datalogger. At this point, the old camera/transmitter connections to the datalogger are severed and never reconnected. Conditions are extremely choppy with some rain.

June 29th, PM: Rain delays further work. After consulting with Mike Shoemaker by phone, we try to measure voltages to the ocean in a different way, and this time NO leaks are measured, even with most instruments reconnected to the datalogger.

June 30th, AM: The Surface BIC (light sensor) is evaluated by switching to a different cable and light sensor. We find that the old cable appears to work but the old instrument is broken and completely unresponsive. We mount the replacement instrument and connect it using the old cable. With the Underwater BIC, we find that the old instrument AND cable are both broken. We connect the new instrument with the new cable that will simply run up the outside of the station. The new cable is wired into the datalogger box. The Underwater BIC's mount is damaged in removing the instrument so the spare BIC mount that we brought with us is used to deploy the replacement instrument. We also find that the RS-232 connector on the old Surface-BIC cable is broken so we wire it to a new connector. Conditions are still very choppy but skies are clearer.

June 30th, PM: We find over lunchtime that the Surface BIC is not working. We decide to replace the Surface BIC cable as well as the SIO4 that connects to both BICs, the CT and the CTD. We also connect the CT to confirm that it is still working. Unfortunately, when this work is complete, the CTD is no longer communicating with the datalogger. Several different tests are attempted but in the end, the only thing that works is to switch back to the original SIO4 unit. Either the new SIO4's "port 4" is broken or there is something wrong with its programming.

July 1st, AM: We raise the station platform, disconnect the CT, and tie up all loose instrument cables. We also do two sets of (light) profiler casts.

Conclusions: The Surface BIC and Underwater BIC have been successfully repaired. Examinations of data since March/2005 suggest that the malfunctioning windbird may have corrected itself. In any case, no work was done on the windbirds. Also, the data shows that the CTD's pressure sensor has been broken for several months now, and we must either replace the pressure sensor's tube or the entire CTD. Dave Ward should be able to accomplish this if we ship him the necessary parts and give him detailed instructions.

Note that only the CT and CTD are still connected to the original underwater cables. We would not be surprised if either or both of these instruments eventually fail, and there is still the risk of these cables causing systemic problems to the station's power supply and other instruments. Our best guess right now is that the Underwater BIC's cable failed, drained power from the station and perhaps caused the two BICs to malfunction. The windbird issues and CTD pressure sensor failure appear to be unrelated.

-- Mike J+

Instrument Cleaning

Dave Ward and Dan McDaid cleaned and Groundtruthed the instruments for SRVI1
on the morning of June 10. It was done with the supervision of a dozen adult
squid. We also noticed that the A. palmata colony under the station is
showing white bloches on the tops of some of the branches.

Dave

David and Sue Ward
Scuba Shack
PO Box 3221
Frederiksted, VI 00841-3221
340-772-DIVE
Toll Free 888-STX-DIVE
www.stcroixscubashack.com
email info@stcroixscubashack.com

Groundtruth CT connected Friday June 10th

According to the transmissions, on Friday, June 10th, the SRVI1 CT was
connected sometime between 9:54am and 10:00am (Eastern Daylight Time).
This was perfect, as it gave us a full 10 measurement counts at the next
transmission hour (11am EDT).  It is also okay to connect the CT
slightly earlier than this.

The CT was disconnected sometime between 12:36pm and 12:42pm (EDT).
This was about 20 minutes too early, as we only received 7 (of a
possible 10) measurement counts for that final, post-maintenance hour.
Ideally we want a full hour's worth of data prior to maintenance,
followed by an hour during which maintenance tasks may be performed,
followed by a full hour's worth of data following maintenance.

Note that the earlier maintenance trips on 4/13 and 5/18 were also
slightly off the preferred timing.  The 4/13 trip had only 8 measurement
counts for the first hour, suggesting that the CT was connected about 12
minutes too late.  The 5/18 trip had only 2 counts for the third hour,
suggesting that the CT was disconnected about 48 minutes too early.  As
a reminder, preferred timing would be:

 HOUR 1:  Pre-Maintenance.  Connect the CT no later than 4 minutes
 before the hour, and preferably earlier.  For example, attach the CT
 at 9:45am for a full hour of measurements from 9:56am to 10:56am.

 HOUR 2:  Maintenance.  The CT remains connected while station
 maintenance tasks are performed.  This work should start no earlier
 than 4 minutes before the second hour and end no later than 4 minutes
 before the third hour.  For example, maintenace work could proceed
 from 11am to 11:45am (ending no later than 11:56am).

 HOUR 3:  Post-Maintenance.  The CT should remain connected until at
 least 56 minutes into the third hour (4 minutes before Hour 4).  For
 example, the CT could be disconnected at 1pm (allowing a full hour's
 worth of post-maintenance measurements from 11:56am to 12:56pm).

We now have four periods of data from the SRVI1 groundtruth CT.  There
is the period on 3/15 during station upgrade and three periods of
station maintenance on 4/13, 5/18 and 6/10.  I'm attaching data from
both the Groundtruth CT and the Permanent CTD for these periods:

                 CT for Groundtruthing      CTD permanently Deployed
                 ========================   ========================

Date        Time   Cond   Temp   Salt  Cnt    Cond   Temp   Salt  Cnt
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
03/15/2005   156  56.27  26.42  36.24   10   56.40  26.45  36.31   10
03/15/2005   256  56.22  26.38  36.24   10   56.35  26.41  36.31   10
03/15/2005   356  56.17  26.33  36.24   10   56.28  26.35  36.31   10
03/15/2005   456  56.04  26.21  36.24   10   56.16  26.23  36.31   10
03/15/2005   556  56.02  26.20  36.24   10   56.17  26.23  36.32   10
03/15/2005   656  56.05  26.22  36.24   10   56.20  26.25  36.33   10
03/15/2005   756  56.05  26.21  36.25   10   56.20  26.24  36.33   10
03/15/2005   856  55.99  26.16  36.24   10   56.14  26.19  36.33   10
03/15/2005   956  55.90  26.09  36.23   10   56.05  26.12  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1056  55.85  26.05  36.23   10   56.01  26.08  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1156  55.85  26.05  36.23   10   56.01  26.08  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1256  55.89  26.08  36.23   10   56.04  26.11  36.32   10
03/15/2005  1356  55.91  26.11  36.23   10   56.06  26.13  36.32   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
04/13/2005  1456  57.05  27.22  36.18    8   57.72  27.60  36.36   10
04/13/2005  1556  57.37  27.64  36.08   10   57.80  27.66  36.37   10
04/13/2005  1656  57.51  27.75  36.10   10   57.93  27.77  36.38   10
04/13/2005  1756  57.65  27.86  36.11    4   58.05  27.86  36.39   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
05/18/2005  1556  57.66  28.45  35.67   10   57.85  28.51  35.76   10
05/18/2005  1656  57.67  28.50  35.64   10   57.86  28.52  35.76   10
05/18/2005  1756  57.83  28.53  35.73    2   57.89  28.54  35.76   10
----------  ----  -----  -----  -----  ---   -----  -----  -----  ---
06/10/2005  1456  58.27  28.81  35.82   10   58.27  28.86  35.79   10
06/10/2005  1556  58.33  28.86  35.83   10   58.30  28.88  35.79   10
06/10/2005  1656  58.25  28.88  35.76    7   58.25  28.91  35.73   10

I will also post this message to the SRVI1 blog.

regards,
Mike J+

--
Mike Jankulak, Research Associate, University of Miami / CIMAS
  NOAA / Atlantic Oceanographic Meteorological Laboratory
4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149 -- 305-361-4543

Field Cleaning

Dave, I guess we're waiting to see what the drift is after not cleaning...since April 13th?

thanks...Jim

Site Visit

Louis Florit and Erik Stabenau plan on visiting the station March 7th, 2005 to repair and/or replace the GOES transmission apparatus.