Cruise Report C-201 : Scientific activities undertaken aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer, Woods Hole, MA – Carriacou, Grenadines - St. Croix USVI, 13 October – 20 November 2005

Abstract

This cruise report provides a record of data collected aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer during Cruise C-201 during October and November of 2005. The cruise track transected the North Atlantic Ocean from Woods Hole, MA to St. Croix, USVI (Fig. 1). The sea-going program is an extension of Sea Education Association (SEA) courses conducted for six weeks on shore in Woods Hole and emphasizes the application of theoretical concepts to the study of the oceans. Oceanographic research conducted during Cruise C-201 involved extensive data collection for individual student projects (Table 1) and ongoing SEA research programs. The student projects focused on current scientific problems in physical, chemical, biological, geological, and environmental oceanography, and stressed the interdisciplinary nature of the applied science. In particular, the complex interaction of oceanic processes was emphasized by interdisciplinary, regional, and temporal comparative analyses of the various data sets collected. Student research papers are available on request from SEA. During the cruise, samples or data were collected at 190 discrete oceanographic stations (Tables 2 and 3) in addition to continuously sampling water depth, sub-bottom acoustic profiling, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiles (ADCP) and flow-through sea surface temperature, salinity and in-vivo fluorescence. This report summarizes sea surface chemical properties (Table 3), subsurface physical, chemical and biological characteristics (Fig. 2, Tables 4 and 5), and surface sediment qualities (Table 6). Lengthy CTD, CHIRP, ADCP and flow-through data are not reported here. All unpublished data can be made available by arrangement with the SEA archivist (Contact information, p.2). The information contained in this report is not intended to represent final interpretation of the data and should not be excerpted or cited without written permission from SEA.