NORTHEASTERN PACIFIC ALBACORE SURVEY 

 PART 2. OCEANOGRAPHIC AND METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



by 

 Richard J. Callaway _' 

 and 



James W. McGary, Oceajiographers 



Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 



Biological Laboratoryr.' 



Honolulu, Hawaii 



The Northeastern Pacific Albacore Survey 

 (NEPAS) was a survey of the abundance and dis - 

 tribution of the albacore, G e r m o alalunga 

 (Bonnaterre), conducted in a band approximately 

 350 miles wide off the coasts of northern Califor- 

 nia, Oregon, and Washington between 35 °N. and 

 47 °N. latitude from July 22 to August 1, 1957. 

 Meteorological and oceanographic observations, 

 the data from which are presented in this report, 

 accompanied the biological sampling program. 

 It was conducted by the Honolulu Biological Lab- 

 oratory, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries as 

 part of their Saltonstall -Kennedy albacore pro- 

 ject in cooperation with fishery research agen- 

 cies of California, Oregon, and Washington. 

 The Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission pro- 

 vided liaison among the cooperating agencies. 



Atotalof 11 vessels participated in the sur- 

 vey. The Fish and Wildlife Service research 

 vessel Hugh M. Smith acted as coordinating ves - 

 sel and conducted most of the detailed oceano- 

 graphic observations (see fig. 1). The Fish and 

 Wildlife Service research vessel JohnR. Manning 

 made a preliminary fishing survey of the NEPAS 

 area and did additional fishing in the areas 

 where the contract vessels reported their better 

 catches. The Manning also made a limited num- 

 ber of oceanographic observations. Her track 

 is shown in figure 2. Nine contract vessels 

 started the trolling survey but only seven com- 

 pleted their assigned tracks (see fig. 3). The 

 other two vessels were forced to withdraw before 

 they had contributed materially to the survey. 

 The tracks of the seven contract vessels com- 

 pleting the survey are shown in the frontispiece. 

 The owners, the observers and the agency pro- 

 viding the observer are listed in table 1. 



— Presently employed at the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory, 

 Seattle, Washington. 



2/ 



— Formerly the Pacific OceEinic Fishery 



Investigations . 



This report contains the oceanographic and 

 meteorological observations taken aboard the 

 Smith and Manning and the surface observations 

 made by the contract vessels . The field and 

 laboratory procedures are also described. The 

 biologiceil data collected during the survey, ex- 

 cept for the plankton, have already been reported 

 by Graham (1959). The plankton data will be 

 contained in a later report. 



FIELD PROCEDURES 



Water Seimpling Program 



Seventy oceanographic stations were oc- 

 cupied by the Hugh M. Smith at the positions 

 shown in figure 1 and listed in table 2. From 

 Honolulu to 38°35'N., 142°28'W. and from 

 33°36'N., 126°30'W. to Honolulu, Nans en bot- 

 tle casts were made at 0800 and 2000 zone time 

 (total 30). Only one cast was made each day 

 (total 40) in the survey area since the vessel 

 usually hove to at night, in order to make a con- 

 tinuous trolling survey along her track. Trol- 

 ling was conducted at 6.5 knots during the day. 



At each oceanographic station a cast of 13 

 Nansen bottles was made to approximately 1200 

 meters. The spacing of the bottles in the upper 

 300 meters was determined by the characteris- 

 tics of a bathythermograph trace obtained just 

 prior to the station. The remaining bottles were 

 placed at standard depths. Paired protected re- 

 versing thermometers were attached to each 

 bottle. All but the upper four bottles (those at 

 approximately 100 meters or less) carried an 

 unprotected reversing thermometer. 



Water samples were drawn from each 

 Nansen bottle for salinity, oxygen, and inorganic 

 phosphate determinations. At stations 99, 139t 

 147, and 156 additional samples were drawn for 

 boron analysis. These samples were shipped 

 to Mr. Jzimes Gast of the University of Washing- 

 ton for analysis. 



