B. Secondary Missions: 



1. Meteorological observations 



a. Synoptic marine weather observations 

 were made daily at 0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 

 GCT. In addition, certain standard weather ob- 

 servations accompanied all BT lowerings. 



Only one storm with winds and seas 

 which were high enough to interfere with the sur- 

 vey work was encountered. It passed over the 

 vessel at 0600 GCT on July 27, 1955, at approxi- 

 mately 35°30'N, , 179°50'W. and had winds of 40- 

 45 knots for about 3 hours, producing 10- to 12- 

 foot seas for about 6 hours. The high wind and 

 seas made it necessary to omit the mid-water 

 trawl haul and delayed one hydrographic station 

 for 4 hours. 



2. Tuna abundance 



a. The wheel watch maintained a careful 

 lookout for tuna schools, bird flocks, and scattered 

 birds and mammals. The sightings of birds and 

 fish are summarized in table 3. Numerous whales 

 (mostly sperm), porpoises, and a few fur seals 

 were sighted. The observations are tabulated in 

 table '.4. 



b. Surface trolling was carried out during 

 daylight hours. Three lines were fished while the 

 GEK electrodes were being towed (to station 40) 

 and 5 lines thereafter. North of the 65 F. surface 

 isotherm on the 172°30'W., 165°W., andl57°30'W. 

 transects the trolling speed was 7.2 knots; over the 

 rest of the area the speed was between 9 and 10 

 knots. The total number of line hours at reduced 

 speed was 217 hours and at standard speed 1,827 

 hours. The positions at which the catches were 

 made, except for 1 albacore, are listed in table 5. 



3. Miscellaneous biological collections 



a. Stomachs of 7 of the 8 albacore taken 

 by trolling were preserved and returned to the 

 POFI laboratory. 



b. Nineteen night-light stations were made 

 at sea and one at Midway Island (see table 1 for 

 positions). 



c. Forty oblique hauls of 1 hour's duration 

 were made with the 10-foot Isaacs-Kidd trawl 



(see table 1 for positions). Relatively productive 

 hauls were made in, and to the north of, the zone 

 of the subsurface temperature discontinuity. 



d. Morphometries were taken, and 

 vertebrae, scales, and ovaries were saved 

 from 7 albacore for racial and growth studies. 



e. From station 37 to 41 large 

 masses of a giant kelp, Alaria fistulosa, were 

 frequently sighted. Six complete thalli includ- 

 ing the holdfast were brought aboard from the 

 first mass, which was sighted just before sta- 

 tion 37 (fig. 1). The largest of the thalli was 

 about 50 feet long, and the holdfast was about 

 20 inches across and weighed about 25 pounds. 

 Several of the holdfasts were cut apart and the 

 invertebrates removed and preserved. These 



•included sponges, flat worms, sea anemones, 

 annelids, starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, 

 sea cucumbers, sipunculoids , gastropods, and 

 amphipods. The Alaria also had several epi- 

 phytic algae, which were preserved. 



From station 81 to 87 another 

 large kelp, Macrocystis sp. , was frequently 

 sighted. No samples were taken. 



f. A bait survey was made on Sand 

 Island of the Midway atoll. On the lagoon side 

 about 25 buckets of iao (Atherinidae), 10 buck- 

 ets of aholehole (Kuhlia sandvicensis), and 2 

 buckets of mullet (Mugilidae) were sighted. 

 On the ocean side 32 buckets of aholehole and 



5 of mullet were sighted, 



4. Miscellaneous observations 



a. At every third oceanographic sta- 

 tion a 500-ml. sample (total, 26) was taken 

 from a depth of 200 m. for radioactivity ana- 

 lysis to be made by Scripps Institution of 

 Oceanography. At 12 of these stations a 10- 

 liter integrated sample was taken from the 

 mixed surface layer for radioactivity analysis 

 as requested by Dr. Yasuo Miyake, Central 

 Meteorological Observatory, Tokyo. Special 

 Nansen bottle casts of 11-12 bottles spaced at 

 intervals of 3-4 meters were made to obtain 

 these samples (table 1). 



b. At 15 stations samples (total, 126) 

 were taken at alternate depths for deuterium 

 analysis to be made by Woods Hole Oceanogra- 

 phic Institution (Dr. Alfred C. Redfield) (table 

 1). 



c. At 7 stations along 180 , 1 -liter 

 water samples were taken from the surface 

 and 150 m. , and aliquots of at least 5 ml. were 

 taken from the shallow plankton tows for the 

 Medical and Biological Division of the U. S. 



