ANNEX B . 

 OCEANOGRAPHIC FIELD REPORT 



by 



Messrs. Lawrence K. Coachman, Roderic Park, 



Edgar R. Miller, Jr. and John T. Tangerman 



The following report is a brief summary of the oceanographic activities of the 

 schooner Blue Dolphin during the summer of 1952. Reference is made to the field reports 

 of the Blue Dolphin Labrador Expeditions of 1950 and 1951 which contain general descrip- 

 tions of the equipment and procedures used by the Blue Dolphin in pursuing oceanographic 

 work. 



One addition to the Blue Dolphin in 1952 was a Salinity-Temperature-Depth recorder 

 (STD). This instrument was used in the Hamilton Inlet area to provide data supplement- 

 ary to that obtained from normal oceanographic stations. There were two general methods 

 of employment of the instrument. First, between stations (oceanographic or STD) the 

 measuring element was towed just below the surface, being rigidly mounted on a pipe 

 designed to hold it clear of the vessel's side. Second, when the vessel was hove to 

 for a station the measuring element was lowered by the hydrographic winch to standard 

 depths down to fifty meters. 



The STD was limited to three salinity scale ranges: 28-40°/oo, -20-32°/oo, and 

 12-24° /oo„ This limitation prevented effective use in Lake Melville where the surface 

 waters were too fresh and the instrument with only 200 feet of cable could not be lower- 

 ed deep enough to measure the bottom water. 



In studying Lake Melville it had been found desirable to place the Nans'en bottles 

 and reversing thermometers at 5,10, 20, 30, and 50 meters, and then one to three more 

 to obtain the bottom water. At five meters the relatively fresh surface water was 

 measured. Ten and twenty meter observations usually bracketed the sharp thermocline 

 to water of lower temperature, and fifty meters was the upper limit of definition of 

 the source waters. For uniformity these depths were used at almost all oceanographic 

 and STD stations throughout the Labrador area. 



As in 1951 salinity, dissolved oxygen and inorganic phosphate determinations were 

 done aboard the vessel. The standard Knudsen method was used, though the laboratory 

 was not equipped with mechanical stirrers, self-filling pipettes, Knudsen burettes, and 

 other devices found in shore laboratories. All salinities were run under approximately 

 uniform conditions, however, including the speed of titration, the method of mixing, 

 and the air temperature. The last mentioned proved to be fairly stable aboard a wooden 

 vessel engaged in northern work (l6-20°C). A W. H.0.1. sub-standard sea water (CI 

 19 •39°/°°) was used to standardize the silver nitrate. Fifty selected samples were re- 

 tained for titration upon returning by W. H.0.1. as checks to determine the margin of 

 error. 



The method employed for the inorganic phosphate was a colorimetric determination, 

 stannous chlorate and ammonium molybdate being the reagents. To compare color intensi- 

 ties a photometer was constructed from a photographic light meter. The method was unsa- 

 tisfactory, however, because the values were quite low and the means of comparing color 

 intensity Insufficient. 



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