areas in the world that has numerous depressions and rises. The 

 topography is characterized by many basins, banks, and islands and 

 has a regional physiographic trend similar to that of the adjoining 

 land area. Some depressions reach bathyal depths and some elevations 

 rise above water to form islands. 



The south- flowing California Current dominates the surface water 

 circulation. The great gyral motion of this current and the entrainment 

 of deeper waters produce a mixed water type of a transitional nature 

 (Gorsline, 1966). 



Scientists have often surveyed the waters off the coast of southern 

 California; nevertheless, the surveys have been too broad to delineate 

 small scale oceanographic variations in this extremely complex area. 

 At the same time, owing to the amount of oceanographic work done, 

 there is more general knowledge of these waters than of other ocean 

 areas of comparable size and complexity (Emery, 1960). 



NAVOCEANO, at the request of the Pacific Missile ^Range, Point 

 Mugu, California, conducted two earlier surveys north of the Channel 

 Islands, off Point Arguello, California, in January and November- 

 December 1964 (Thomas, 1968). Oceanographers occupied a grid of 

 stations with distances between stations varying from 15 to 30 miles. 

 The distance between stations and the 9-month interval between surveys 

 make it impossible to determine the oceanographic variations that 

 result from tidal activities; but, the separate studies give a good 

 description of water circulation to a distance of 100 miles off Point 

 Arguello. 



II. NARRATIVE OF OPERATIONS 



Oceanographic observations in the Channel Islands area began 

 on 16 September and ended on 15 October 1965. Figure 2 shows the 

 locations of all data collected on the survey. 



Twenty-five Nansen stations were occupied from 21 to 24 September 

 and reoccupied from 11 to 14 October. The station grid formed a 

 40-mile square with stations 10 nautical miles apart. Data from 

 these stations included Nansen cast temperature and salinity measurements 

 on all stations and dissolved oxygen determinations on the September 

 stations. 



Repeated Nansen casts were taken at two anchor stations. Anchor 

 station 1 was occupied from 27 to 28 September and 9 to 10 October; 

 anchor station 2 was occupied from 28 to 29 September and 7 to 8 

 October. The reversal of the October anchor stations occurred because 

 the survey ship was nearer station 2 when the anchor stations were 

 reoccupied. 



