Weekly Hydro Ship Activity Report - September 19 through September 25, 2021

OPR-J315-KR-21 Pascagoula, MS

• RV Broughton moved to Dauphin Island, AL.
• RV Broughton acquired acquisition in survey area H13489.

• RV Broughton will continue acquisition in survey area H13489.
• SV Blake will acquire fill and investigation data in survey areas H13487, H13488, and H13489.
• There will be bottom samples next week.

OPR-K380-KR-21 Port Freeport & Approaches, TX

• Survey operations continued on the MV Atlantic Surveyor on H13505 (Sheet 4) until 9/21/2021 when the vessel moved to H13506 (Sheet 5).
• Weather delay was incurred on 9/22 and part of 9/23/2021.
• Survey resumed on H13506 (Sheet 5) om 9/23/2021.

• MV Atlantic Surveyor survey operations will continue on H13506 (Sheet 5) and H13505 (Sheet 4) as weather conditions allow.

OPR-R340-KR-21 Approaches to Egegik Bay, AK

Vessel Activities:

• Q105 transited from Dillingham to Homer, departing Dillingham late on 9/18, arriving Homer afternoon of 9/22 (local time).
• Q105 was met in Homer by TerraSond demobilization crew, who completed demobilization of all equipment and transported back to Palmer by end of day 9/23.
• Office-based equipment check-in began 9/24.
• LNM collected to date: 5,922 (of 5,726 planned).

Tide Work:

• JOA was unable to travel to Egegik for planned staff shots due to COVID restrictions in place there. Available telemetry from Egegik indicates normal operating conditions for the gauges.
• JOA personnel travelled to Pilot Point (Dago Creek Mouth) tide station 9/23 through 9/24 for staff shots and to investigate possible instability in Gauge 1 data observed in gauge telemetry. The orifice for gauge 1 was found to be unstable due to soft bottom there, and showed a downward shift of about 27 cm. The crew installed a new orifice for Gauge 1 several meters upstream in what appeared to be more solid bottom, at a depth of about 0.7 m shallower, and also performed staff shots for the new orifice before departing Pilot Point.

• No vessel activities planned. The vessels have been demobilized.
• Within the office, TerraSond will complete integration of vessel data server onto office network and finish equipment check-in.
• Work will begin on near-term deliverables.

Tide Work:

• Egegik staff shot trip as soon as possible; may or may not occur this week. Waiting on permission from Egegik for JOA staff to travel there due to community COVID restrictions.

S-R364-KR-21 Bering Sea Reconnaissance Survey

• SD1030 and SD1034 completed route “2b” on 9/23 and began transit towards area “3”
• SD1033 and SD1067 reached area “3” on 9/21 and began survey along route “3a”
• SD1033 and SD1067 left their planned route temporarily on 9/22 and 9/24 to take advantage of wind conditions to charge with their hydro-generators.
• DTONs were identified in southern Norton Sound and submitted to OCS on 9/23.
• As described in more detail on the Mission Portal, it was noted this week that the daily NC files, expected to contain data at 1-minute intervals, was found to have gaps in depth and/or positions, starting approximately 9/8 and corresponding to power saving measures on the saildrones. However, the depth data on the Mission Portal appears to be continuous. Saildrone reports the data can’t be re-exported to NC file until power conditions are normal on the vehicles. Full resolution data logged on the vehicles, which will be available once they are retrieved, should be unaffected. Meanwhile, in addition to the NC files, Mission Portal depths will be checked periodically for DTONs, as was done this week to identify the DTONs in Norton Sound.
• The closest approach to a whaling buffer zone this week was on 9/23 when SD1030 and SD1034 were within about 2 NM of the Golovin whaling buffer zone. Saildrones were on their pre-planned route and did not enter any buffer zones.
• Mission Days completed as of end of day 9/25/21 (UTC): 49 (of 65 planned)