Cruise Summaries Email to a Friend Atlantis and Alvin Days at sea: 241 Cruises: 9 Investigators served: 207 Nautical miles: 22,852 Alvin dives: 82 In January, for the first time, the submersible Alvin and the tethered vehicle Jason 2 were deployed off Atlantis on the same leg in the eastern Pacific to study a deep rift in the seafloor where ocean crust could be observed and sampled. After supporting chemistry, biology, and geology research at the East Pacific Rise, Galapágos Rift, and Juan de Fuca Ridge, Atlantis returned at year end to Woods Hole for maintenance. It was a rare homecoming, marking just the third homeport visit since the ship’s 1996 launch. Knorr Days at sea: 179 Cruises: 5 Investigators served: 96 Nautical miles: 33,093 Knorr spent 8 weeks in early 2005 at a dry dock for installation of new decking and fittings for a 150-foot (45-meter) sediment corer. When complete it will be among the world’s longest corers in operation. The vessel went on to log the most miles of the four WHOI vessels. Research took Knorr to the western and mid-Atlantic, where scientists conducted climate change studies and deployed moorings. In the equatorial and southern Pacific, scientists sampled the water column and studied currents flowing from the Antarctic. Oceanus Days at sea: 241 Cruises: 16 Investigators served: 205 Nautical miles: 29,909 In 2005 Oceanus celebrated its 30th year of operations. Researchers on Oceanus spent much of the year focused on marine plankton—some menaces, others curiosities. In spring, researchers sailing from Boston Harbor to the Bay of Fundy detected signs of what would become an historic bloom of harmful algae, popularly known as red tide. From June until September the ship carried biologists and physical oceanographers into the Sargasso Sea to study phytoplankton blooms that occur as a result of swirling currents, called eddies. Tioga Days at sea: 132 Trips for education: 8 Passengers: 710 The coastal research vessel Tioga, launched in 2004, supported its first full year of science research and education efforts in New England, working as far north as the Merrimack River on the New Hampshire border and sailing as far south as the New Jersey coast. The 60-foot (18-meter) vessel proved ideal for engineers testing and deploying oceanographic instruments, including gliders, moorings, and buoys. Biologists used the vessel to scout for and eventually tag and monitor several endangered right whales. In September, one biologist used the vessel 24 miles offshore Nantucket to perform a rare partial whale necropsy at sea.

Copyright ©2006 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, All Rights Reserved.

Mail: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
E-Contact: info@whoi.edu; press relations: media@whoi.edu, tel. (508) 457-2000

Home | Site Map | Contact