EK80 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During PC2303L2

Operations focused on continental shelf and shelf-break waters between the NC-VA border and St. Lucie Inlet, Florida, between 18-200 m deep. Leg 1 consisted entirely of sonar mapping during the ship's northward transit, beginning at St. Lucie Inlet, FL. On legs 2 and 3, we deploy traps with attached video cameras at a variety of stations in the U.S. South Atlantic. Traps have a single line connected to two surface buoys. On legs 2 and 3, vessel operations will occur over a 24-hour workday. Trapping, video, hook-and-line sampling, and CTD operations will occur from approximately 0700 to approximately 1900 each day, during which time at least three vessel crew members will be needed on deck. We will use the time between 1900 and 0700 each day for transit to the next day’s sampling stations, multibeam sonar mapping, or for hook-and-line sampling. We will also be continuously running the calibrated EK-80 to collect acoustics data for fish during trap deployment and retrieval. The FPC has already supplied the ship with GPS points of most trap/video sampling locations, and trap sampling will commence at approximately 0700 each morning. We expect that six traps will be deployed off the stern of Pisces (down the stern ramp while the vessel is traveling at approximately 4.5 kt) over the course of approximately 20 min, one trap being deployed at a time and no closer than 200 m from another trap. After a group of six traps are deployed in an area, a single CTD cast will be conducted, and then traps will be retrieved after each trap has soaked for approximately 90 min (but no more than 150 min).