maracoos_02-20240301T1425

This glider deployment will profile along a mission track between the Leading Light Wind (LLW) lease area and the shelf break in order to sample oceanographic variables and monitor North Atlantic right whale (NARW) presence in the area. The glider will be equipped with a CTD to determine water depth, temperature, salinity, and density, an optics puck measuring chlorophyll-a and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) fluorescence, an Optode measuring dissolved oxygen, and a DMON passive acoustics sensor for marine mammal monitoring and detection. The glider will also carry a fish telemetry receiver (Vemco) to track tagged species moving through the region. The sensor suite on the glider will simultaneously characterize the ecosystem's physical structure (Temperature, Salinity, Density; Seabird CTD), tagged fish presence (Vemco receiver), and marine mammal presence (passive acoustics; DMON). The glider will sample these variables at a vertical resolution of 0.25 m and a horizontal resolution of a vertical profile approximately every 100 m along the path. This will fill a sampling gap in NARW surveys in the offshore region of the Mid Atlantic Bight during the season they are most frequently observed in the region. Select marine mammal detections, including NARW, will be available in near-real-time on http://robots4whales.whoi.edu/, and tag detections will be shared to the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network MATOS database after recovery of the glider.