Crew members aboard the R/V Wecoma complete a successful buoy deployment during a maintenance trip to NOAA’s Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array, a series of 70 deep ocean buoy moorings straddling the equator between the Galapagos Islands and New Guinea, last autumn. The vessel left March 1 for another six-week maintenance cruise to a different section of the array. (Courtesy photo)

R/V Wecoma sets sail on buoy repair mission



After four months at the dock for maintenance and refitting, the R/V Wecoma, Oregon State University’s research flagship, cast off again at the beginning of March on a six-week cruise to the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) team is on a mission to maintain, repair, and - if necessary - replace 14 buoys moored several hundred miles southwest of Central America. The buoys are part of NOAA’s Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array, a series of 70 deep ocean buoy moorings straddling the equator between the Galapagos Islands and New Guinea.

Deployed between 1985 and 1994 as part of an international research program backed by the United States, Japan, and France, the buoys allow real-time collection of high-quality oceanographic and surface meteorological data for monitoring, forecasting, and understanding tropical ocean and atmospheric conditions. The array - renamed the TAO/TRITON array in January 2000 to recognize the Japanese TRITON buoys now used in the array’s western section - is a major component of several international scientific observation systems, among them the El Niño/Southern Oscillation Observing System, the Global Climate Observing System, and the Global Ocean Observing System.

The U.S. part of the project is based at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle.



Collecting data

The buoys measure wind direction and speed, air temperature and humidity, and ocean temperature at the surface and various depths to 500 meters. A few also measure currents, rainfall, and solar radiation. Information is relayed to shore every day in real time via the Argos satellite system.

Researchers use the data to learn how to predict future changes in the world’s climate.

Weather forecasters use it as an essential component in making their predictions - a vital piece of information for commercial fishermen. Sea surface temperatures are also keys for finding many species of fish. Charts of those temperatures are distributed via radiofax broadcasts to fishermen at sea or to ports. Knowing where to search for fish saves time and money.

Data from the buoys is transmitted in real-time by satellite to researchers around the world, and NOAA makes the data available online via the project Web site at http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/.

Maintenance of the array’s components - buoys, instruments, steel cables, and anchors - is vital to its operation, which is where the R/V Wecoma fits in.



Twice is nice

Retirees Michael Courtney and Annie Thorp, volunteers at Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC), returned as shipboard volunteers for the venture after making a similar voyage last autumn.

The married couple sees this as a way to stay engaged with others, stretch their minds, continue to learn, and help others to learn, as well as just lend a hand to a vital scientific task. Thorp is on her third trip aboard the Wecoma, having served as a teacher-at-sea in 2004 while working as an instructor at Chemeketa Community Center. Courtney is a retired mental health counselor, with a background in mechanics, construction, and overseas water and health projects.

While they became volunteers at Hatfield just last summer, they have almost 18 years of involvement in the center’s training and lifelong learning programs. During the 2009 cruise, they kept a journal with photos, periodically e-mailing installments to Bill Hanshumaker, an Oregon Sea Grant public marine education specialist based at HMSC.

This time around, they’re casting the net to a broader audience, creating a blog called “Buoy Tales” to share their journal entries and photographs with anyone through the Wecoma’s Internet connections.

Thorp said they especially want to reach science teachers and students. Readers can post comments and questions on the blog at http://buoytales.wordpress.com, or on the HMSC Visitor Center website at www.hmsc.oregonstate.edu/visitor/exhibits-and-events/buoy-tales.

Courtney and Thorp consider the adventure a logical extension of a lifetime love of water, the ocean, and travel, along with boating, kayaking, and surfing.

“Going to sea provides us with a way to use all our talents and abilities, to teach, to work hard, and to have fun on the water,” said Courtney. “Not everyone shares our desire to do the unusual, to face challenges, and to operate outside of their comfort zone, but we love it.”



Back to sea

“The crew has been working on the ship all winter,” Thorp and Courtney wrote in a pre-departure entry. “Everything on the ship has been inspected, repaired, replaced, or repainted. We always wonder how everything will be ready to go to sea by our departure date. However, we know the ship goes through this ‘renewal’ process every year.”

The Wecoma crew had everything shipshape in time for the March 1 departure, including the most noticeable addition - a new crane.

“There is nothing like preparing to leave on a long journey to heighten our awareness of what and who we are leaving behind,” the intrepid volunteers noted. “We love our life and home on land, and we love our life at sea, but we understand they are separate lives. The transitioning from one to the other is hard, and increases our respect for all those who go to sea on a regular basis.”

The first 10 days were rather uneventful, churning along at 11 to 13 knots toward their destination.

“Cruising at a speed of 12 knots is much slower than we are used to on land, but it is the only way to where we are going,” stated Courtney. “Equipment has been checked and rechecked. Safety drills have been completed. Operations have been reviewed. Lots of movies have been watched.”

His March 10 entry indicated they expected to arrive at the first buoy that night. Work would begin with a drift test to check the direction and speed of the ocean currents.

Deploying a new buoy and recovering the old one would take several hours.

“The science crew has a great deal of experience working on all kinds of buoys, but this is the first time they have been on this ship,” Courtney wrote. “We expect to see the ship’s crew and the science crew quickly become a coordinated working team.”



All nighter

Courtney was on the bridge when they first spotted the old buoy on radar.

The Wecoma crew has to station the ship far enough away so the new mooring doesn’t interfere with the old. With about 2-1/2 miles of anchor line stretched out behind the vessel during the deployment, the bridge crew must combine their knowledge of currents, wind, and sea conditions with “superb navigation skills” for a smooth operation. A specific location is chosen for each buoy, depending on ocean floor conditions, and they determine a specific length of anchor line - not too long, not too short - so the drop point for the buoy anchor is also quite specific. The Wecoma maneuvers slowly toward the drop point as the crew sends the buoy over the side, assembles the anchor cable with its subsurface sensors, and feeds it out over the ship’s stem.

The goal, Courtney noted, is to have everything in place with just a short tow to the drop site.

He and Thorp conducted their first CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) cast early Thursday morning, sending the instrument pack down 3,000 meters (1.86 miles), and taking water samples at 11 pre-determined levels while bringing it back up. The cast took two-and-a-half hours to complete. They had three 1,000-meter casts to do before the next buoy deployment. Casts, they said, are scheduled at each buoy location, and at each degree of latitude between buoys.

Conductivity is a vital measure of salinity, an essential measurement for oceanographers.

After working all night, the crew was still at it, putting tools away, finishing up paperwork, and power washing the buoy. “The collective energy and commitment to excellence is stunning,” noted Thorp.

“Learning more about the data being collected is a fascinating experience, and we are constantly trying to translate it into words the rest of us can understand,” Courtney wrote.

They will continue to do so on “Buoy Tales” throughout the trip.



Terry Dillman is the assistant editor of the News-Times. Contact him at (541) 265-8571, ext 225, or terrydillman@newportnewstimes.com.





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