At the end of April a great inter-agency collaboration took place in Saipan, in the Pacific U.S. territory of CNMI (the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), not far from Guam. CNMI's Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) hosted visitors from PacIOOS (Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System), who were also affiliated with the University of Hawai`i, and Miami's AOML (Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory), who were also affiliated with the University of Miami.
There were two separate projects being addressed: the Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) station was being brought back online, and site surveys were being conducted for a potential deployment of a MApCO2 (Moored Autonomous pCO2) buoy. Both of these programs are sponsored in whole or in part by NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP).
The CREWS station was originally installed in August of 2011, but has suffered from intermittent communications outages and power failures, and its equipment was removed in September of 2012 for inspection, diagnosis and repair. A failed plug for one of the underwater instruments was identified as the cause of the power failures, and plans were made to reinstall the station with entirely new equipment. CREWS stations, which are also found in St. Croix, Puerto Rico and Belize, are a key component of the Integrated Coral Observing Program (ICON) which is run by AOML's Coral Health and Monitoring Program (CHAMP) team.
On the MApCO2 side, CRCP is in the process of implementing their National Coral Reef Monitoring Plan (NCRMP). NCRMP calls for sustained monitoring of biological, climate, and socio-economic metrics at all US coral reefs. The end goal is that every four years, based on NCRMP data collection, the Coral Reef Conservation Program will provide a report card to congress on the state of US coral reefs. The NCRMP climate monitoring plan calls for establishment of three sentinel (or class III) sites in the Atlantic and Pacific basins where high-resolution monitoring of climate change variables (mainly temperature and CO2) will be made. Based on the successful installation of the ICON/CREWS pylon in 2011 and the ongoing relationship between DEQ, AOML and others, Saipan was identified as a potential candidate for establishment of one of these sentinel climate monitoring sites.
Work proceeded in tandem on both projects over a period of about two weeks. First, the entire team visited Lao Lao Bay for the recovery of all remaining equipment left over from the initial deployment, including the station batteries. All CREWS work during these operations was carried out exclusively by CNMI personnel from DEQ and also Coastal Resources Management (CRM), with guidance as needed from AOML/CREWS people. This is a first for CREWS, and sets up the Saipan station as the most completely autonomous operation in the program. The CNMI staff are now capable of conducting their own operations on the CREWS station, down to the installation and recovery of every type of equipment, without the need for assistance by Miami personnel (and the associated travel costs).
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| CRM's David Benavente spent four long hours atop the Saipan CREWS station during reinstallation operations on April 30th, 2013. |
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| DEQ's Steven Johnson finished up the reinstallation work (seen here getting some assistance from PacIOOS' Joe Gilmore) after having, a few days earlier, removed all equipment left over from the station's original deployment. |
While the CREWS people were aloft on the station, the first of several MApCO2 site surveys was taking place in Lao Lao Bay. In the following days, while the CREWS were being configured and tested on land, MApCO2 site surveys continued at such sites as Boy Scout Reef, Managaha Bay, and Sugar Dock.
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| AOML's Derek Manzello took photos at Lao Lao Bay while CREWS work was underway. |
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| AOML's Ian Enochs at Lao Lao Bay. |
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| One of the photos taken at Lao Lao Bay by Derek Manzello. |
At the start of the second week the team from PacIOOS/UH arrived from Honolulu. PacIOOS provides a Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) instrument outfitted with Chlorophyll and Turbidity add-on sensors, and they also provide the digital cellular modem (both the device and the service plan) used for station communications. At this point the final system tests between CREWS equipment, modem and PacIOOS CTD were conducted on land.
The last step of the process was reinstallation of the CREWS station, which required many long hours atop the station by CRM and DEQ personnel, while AOML and PacIOOS divers deployed the underwater sensors and secured their cables. Station operations were verified via a radio-connected laptop on the boat before tying everything down and leaving the site.
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| AOML's Mike Jankulak and PacIOOS' Gordon Walker are seen here installing the CREWS station's "deep" CTD. |
Results on the CREWS side were mostly favorable. All instruments are connected and working normally for the first time since October of 2011, with the inclusion for the first time of a backup Conductivity-Temperature (CT) instrument next to the shallow CTD. There remains some question about the status of the station's rechargeable batteries, which were drained by a short-circuit and left uncharged on site for seven months. But battery levels, while not optimal, have proved strong enough to keep the station running nonstop since the first day after redeployment. A separate question remains about the quality of cellular service at the site and the need for frequent intervention by the service provider to resolve communications outages. These are being addressed by the PacIOOS team.
The MApCO2 team had come to Saipan hoping to find that the optimal buoy site would be close to the CREWS station in Lao Lao Bay. Somewhat to their surprise, however, Sugar Dock has emerged as potentially the most favorable buoy deployment site. This site is most accessible year-round and is relatively free of any issues that may interfere with Ocean Acidification (OA) monitoring such as groundwater, runoff, or sedimentation. No final decision has yet been made about MApCO2 buoy placement and deployment work is still at least a year away, but the team leaves Saipan having met face-to-face with many of the key CNMI people and having learned a great deal about the data collection efforts that have been ongoing at these sites for many years.
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| Underwater sights at Obyan Beach, another site visited in Saipan. |
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| Another photo taken at Obyan Beach in Saipan. |
The AOML team, consisting of Derek Manzello, Ian Enochs and Mike Jankulak, wishes to thank all of their collaborators in these two projects, including DEQ's Fran Castro, Steven Johnson, Ryan Okano and John Iguel, and CRM's David Benavente (who made a special trip from Guam), as well as PacIOOS' Gordon Walker and Joe Gilmore, who traveled from Honolulu.
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| The "deep" sensors on the CREWS station: the CTD in front, and the light sensor on its extended platform behind. |
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| The "shallow" sensors on the CREWS station: the PacIOOS CTD (with add-on chlorophyll and turbidity sensors) on the right, and an additional CT on the left. |
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| A view of the completed Saipan CREWS station in Lao Lao Bay. |