BaySys 2017 Fall Cruise Report -Turnaround of Moorings

Abstract

BaySys is a 4-year collaboration among industry partner Manitoba Hydro (Hydro Québec and Ouranos) and the Universities of Manitoba, Northern British Columbia, Québec à Rimouski, Alberta, Calgary, Laval and Trent to conduct research on Hudson Bay. The overarching goal of the project is to understand the role of freshwater in Hudson Bay marine and coastal systems, and in particular, to create a scientific basis to distinguish climate change effects from those of hydroelectric regulation of freshwater on physical, biological and biogeochemical conditions in Hudson Bay. In late September 2016, five oceanographic moorings were deployed in the eastern Hudson Bay and at the entrance to James Bay (Figure 1). These moorings were supposed to be recovered in summer 2017 during the BaySys cruise onboard CCGS Amundsen or White Diamond - a vessel r efurnished in 2017 for the Churchill Marine Observatory. Later, a decision on turning the moorings from White Diamond instead of recovery was made. Unfortunately, the slow progress of ship’s inspection from Transport Canada caused multiple delays of ship’s departure from Prince Edward Island and the 2017 cruise was cancelled. Because of the critical role of these moorings for the scientific objectives of oncoming Amundsen cruise in spring 2018, theopportunistic cruise onboard CCGS Henry Larsen was conducted in October 26 – November 1, 2017 in order to maintain the uninterrupted measurements. The goals for this short cruise were to retrieve and re-deploy as many BaySys moorings as possible accompanied with the concurrent CTD and water sampling.