Journals 2006/2007

The Census of Marine Zooplankton, with funding from the NOAA Ocean Exploration Program will be sampling the tropical/subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean west of the mid-Atlantic ridge. They will collect and identify the zooplankton distributed throughout the water column, with particular focus on the under-sampled mesopelagic, bathypelagic, and abyssopelagic zones.

Joseph Catron, a science teacher at Billings West High School in Billings, Montana will be participating in this research cruise as a 2006/2007 ARMADA Master Teacher. Catron along with CMarZ researchers, expert taxonomists, staff and students will be departing Charleston, South Carolina aboard the NOAA Ship Ron Brown and traveling the Atlantic waters to San Juan, Puerto Rico from April 10 ­ 30.

Environmental data and zooplankton samples will be collected along the way using large opening/closing trawls and net systems. Additional observations will be made by blue water diving. Multibeam sonar will be used to characterize benthic habitats and allow near-bottom net sampling in any depth of water.

Additional Resources

For more information on the Census of Marine Zooplankton Project visit www.cmarz.org.