Updates

It took a few tries, but the last two anchors of the Pioneer New England Shelf array were successfully recovered under the able guidance of Deck Lead and ROV operator Chris Basque.  During the night of November 21, the team was steaming north along the LTER cross shelf transect line making an EK80 survey, then stopped for a final few CTD stations.  The ship arrived back in Woods Hole the…

Exactly nine years ago, 21 Nov 2013, at 1:16 pm the Pioneer 1 team completed the deployment of the very first Pioneer Array mooring,CP01CNSM-0001.The Pioneer 19 team aboard the R/V Neil Armstrong marked the occasion on November 21, 2022 at 1:16 pm. The Pioneer 19 Team is completing the recovery of the Coastal Pioneer Array for its redeployment in the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight in the spring 2024. During the first…

The departure of the R/V Neil Armstrong from the Woods Hole dock for the second leg of the Pioneer 19 expedition on November 17 was both nostalgic and historic.  Many onboard had been on multiple Pioneer expeditions. Chief Scientist John Lund, for example, (on stern of ship in red) has sailed on 18 of the 19 expeditions to recover and redeploy the Coastal Pioneer Array.  The departure is the last…

After six months at sea, Gooseneck barnacles (Pollicipes polymerus) make the Pioneer Array home.  The instrumentation serves as an attractive habitat for these filter feeders. The barnacles do, however, present a removal challenge particularly from the instrumentation connections.

When the R/V Neil Armstrong pulled into the Woods Hole Dock on November 15 at the end of the first leg of the Pioneer 19 expedition,  the recovered mooring components were moved from the ship to the dock.  Shown here are three surface buoys and a profiler mooring buoy on the right.  These components will be refurbished and equipped for their new home in the relocated Pioneer Array in the…

Before heading back to Woods Hole to unload and remobilize for leg two, the Pioneer Team aboard the R/V Neil Armstrong had a final mission—to recover an anchor from the bottom.  This required the use of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to locate the anchor and attach a line so it could be brought to the surface. Jennifer Batryn (foreground) and Chris Basque controlled the movements of the ROV, which…

OOI Coastal Gliders have been collecting data at the Pioneer Array site on the New England Shelf for the community to address science requirements since 2016.  Gliders 559 and 899 are the last two gliders to operate at the Array. They were brought onboard and secured as the R/V Neil Armstrong heads back to Woods Hole to unload and restock for leg two of Pioneer 19.

  In spite of the loss of a day of recovery operations due to weather, the Pioneer 19 team successfully secured the last of three moorings to be recovered during the first leg of the Pioneer 19 expedition.  Three surface buoys from the recovered moorings were securely strapped to the deck, then power washed to remove as much of the six months of biofouling as possible.

After a successful day Friday and recovery of the Surface and Profiler moorings in the balmy 70+ degree North Atlantic, post-tropical storm Nicole’s winds and rain forced the Armstrong team to head North to shelter from the worst of the storm expected Saturday morning at the array. Not to trek North to Vineyard Sound empty-handed, the crew and science team braved 15’ seas and 25 knot winds to stop and…