January 19 - 26, 2001 vol. 38 no. 3

Calendar

Monday, January 22

GEOSCIENCES/MARINE CHEMISTRY & GEOCHEMISTRY - Anne Trehu, OSU, will present a topic to be announced in 4500 Hubbs Hall at 4 p.m. (jbowles@ucsd.edu)

Wednesday, January 24

ECOLOGY LUNCHEON SEMINAR - Michael Gilpin, UCSD Biology Department, Section of Biology, Behavior, and Evolution, will present "The Role of Individual Based Models in Conservation Biology Decision Making" in 4500 Hubbs Hall at 12:15 p.m. (Bonnie Becker, bjbecker@ucsd.edu)

Thursday, January 25

AOS SEMINAR - Paul Linden will present "Environmental Flows" in 330 NTV Building at 4 p.m. (Amber Rieder, amber@mpl.ucsd.edu)

Friday, January 26

SEMINAR - Kim Nardi, Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, will present "Comparison of Open and Closed Fishing Areas for Resident Reef Fish in the Abrolhas Islands, Western Australia" in 4500 Hubbs Hall at 10 a.m. All are welcome. (Paul Dayton, pdayton@ucsd.edu)

MARINE BIOLOGY SEMINAR - Sunny Jiang, UC Irvine, will present "Viruses in the Sea" in 4500 Hubbs Hall at 12 noon.

Notices

MULLIN FUND - To honor Mike Mullin's commitment to graduate education at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and his intent as expressed in a trust document, the Mullin family has established an endowment fund in his name to support graduate students at Scripps. The goal is to create the Michael M. Mullin Graduate Student Fellowship in Biological Oceanography. Contributions to this endowment fund may be sent to the address below:

Mullin Fund
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0210

Checks should be made payable to UC Regents, and please note "For Mullin Fund" on the check.

Ship News

CalCOFI Cruise 0101JD January 12, 2001 - The first CalCOFI cruise of 2001 has started as a bit of a sea odyssey. First, the computer revolt during loading has been quelled. Next, the consumption of fuses by the CTD has been slowed to a halt by a combination of re-terminating and changing of the winch slip rings. Finally, a break in the succession of storms has allowed us to make some reasonable transit times between stations. Other than that, the cruise performance is exceptional with morale high and the data streaming. Our first line of sampling has revealed a one degree positive temperature anomaly on either side of the California current. National Marine Fisheries observations reveal low plankton volumes and minimal egg counts, although this not unusual for this time of year. Our expert bird observer reports the bird life has been very thrilling so far. In total we have seen 26 different species of seabirds. The most frequent sightings are our dear friends the Black-Footed and Laysan Albatross that keep following the ship and hang out around it during the stations. The most exciting sightings, however, were those of a Mottled Petrel and of an Arctic Jaeger. Right behind those come the two Kermadec Petrel sightings. Bird densities have been low at times but mostly medium keeping our lonely bird observer on the flying bridge entertained. The only cetaceans spotted so far were a couple of Gray Whales on our first day out and two schools of Risso's Dolphins and four schools of Common Dolphins. The Goericke group is looking at a couple of questions. Experiments to measure phytoplankton growth rates and determine factors which control the biomass of different groups of phytoplankters are going well. They are also collecting zooplankton fecal matter to determine the fate of phytoplankton after these have been ingested with the help of pigment-derived biomarkers. Their hope to perform grazing experiments with salps (gelatinous zooplankton notorious for their patchy distributions in space and time) and to determine their ability to ingest the smallest phytoplankters present in the ocean, Prochlorococcus (a bacterial-size phototrophic procaryote), have not been realized because we have not yet encountered any salps. All is well in the galley, with the cooks turning out some spicy delicacies that are a gastronomical delight to one and all. (Dave Wolgast)

R/V ROGER REVELLE

In dry dock San Diego

R/V MELVILLE

R/V NEW HORIZON

In port San Diego

R/V ROBERT GORDON SPROUL

R/P FLIP

In port San Diego

R/V DAVID STARR JORDAN

PLEASE NOTE - The SIO LOG is the in-house newsletter for staff, students, faculty, and retirees of Scripps Institution of Oceanography/ UCSD. All seminars, celebrations, lectures, and events are for these individuals only, unless otherwise noted. Public lectures will be advertised in the SIO LOG and in the local news media.