Developing and testing a new piece of equipment at sea is always a challenge, one Mike Jech is no stranger to tackling. A fisheries biologist and acoustics researcher at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., Jech is using his skills and expertise on a joint project with the neighboring Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a new instrument platform called Deep-See. NEFSC is the project partner.
As a co-principal investigator on the project, Jech has spent the last three years helping to design the instrument, securing the long fiber optic cable needed to launch it into the ocean and send back high resolution real-time images and data, and find a ship able to test it.
His efforts paid off. On August 11, the NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow will depart Newport, RI, for 10 days with 16 scientists including Jech and engineers aboard to take the new instrument to sea for the first time for testing, calibration and evaluation. Jech’s expertise will be used on the fisheries and acoustics aspects of the cruise since he has experience using the Bigelow’s trawl net and acoustics systems on previous cruises as a member of the Center’s Ecosystems Surveys Branch.
“Deep-See is an acoustic, optic, oceanographic, and biological sampling system that integrates wideband echosounders, stereo and holographic cameras, environmental and light sensors, and eDNA instruments towed at the depths of the meso and bathypelagic communities to get an in-depth view of the organisms living there,” said Jech. “There is no other instrument like it in existence.”
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Image via NOAA.