Te Vega Cruise #10

Stanford's Schooner Sails Again

 

SAN FRANCISCO — Stanford University s 135-foot schooner Te Vega, overhauled and ready for new voyages of marine biology research, will depart Bay Area shipyards before dawn today for her home port at Monterey. Repairs, which included repainting, several new spars and extensive overhaul of machinery and equipment, were performed by the Triple A Machine Shop and Bethlehem Steel Co. of San Francisco. It was the ship's first refitting after two years and over 60,000 miles of voyaging in South Pacific and Indian Ocean waters. Given fair winds, she should complete the 80-mile trip to Monterey by the late afternoon. Most of the Te Vega's scientific equipment was removed when she arrived home at Monterey in September. It will be reinstalled after she returns there and before she resumes her teaching and research program. Prof. Rolf Bolin, chief scientist of Te Vega Expeditions and associate director of Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station at Pacific Grove, said the vessel's next mission will be investigation of widespread "oxygen-minimum" layers in the waters off the California coast. As before, the work will be supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). These curious undersea regions occur throughout the world, but reach nearest to total oxygen depletion in the Pacific. They occur in layers at intermediate depths, apparently mixing very little with the surrounding waters. "Since the oxygen - minimum layer is well established along the California coast and reaches its maximum development in Mexican waters," said Prof. Bolin, "Monterey is a good base from which to attack the problem. Field investigations can begin in this area about one hour after leaving port." Bolin added that "With the beginning of Stanford's spring academic quarter in March, a formal complement of three senior scientists and 10 graduate students on NSF fellowships will commence a scheduled program of research. The formal program will consist of several short trips of about two days, alternating with periods ashore for lectures and analysis of results of each cruise. A few longer cruises of 10 days or so will take the investigators about 500 miles offshore and south to the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Bolin said that "Each student will be assigned one of the more important systematic categories of the macro-plankton (molluscs, amphipods, tunicates, fishes, etc.) and will be responsible for the identification and enumeration of the individuals in each haul, and for the correlation of his results with the physics-chemical variables, particularly the oxygen. Additional activities, in part for the training of students and in part dictated by the research requirements of the scientists participating, will be pursued as time and opportunity permit."