BODC Cruise Metadata Report for RRS James Cook (740H) cruise JC060

Introduction

This report collates information from the BODC cruise inventory and oceanographic databases. It presents

Cruise Inventory Information
A summary of BODC data holdings for the cruise from the
- National Oceanographic Database
- Projects Database
References - including cruise tracks and cruise reports

Cruise Inventory Information

Long name	RRS James Cook (740H) cruise JC060
Short name	JC060
Objectives and Narrative	The main aim of cruise JC060 was to carry out habitat mapping work in selected areas of the Rockall Trough, Rockall Bank and Hatton Basin in order to assess the status of different benthic habitats in relation to human activities, especially deep-sea bottom trawling. The cruise included a revisit of the Darwin Mound cold-water coral reefs, discovered in 1998 and protected in 2003, and an assessment of the status of two fisheries closure areas on Rockall Bank. In addition, two pilot studies of a more geological nature were carried out as well: one was targeting a Polygonal Fault System in the Hatton Basin, potentially linked to fluid flow, while the other focused on the history of the Rockall Bank Mass Flow. The tools used to achieve these objectives included the Autosub6000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), newly equipped with an EdgeTech dual frequency high-resolution sidescan sonar plus chirp profiler and a monochrome stills camera, a commercial inspection class ROV, and more traditional equipment including piston-, mega- and boxcore, CTD and shipborne multibeam (EM120 and EM710). Although the unsettled weather hampered the operations to a certain extent (including a forced return to the shelter of the Minches, resulting in an ad hoc survey of the E Shiant Bank), the cruise was a success, with 88h of ROV footage & photography collected, 125km2 of seabed mapped at high resolution (metre to centimetre-scale) by the Autosub6000, 400km2 mapped with the EM710 on Rockall Bank, and 52 coring operations for geological and biological studies. The first results of the cruise stress again the importance of a sound management of the marine realm, including the deep ocean, and underline the continuous need for detailed information and high-resolution data to underpin such management.
Ship	RRS James Cook
Departure Port	Govan, United Kingdom
Departure Date	2011-05-09
Arrival Port	Govan, United Kingdom
Arrival Date	2011-06-12
Principal Scientist(s)	Veerle A Huvenne (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton)
Responsible Organisation	National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Associated Project(s)
IHB Sea Areas Visited	North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W)
Marsden Squares Visited	181;4/182;3
Work Area Description	Rockall Trough, Rockall Bank and Hatton Basin.
Unable to lookup cruise bounds at this time
Work Area Bounding Polygon
Southern Limit	unknown
Northern Limit	unknown
Western Limit	unknown
Eastern Limit	unknown

Cruise Inventory Datasets

Physical oceanography
CTD stations	Quantity: number of profiles = 5 Description: CTD casts
Other physical oceanographic measurements	Quantity: number of profiles = 5 Description: SVP.
Geology and geophysics
Bottom photography	Quantity: number of dives = 26 Description: ROV dives
Core - soft bottom	Quantity: number of cores = 19 Description: Boxcores for macro & megafauna.
Core - soft bottom	Quantity: number of cores = 15 Description: Piston cores
Core - soft bottom	Quantity: number of cores = 18 Description: Megacores for macrofauna.
Geophysical measurements made at depth	Quantity: number of dives = 11 Description: Autosub6000 AUV missions
Multi-beam echosounding	Quantity: survey square kilometres = 400 Description: EM710 multibeam data

Cruise Inventory Mooring/Buoy Operations

Latitude	Longitude	Data type	Description
59° 48' N	7° 21' W	Other biological/fisheries measurement	Anchored marker bouy at ca. 5m above seabed to mark start of video transect for future seabed monitoring.
59° 48' N	7° 22' W	Other biological/fisheries measurement	Anchored marker bouy at ca. 5m above seabed to mark start of video transect for future seabed monitoring.
59° 51' N	7° 3' W	Other biological/fisheries measurement	Anchored marker bouy at ca. 5m above seabed to mark start of video transect for future seabed monitoring.
59° 51' N	7° 7' W	Other biological/fisheries measurement	Anchored marker bouy at ca. 5m above seabed to mark start of video transect for future seabed monitoring.