NOAA Ship Miller Freeman
June 2000 Featured Platform

The NOAA ship Miller Freeman conducts a wide variety of operations including fisheries and oceanographic research and trawl gear testing.  Currently, Miller Freeman has projects with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Office of Atmospheric and Oceanic Research – Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.  These projects include hydro-acoustic fish estimation and groundfish stock surveys in the Bering Sea, Alaskan waters and off the Pacific West Coast;  weather and seas monitoring; and deploying surface and subsurface moorings.

The ship is a Pacific stern trawler that conducts stern trawling operations in water depths up to 1,250 meters, mid-water up to 1,100 meters, and over-the-side sampling.  Fishing operations match those of the commercial trawler fleet.  Miller Freeman is unique in the U.S. research fleet because the ship is capable of conducting multi-disciplinary oceanographic operations in support of biological, chemical and physical process studies.  A major and unique asset is the 23-foot centerboard and its contribution to the quality of the hydroacoustic surveys and other acoustic data collection. The ability to move the ship's hydroacoustic fish survey, acoustic doppler current profiler, and other transducers on the bottom of the centerboard, away from the acoustic noise created by the hull, significantly enhances the quality of the data collected and the scientific products based on that data.  This capability, in conjunction with the trawling capacity, is of unique  value to its clients.

Winter and spring projects focus on the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea.  Summer priorities are divided yearly amongst the California, Oregon and Washington Pacific Hake Survey; the Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Survey; and the Bering Sea Multilateral Hydroacoustic Survey.  During the hydroacoustic survey,  the status of walleye pollock and Pacific whiting, testing of fishing gear, and fish behavior during the capture process to determine methods to reduce bycatch are studied.  In the fall, scientists study the effects of physical oceanography - such as water temperature, salinity and currents - on pollock larvae in Alaskan waters.  This is followed by a return to the Northwest to complete a continental slope groundfish resource assessment to estimate the groundfish distribution and abundance, and to investigate biological processes and interactions with the environment to estimate growth, mortality, and recruitment.  These data improve the precision and accuracy of forecasting groundfish stock dynamics.
 
 

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Last Update  March 1, 2001 (cab)