IFOP participates in XXI Joint Regional Cruise coordinated by South Pacific Permanent Commission (CPPS)
September 27th, 2018
Abate Molina scientific vessel will be used for oceanographic sampling of Chilean northern zone within regional joint research framework between 6 ° 30’N to 26 ° S, covering Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and north of Chile coasts.
At midnight on Saturday, September 15th , Abate Molina IFOP scientific vessel set sail from Valparaíso’s port, heading north of our country, to develop “Bio-oceanographic conditions and evaluation of anchoveta spawning stock for 30 days” project between the regions of Arica and Antofagasta, year 2018. ” The main work of the B / C Abate Molina will be to monitor bio-oceanographic conditions of northern zone and sampling of anchovy eggs. The project execution relies in IFOP Oceanography and Environment Department.
Project leader, oceanographer Hernán Reyes, said that “the group that participates in this national cruise (17 people) is very diverse because we will perform physical oceanography (temperature, salinity) chemistry (dissolved oxygen and nutrients) and biological oceanography (phyto and zooplankton) , stable isotope sampling, marine mammal sighting, anchovy and plankton acoustics and also anchoveta egg sampling ”
He also mentioned that “this scientific voyage, in its oceanographic part, is part of the XXI Joint Regional Cruise coordinated by South Pacific Permanent Commission (CPPS) where scientific vessels from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile will simultaneously participate and its cover the coast of those 4 countries, where in Chile it is up to the parallel 26 ° S. This regional research objective is to document properties of the ocean variability and Southeast Pacific adjacent atmosphere during September-October 2018 with the purpose of anticipating -in a timely manner- ENSO conditions presence from November / December from 2018 to March / April 2019. At this moment, according to specialized institutions, the region is in El Niño Surveillance status, with a probability of 50-55% of a warm period occurrence during September-November quarter , but that increases to 65-70% for the austral summer. Therefore, the development of a cruise that covers the entire area indicated is timely and necessary to know ocean’s behavior in this stage prior to a possible regional coastal waters anomalous warming .