U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank
Phase III Open Planning Meeting

Please Register

This meeting (see agenda) will bring together scientists who intend to submit proposals by the December 15, 1997 deadline specified in the recent Announcement of Opportunity issued by NSF and NOAA. The primary objective of the U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank program is to understand the physical and biological processes that control the abundance of target animal populations (cod, haddock, and the copepods Calanus finmarchicus and Pseudocalanus spp.) in space and time on the Bank. The primary focus for Phase III (1999 field year) will be on cross-frontal exchange processes. Although each phase has a different primary focus, information on all processes, e.g., stratification, retention and loss, and frontal processes, has been and will be collected during the intensive process-study year. The broad scale studies, which will continue, include shipboard surveys to determine the distribution and abundance of the target organisms in relation to their physical environment over the pelagic period of cod and haddock larvae, long-term mooring-based observations, and interpretation of regional satellite data. Close cooperation and interaction between the broad-scale and process-oriented components of the program are essential. One of the objectives of this meeting is to ensure that this integration continues during Phase III of the project.

Questions to be addressed by process studies in Phase III include:

• What is the three-dimensional circulation associated with the fronts around and on Georges Bank?
• What are the important processes and interactions between plankton and larval fish at the fronts, and how are they affected by small-scale temporal and spatial physical variability? What is the influence of fronts upon the vital rates and population dynamics of the target species?
• What are the exchange rates, due to frontal processes, of water properties and the target species across the fronts on the Bank? And what are the consequences for the individual and the population of these exchanges?
• How do biological and physical processes interact to control cross-frontal exchange of target organisms?
• Does frontal movement (e.g., of the tidal front due to fortnightly variability in the tidal currents or of the shelf/Slope Water front due to offshore forcing) influence the exchange of water and organisms across the different fronts?
• How do temporal variations on different scales (e.g., diel tidal, neap/spring tidal cycles, and seasonal cycles) interact with the population development of target species? What are the consequences of this temporally variable exchange to the recruitment of the target species?

This two-day open meeting will be held at the Bay State Conference Room, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, 101 Academy Drive, Buzzards Bay, MA 02532. Please indicate your intention to attend this meeting by registering on-line using the URL

• http://globec.whoi.edu/globec-dir/phase3doc/registration-form.html.

If you need to be reached while attending the meeting, the number is 508-830-5997. Ask to pass along the message to you at the "U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Open Meeting" in the Bay State Conference Room.

Because of limiting parking, please car pool if at all possible. You will receive a parking "pass" when you arrive to display on your car's dashboard. You may park anywhere you find a space except where the area is lined in yellow; these spaces are reserved for faculty.

For those who wish to stay overnight near the meeting site, there is the Best Western Bridge Bourne Hotel located within a few minutes drive of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Rooms will cost about $54 per night including tax. (Be sure to mention that you will be attending a meeting at the Mass Maritime Academy in order to take advantage of this low rate.) Their phone number is 800-675-0008 or 508-759-0800.

It is strongly recommended that participants review the program's background documents before the meeting. The objectives of the U.S. GLOBEC Program have been articulated by the U.S. GLOBEC Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) in the U.S. GLOBEC Initial Science Plan (available as U.S. GLOBEC report no. 1, February 1991). Background information pertinent to the Northwest Atlantic can be found in U.S. GLOBEC report no. 2, February 1991, entitled "GLOBEC: Northwest Atlantic Program, GLOBEC U.S./Canada Meeting on Northwest Atlantic Fisheries and Climate". Prospective investigators should refer to the Implementation Plan for U.S. GLOBEC NW Atlantic/Georges Bank Study, report no. 6, June 1992. All three reports are available from the U.S. GLOBEC Office, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Some of these documents are on-line through the World Wide Web at http://www.usglobec.org and http://globec.whoi.edu. In addition, a report of the recent U.S. GLOBEC Georges Bank Scientific Investigators meeting (21 - 23 July 1997), which provides summaries of research activities during Phase II of the program, will soon be available on line at the latter address.

It is further recommended that groups of individuals with common interests get together before the meeting and be prepared to present their ideas for research activities in a coordinated fashion.