Methods:

This page contains an overview of the methods used for the water sampling done in Hood Canal. More detailed methods can be found here.

During the weekend of May 8-9, 2009 the TESC445 Estuarine Field Studies class conducted water sampling of 25 stations the entire distance of Hood Canal.
A longitudinal transect from north to south through the center of Hood Canal of 13 stations is presented in the data.  This includes stations 1 (entrance sill), station 3 (center), station 5 (Hazel Point), station 6 (calibration), station 7 (North Holly), station 9 (Center Hama Hama), station 11(North Dewatto), station 13 (BamBan Center) station 16, (Potlach Central), station 18 (Potlach south), station 20 (Sisters Central), station 25 (Orca Bay) and station 23 (Lynch central).
In addition, several cross-sectional transects were done. These include stations 2-4 (Banger), stations 8-10 (Hama Hama), stations 12-14 (Bam Ban), stations 15-17 (Potlach), stations19-21 (Sisters) and stations 22-24 (Lynch). Data for these additional stations can be found in the Hood Canal data repository (data is not available for Station 15.)

On each sampling day the class was divided into two sampling teams. On May 8th, both teams embarked from Misery Point. Team 1 was in the University of Washington vessel Wheelander, sampling stations 1-6. Team 2 was in the Hood Canal Enhancement Group (HCEG) vessel sampling stations 7-13. Station 6 was sampled first by both teams and the data was used for calibration. Weather on this day was mostly sunny with scattered clouds.  On May 9, Team 1 embarked from Twanoh State Park on the Wheelander, sampling stations 13-18. Team 2 embarked from Hood Canal Marina on the SCEG boat and sampled stations 19-25. Both teams first sampled station 18 and the data was used for calibration. Weather this day was mostly sunny with very few clouds.
Sampling done on the Wheelander: CTD, Niskin Bottom Bottle (dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, nutrients), Secchi, phytoplankton net sample, Thoreson surface bottle (dissolved oxygen.)