Mona Passage Drift Bottle Study
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586 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 27, NO.3, 1977 LITERATURECITED Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149; (P.N.F.) Graduate School of OceU1IORraphy, Uni- Atwood, D. K., J. R. Polifka, and C. P. Duncan. versity of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island 1975. Temporal Variations in Mass Trans- 02881. port in the Eastern Caribbean Sea. Proceed- ings of the Eleventh Meeting of the Associa- tion of Island Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, 1-4 May. Brucks, T. 1971. Currents of the Caribbean and MONA PASSAGE DRIFT BOTTLE adjacent regions as deduced from drift-bottle STUDY studies. Bull. Mar. Sci. 21: 455-465. Corredor, J. (Rapporteur). 1976. Report of William G. Metcalf, Marvel C. Stalcup, and UNESCO/JOC/FAO, and UNEP Sponsored Workshop on Marine Pollution in the Carib- Donald K. Atwood bean and Adjacent Regions. Port of Spain, Trinidad, 13-17 December. ABSTRACT-In September 1973, 423 drift bottles Ichiye, T. 1972. Experiments on Circulation of were released in the vicinity of Mona Passage be- the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea tween Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Over the next with a Rotating Tank. Proceedings of IV year 29 (7%) returns were received, all of them Congreso Nacional de Oceanografia, Mexico, from positions west of their launch sites. The November 1969. returns indicated an extremely complex current Maul, G. A., D. R. Norris, and W. R. Johnson. 1974. Satellite photography of eddies in the condition in Mona Passage with some bottles drift- Gulf Loop Current. Geophysical Research ing from the Caribbean into the Atlantic Ocean Letters. 1: 256-258. and others in the opposite direction. Approxi- Molinari, Robert. 1976. Personal communica- mately half the returns came from the Dominican tion regarding satetlite tracked drogues Republic and other nearby points less than 1,000 launched by NOAA and Nova University in km from their launch sites. All remainder drifted October 1975 and January 1976. more than 2,000 km and were recovered from the Nowlin, W. D., Jr. 1971. Water masses and western end of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of general circulation of the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico and the east coast of Florida. This long Oceanology International, Feb.: 173-178. Richards, W. J., and J. R. Goulet, Jr. 1976. An drifting group moved at speeds up to at least 21 operational surface drift model used for study- em/sec though the true speed cannot be deter- ing larval lobster recruitment and dispersal. mined. In Proceedings of CICAR II, Symposium on progress in marine research in the Caribbean and adjacent regions, Caracas, Venezuela, 12 During 20-24 September, 1973, on Cruise to 16 July, 1976. Available from JOC/ No. 73-24 of the R/V CRAWFORDof the UNESCO, Paris. University of Puerto Rico, 432 drift bottles Stalcup, M. Co, and W. G. Metcalf. 1972. Cur- rent measurements in the passages of the similar to those described by Bumpus and Lesser Antilles. J. of Geophysical Research, Lauzier (1965) were released in the vicinity 77: 1032-1049. of Mona Passage between the islands of U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office. 1972. En- Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. This work was vironmental Acoustics Atlas of the Caribbean part of the Cooperative Investigation of the Sea and Gulf of Mexico, Volume II. SP- 18911. Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (CICAR). U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office. 1955. Atlas of One of the primary purposes of this phase Pilot Charts: Central American Waters and of the program was to study the exchange South Atlantic Ocean. H. O. Pub. 576. of water between the Atlantic Ocean and the DATE ACCEPTED: January 28, 1977. Caribbean Sea through Mona Passage. The passage is only 380 m deep and thus is of ADDRESSES: (C.P.D. and I.R.D.) Marine Sciences minor importance in the circulation of the Department, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, deeper layers. It is, however, important from Puerto Rico 00708; (D.K.A.) National Oceano- graphic and Atmospheric Administration, Atlantic the standpoint of surface water movements Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, 15 into and out of the Caribbean Sea, inasmuch SHORT PAPERS 587 Table 1. Summary of drift bottle recovery Launch Recovery Position Position Ave. Card Date Speed Numbers IX73 (N lat.) (W long.) Date (N lat.) (W long.) Days Km (em/sec) 1 20 18°38' 68°05' 3 X 73 18°23' 68°36' 14 65 5.4 2 20 18°38' 68°05' 24 X 73 18°19' 68°34' 35 74 2.4t 3 20 18°36' 67°53.5' 31 III 74 25°50' 80° 10' 193 3,110 18.7 4 20 18°30.6' 67°26.8' 10 XI 74 24°55' 80°30' 416 3,020 8.4* 5 20 18°30.6' 67°26.8' 27 I 74 20° 15' 87"30' 129 2,220 19.9 6 20 18°29.5' 67° 13' 23 X 73 18°23' 68"33' 34 139 4.7 7 20 18°29.5' 67° 13' lOX 73 18° 19' 68°34' 21 148 8.2t 8 20 18°29.5' 67°13' 6 X 73 18°44' 68°29' 17 130 8.9 9 20 18°29.5' 67°13' 1 XII 73 22"30' 74°00' 73 870 13.8 10 21 18°15.5' 67°37' 2U 74 18°00' 88°20' 134 2,400 20.7 11 21 18° 15.5' 67°37' 16 II 74 20°50' 86°50' 148 2,310 18.1 12 21 18°26' 67°51.5' 16 XI 73 18" 16' 7P03' 57 370 7.5 13 21 18°26' 67°51.5' 15 IV 74 25°40' 80° 12' 206 3,070 17.2* 14 22 18°00.5' 68°13' 28 IV 74 15°50' 88°00' 218 2,330 12.3* 15 23 lr57' 67°25.3' 18 X 73 19° 10' 69°20' 26 278 12.4 16 23 17°57' 67°25.3' 18 X 73 19° 11' 69"20' 26 278 12.4 17 23 18°07.6' 67°56.6' 22 III 74 24°55' 80°30' 180 3,000 19.3 18 23 18°07.6' 67°56.6' 9 XI 73 17°48' 71 ° 18' 47 340 8.3 19 23 18°07.6' 67°56.6' 7 XI 73 17°43' 71 °30' 45 370 9.5 20 23 18°07.6' 67°56.6' 20 III 74 20° 15' 87°30' 178 2,190 14.2* 21 23 18°07.6' 67°56.6' 21 I 74 18°15' 76"50' 120 960 9.3 22 23 18°07.6' 67°56.6' 6X 74 29°00' 80°55' 378 3,520 10.8* 23 23 18°08.3' 67° 50.5' 6 VII 74 28°35' 96°45' 286 3,610 14.6* 24 23 18°02.9' 67°50.3' 4 X 74 17°00' 88° 15' 376 2,330 7.2* 25 23 18°02.8' 67° 55.3' 5 XI 74 18° 10' 7POO' 44 330 8.7 26 23 18°02.8' 6r55.3' 1 II 74 18°00' 88°20' 131 2,400 21.2 27 23 18°02.8' 67° 55.3' 15 II 74 24°31' 82°06' 146* 2,500 19.8* 28 24 17°35.5' 67"00' 17 X 73 18°29' 68°23' 24 185 8.9 29 24 lr35.5' 67°00' 26 X 73 18°09' 68°36' 33 185 6.5 ---- • Heavily faded cards indicating the bottles were stranded on the shore for prolonged periods before discovery, t Recovered at sea. :I: days ±14. This bottle was reported as being retrieved in February 1974, but there was no indication as to the exact date. The speed could thus faU between 18.1 and 2\.9 em/sec. as strong tidal currents are present through- als indicate the number of drift bottles re- out its 115-km width. At the time the work leased at each site. The shaded circles in- was performed, there were plans (since aban- dicate those sites from which returns were doned) for the development of a large oil eventually received. The numbers outside refinery on Mona Island near the middle of the shaded circles are keyed to the recovery the passage, and there was much concern sites in the figures and to the listings in over the effects this might have on the nearby Table 1. Approximately 50 bottles were shores of the Dominican Republic to the released at each of four sites closely sur- west (downwind). rounding Mona Island in connection with From the 432 drift bottles released, 29 the oil refinery study mentioned above. A (7%) returns were received. Figure 1 shows hydrographic station was occupied at each the positions of the releases and of the of the release sites except for the four loca- nearby returns. Figure 2 shows the more tions close to the four corners of Mona distant returns. In Fig. 1, the circled numer- Island. 588 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 27, NO.3, 1971 MONA PASSAGE DRIFT BOTTLE EXPERIMENT SEPT. 1973 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Figure 1. Drift bottle launch sites with some of the nearby recovery sites. Circled numerals indicate the number of bottles launched at each site. Shaded circles indicate sites from which recoveries were re- ceived. Numerals outside the circles are keyed in the recovery sites as are shown in this figure and Fig- ure 2 and listed in Tables 1-2. In Table 1, the date and position of southeast corner of the passage eventually launching, date and position of recovery, moved north through the passage and con- elapsed time between those two dates, the tinued their drift to the northwest on the distance between the launching and recovery Atlantic side of the Antilles.