About the Project
A collaboration between the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen's Alliance (CCCFA), Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF), NOAA Fisheries' Environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps and Large Trawlers (eMOLT) program, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) supports joint observational efforts to study oceanographic conditions around Cape Cod and the broader continental shelf. This partnership aims to enhance our understanding of the connections between oceanographic and fishing conditions.
Since August 2024, CCCFA fishermen have been equipped with CTD (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth) sensors, which can be deployed from their vessels to provide profiles of ocean temperature, salinity, and density throughout the water column at various locations off the Cape Cod coast. Prompted by the onset of this project our dashboard has evolved to include CFRF CTD profiles (which have been collected since 2014 as part of the "Shelf Research Fleet") and eMOLT temperature profiles (which have been collected by hundreds of New England commerical fisherman across the Northeast Shelf data since 2001). Cummalatively, these data collection efforts provide a large set of temperature, salinity, and density profiles that offer insight into the dynamic New England ocean conditions.
Available Features
This webpage includes an interactive tool to visualize the collected profiles while also providing additional information about current conditions. These include: maps of sea surface temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll-a concentrations, measured by satellite; ocean bottom conditions generated by profiles and aggregated by FIShBOT; and monthly averages and time series for temperature, salinity, and density metrics.
Navigate to the subpages to do the following:
- 📍 Mapped Profiles: Use our interactive map to examine where CTD and eMOLT profiles have been taken; generate plots of the salinity, temperature, and density measurements; overlay satellite imagery of sea surface temperature obervations, temperature anomalies, salinity values, and Chlorophyll-a concentrations; and overlay FIShBOT-generated ocean bottom conditions.
- ⏰ Monthly Summaries: See monthly averages for sea surface temperature values, surface temperature anomalies, salinity values, and Chlorophyll-a concentrations; examine year-to-year average surface temperatures for the Gulf of Maine, Inner and Outer Cape, and waters off of the Rhode Island and New Jersey Coasts; and explore CTD profiles partitioned monthly for the above regions.
- 📈 Data Access: Access descriptions of and links to all data sets used by the website.