Submitted to US Coast Guard NOTICE TO MARINERS

March 1, 2001

From March 10 to June 15, 2001, an array of oceanographic instruments will be deployed offshore from Block Island Sound in the vicinity of Block Channel. The instruments measure currents, temperatures, salinities, and properties of the acoustic channel as part of a scientific research project.

Each instrument will be moored on the bottom and marked at the surface by a radar-reflecting float. Instrument positions all lie in an area 10 nm by 10 nm, within which the USCG Montauk Point buoy is near the Northwest corner.

Separations between all instruments are nominally 1.6 nm. The instruments will be located at the following positions:

LatN Deg Min LonW Deg Min

041 03.289 071 45.252

041 01.793 071 43.573

041 00.164 071 46.214

041 00.414 071 42.079

040 58.770 071 47.319

040 58.921 071 44.824

040 58.874 071 42.677

040 59.232 071 40.575

040 59.245 071 38.428

040 57.299 071 42.130

040 54.574 071 40.200

040 57.704 071 39.886

040 56.185 071 40.615

Point of contact:

Dan Codiga

Department of Marine Sciences

University of Connecticut

phone 860-405-9165

fax 860-405-9153

email d.codiga@uconn.edu

This deployment is a test phase of the FRONT (Front-Resolving Observation Network with Telemetry) experiment. The study aims to improve predictions of water currents and temperature patterns. The Southern New England Fishermen's and Lobstermen's Association is cooperating on this project with scientists from the Navy, the Coast Guard, and several New England universities. Description of the program and updated information is posted on the internet at http://nopp.uconn.edu, including charts of the region of interest.