The routes of Sunflower 2 from 1994 to 1997 and its predecessor, Sunflower Ivory, are shown in Figure 1. They departed Osaka in the evening and arrived
at Beppu in the following morning. The schedules and ports have changed
over the years as shown below. The Sunflower Ivory (Figure 2) stopped at Kobe and Matsuyama on westbound route only ( Figure
3).
|

Figure 2. Sunflower Ivory
(Kansai Kisen Co. Ltd.) |
Figure 3. Route of Sunflower 2 and Sunflower Ivory
Sunflower 2 (from March 1994 to November 1997) |
Eastbound |
Beppu -> |
Kobe -> |
Osaka |
19:10 |
6:50-7:20 |
9:00 |
Westbound
|
Beppu <- |
Kobe <- |
Osaka |
7:40 |
19:40-20:10 |
18:40 |
Sunflower Ivory (from April 1998 to March 2005) |
Eastbound |
Beppu -> |
|
Osaka |
19:00 -> |
|
6:20 |
Westbound
|
Beppu <- |
Matsuyama <- |
Kobe <- |
Osaka |
10:10 |
6:05-6:30 |
22:00-22:25 |
21:00 |
 |
Figure 5. A picture of the monitoring system.
From left: a) automatic filtration samplers, b) a tank where the multiple
sensors are stored, and c) tap for manual sampling. The further right is
a drain tank for used water. (Since the system is located below the surface,
the throw-in pump was used to discharge the water from the tank). |
Basic configuration of the monitoring system has been identical, with several
improvements and renewals, since 1991. It is composed of three units: a)
automated filtration and sampling system, b) multiple sensors, and c) taps
for manual sampling.
This system was located above the shaft room, which was behind the engine
room (Figure 5). The seawater is pumped from the sea chest at the hull,
used for monitoring, stored in the drain tank, and then pumped back out
to the sea.
In a), the seawater sampling is operated basically every two weeks on the
eastbound cruise. In these cruises the samples were taken every 30 minutes,
which were roughly every 18km and total of 20 samples. The filtered water
and the filter were stored in a cool condition (< 8oC) and picked up in the next morning at Osaka Port.
In b), fluorometric chlorophyll-a, temperature, salinity, pH, and dissolved
oxygen (DO), along with GPS signals, were recorded with a 10 second interval
on every cruise. The fluorometric chlorophyll-a was measured using Turner-Design
Fluorometer and the rest were measured by Hydrolab-H20R Water Quality Multiprobe.
The sensors were calibrated and the recorded data were collected once a
week at Osaka Port.
The c) was used for optional observation with attendance of researchers
to sample the seawater for the analysis, e.g., taxon-specific biomass of
phytoplankton, biogenic sulfur compounds such as di-methyl sulfide (DMS),
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) such as pesticides. A method to monitor
the partial pressure of CO2 dissolved in seawater was developed on c) by creating a fast response
equilibrator to fit the flow-through system on the ship of opportunity5). These works are listed in the table of cooperative works.
|