ROFFER'S OCEAN FISHING FORECASTING SERVICE, INC. 
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ROFFS FISHERIES OCEANOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
FOR THE CAPE FEAR, NC TO HATTERAS, NC OFFSHORE AREA (LAT./LONG.)

***SPECIAL NORTH CAROLINA RED TIDE SAMPLING ANALYSIS***
UPDATED ON WEDNESDAY 10 OCTOBER 2007 FOR WED. P.M. & THURSDAY SAMPLING ONLY
It is very important to use your sea surface temperature (sst°) gauge to locate the boundaries of the water masses, which are outlined. Rather than trying to find water based on the absolute temperature values shown on the map,  search for the relative change in sst where the water mass boundaries occur. Arrows associated with the dark blue Gulf Stream water indicate the area where we expect you will find the northwestern edge of the Gulf Stream by sampling time tomorrow morning.

THIS ANALYSIS WAS PROVIDED USING A COMBINATION OF HIGH RESOLUTION INFRARED SST° IMAGERY FROM 11PM LAST EVENING THROUGH 03AM THIS MORNING, AS WELL AS, A MODIS OCEAN COLOR_CHLOROPHYLL IMAGE FROM APPROXIMATELY 3-4PM YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.  The estimated morning sst° of the main body of the Gulf Stream is 82.7°F-83.7°F and this feature was observed from 77°00’W & 33°40’N to 76°30’W & 33°52’N to 76°00’W & 34°10’N to 75°30’W & 34°26’N to 75°00’W & 35°00’N at the time of this analysis.  Based on the motion of the water masses and the ocean conditions, we expect you will find the northwestern edge of the main body of the Gulf Stream from 77°00’W & 33°45’N to 76°30’W & 33°55’N to 76°00’W & 34°15’N to 75°30’W & 34°30’N to 75°00’W & 35°10’N by sampling time tomorrow morning.  If you are looking for potential areas of Red Tide where the green coastal water meets the offshore blue Gulf Stream water, we believe that you will encounter a strong green to blue color change over the 50-100 fathom ledge in the area of the Big Rock and northeastward from 76°13’W & 34°08’N to 75°57’W & 34°20’N.  Southwestward, towards the Cape Fear area, the green/blue-green to blue water mass boundary occurs further inshore over the 12-18 fathom depths, but two areas that may also be worth looking into for sampling may be between 76°15’W & 34°11’N to 76°55’W & 34°08-09’N west (inshore) of the Big Rock and further southwestward from 77°05’W & 33°57’N to 77°30’W & 33°50’N.

Southward, offshore of the Cape Fear area, we observed a pool of blue (81.8°F-82.7°F) water associated with an eddy feature that was observed near 76°40’W & 33°23’N at the time of this analysis.  While we believe this eddy to be centered near 76°25’W & 33°35’N at the present time, we believe it may be centered as far northeastward as 76°15’W & 33°40-45’N by sampling time Thursday morning.  While this may be out of the sampling range for Thursday, we do believe that this feature will occur east/northeast of the Big Rock area (76°00’W & 34°05’N) by early Friday morning as it elongates and moves northeastward with the Gulf Stream.  Please also keep in mind that we did not observe any elevated chlorophyll signature associated with this eddy, although the pool of blue (82.7°F-81.8°F) associated with this eddy does appear to have originated offshore of the eastern Florida coast four to five days ago.