NOAA Teacher at Sea
Geoff Goodenow
Onboard NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette
May 2 – 25, 2004
Mission: Swordfish Assessment Survey
Geographical Area: Hawaiian Islands
Date: May 12, 2004
Time: 1745 (Later than usual due to busy late afternoon fishing)
Lat: 18 33N
Long: 158 20 W
Sky: Somewhat overcast this morning but a nice sunny day overall.
Air temp: 26.5 C
Barometer: 1013.5
Wind: 90 degrees at 10 knots
Relative humidity: 63.5%
Sea temp: 26.3 C
Depth: (forgot to check)
Sea condition: Good sized swells today kept us rocking and rolling pretty good throughout the afternoon and evening. But it wasn’t discomforting at all.
Scientific and Technical Log
Brought up 3 escolar and one wahoo on the longline this morning — not a very exciting time. The set was about 30 miles NE of Cross seamount. After retrieval we steamed south again through/over Cross and back to the area of success around Swordfish seamount to set the line tonight. Along the way we encountered several so called “bird piles”, congregations of birds on the water, indicative of fish below. Passing over Cross we pulled in 5 mahi mahi, a small yellowfin tuna, and 4 bigeye tunas. It was a busy late afternoon. There’s lots of fish on ice for upcoming meals!
Returning now to the vision studies:
This afternoon Eva gave me the tools and an escolar eye and had me go through the procedures she follows to get what she needs for her studies. (Kylie basically does the same procedure but uses skipjack tunas). I’m not ready for microsurgery yet, but she gave my effort a thumbs up as I successfully secured the materials she needs for later study.
As the eye is taken from the animal marks are made on it with a scalpel to mark its orientation in the animal. After measuring eye cup and pupil size, the cornea and lens are removed and a bit more scraping and cleaning eventually leaves her with optic nerve, retina and vitreous to be preserved. This took me about 45 minutes to do.
Back at her university lab, the retina alone will be used. Sections of the retina will be mounted for microscopic examination. With it she can answer questions such as 1) what do the photoreceptor cells look like? 2) Is there a variety of types of receptors in their eye? 3) What is the density/distribution of receptors across the retina? In another study she makes other preps for microscopic examination to observe density of ganglia in the retina.
Personal Log
I had some ideas for tonight’s entry in this section, but this boat is rocking pretty hard right now and sitting in front of the computer is not particularly pleasant. I’m cutting things short tonight.
Geoff
