NOAA Teacher at Sea
Jeff Grevert
Onboard NOAA Ship Delaware II
June 8 – 16, 2005
Mission: Surf Clam Survey
Geographical Area: New England
Date: June 9, 2005
Weather Data
Latitude: 38 39 N
Longitude: 73 50 W
Visibility: < 0.5 nm
Wind Direction: 190
Wind Speed: 10 kts
Sea Wave Height: 2′
Swell Wave Height: N/A
Sea Water Temp: 15.8 C
Sea Level Pressure: 1021.4 mb
Cloud Cover: Fog
0530 – I was awoken by a NOAA scientist. He informed my cabin mates and me that the 6-12 watch had to wake up, and the 12-6 watch only had to wake up if they wanted breakfast. I got up to get a bite to eat.
1000 – Woke up and started preparing for the day. Ate lunch.
1200 – Went on watch.
1500 – Arrived to our first sampling site. Donned foul weather gear. We are now sampling in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 30 – 40 miles off Delaware Bay. Our first trawl yielded Ocean Quahogs (Arctica islandica) and Sea Scallops (Placopecten magellanicus). Some bycatch included a few skates, a crab and some razor clams (Ensis directus). In a later trawl, I volunteered to go up into the trap to clear out any amount of the catch that was stuck in the apparatus. I received instruction from the chief scientist on checking for bent valves in the water pump apparatus. When the trap is lowered to the sea floor, a high-pressure water pump shoots water into the benthic zone directing shellfish into the trap. The valves must be checked after every trawl to ensure that they are straight and clear. Bent valves must be replaced. I checked the valves for the remaining trawls in my watch and had to replace one. After assisting with sorting the catches, I began to collect data on the Ocean Quahogs. Shell length, total mass and meat mass were collected.
1800 – Off watch. Ate dinner. Elected to stay awake to complete log entry and gather meteorological data from the ship’s weather log. Preparing to back on watch from 0000 June 09 – 0600 June 10.
