NOAA Teacher at Sea
Amy Pearson
Onboard NOAA Ship Delaware II
August 13 – 30, 2007
Mission: Ecosystem Monitoring Survey
Geographical Area: North Atlantic Ocean
Date: August 15, 2007
Weather Data from the Bridge
Air temp: 23.0
Water temp: 22.1
Wind direction: 195
Wind speed: 13 kts.
Sea wave height: 3-4 ft.
Visibility: 7nm
Personal Log
Not ready to eat much food, the cook let me make some toast. Lunch was rice and as the day progressed I felt much better. During the day we saw a pod of dolphins, length of about 4 feet (grey upper body and light underside) riding the ship’s bow waves, some as close as 20 ft. to ship. I ate steak and tuna (also a little sushi!) for dinner with a little pasta. I rested a bit today and did some work on logs and email. Sampling occurred from 3 p.m. until 1 a.m. (3 stations – with me doing the outside work for several of them), and as the next station was at 3:45 a.m., we got to sleep at 1 a.m.
Science and Technology Log: What I have learned about ship life and some of the jobs on this ship……
One must work when the weather/seas are good as it’s difficult to focus or do certain tasks when the ship is rolling. The deck crew had been painting yesterday but today it was not conducive to that. Also, everyone is on a shift, with people working around the clock. Someone is always sleeping so one must be quiet when opening doors and talking near people’s cabins. There is a policy of only loud equipment use (sanders) between 9 am and 3 pm as this is when shifts change for some. The deck hands do ship maintenance (painting, some repairs) and help the scientists in their work. The CTD/Bongo nets are dropped from wire connected to a winch.
One crew member is in charge of the winch and has radio to communicate w/ the computer person who is watching the depth of the equipment. A second helps position the CTD/Bongo nets so they go out and away from the ship, and the when they come in, helps to get them on deck safely. A third deck person, this being a scientist works the A-frame controller that carries the equipment away from the side of the boat for deployment. I got to do this last night and it was a thrilling experience. When the equipment comes up, I had to pull the lever to bring the A-frame back in. It is very exciting to control this big piece of equipment.
We had some very deep sampling tonight. We went off the continental shelf for a short time with depths of over 400 meters. Here the maximum drop is 200 meters. There was not a lot of plankton retrieved in this cast. When we came back in to shallower water the contents of the cast did increase, with lots of amphipods and Calanus. Scientist Joe Kane said these are found in deeper colder waters this time of year.