NOAA Teacher at Sea
Christopher Tait
Aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker
March 21 – April 7, 2017
Mission: Spring Coastal Pelagic Species Survey
Geographic Area of Cruise: Pacific Ocean from San Diego, CA to San Francisco, CA
Date: March 21, 2017
The Spring Coastal Pelagic Species Survey will be conducted in 2 legs between San Diego and Cape Mendocino, CA. The ship will have a port call in San Francisco, CA between survey legs.
Weather Data from the Bridge
Time 4:38 PDT,
Current Location: near San Clemente Island, Latitude 32.9 N Longitude -118.96 W
Air Temperature 15.3 oC (59.5 oF)
Water Temperature 14.8 oC (58.6 oF)
Wind Speed 13 kts
Barometric pressure 1021.15 hPa
Science and Technology Log
Trawling
The ship trawls for schooling coastal pelagic fish from sundown to sunrise. This is because, under the protection of darkness, the zooplankton come up toward the surface to feed on phytoplankton and the planktivorous fish, in turn, follow the zooplankton. Before the trawl net can be deployed, you have to go to the bridge, or the upper floor on the ship where all navigation and operations occur, to do a marine mammal watch for 30 minutes. A marine mammal watch is a lookout for dolphins or other marine mammals that might be in the vicinity of the ship to avoid catching them in the trawl. It is difficult to see any dolphins or sea lions in the inky blackness of the night ocean, but this is important to prevent incidental catch. My first time up to the bridge at night was a surprise. Walking up the lit stairs, you open the door to the bridge and the whole area is in darkness with just faint red lights so you can see. After a while your eyes adjust and you make you way to the port or starboard sides of the bridge to start the watch. After you determine that the coast is clear, it is time for the deck crew to start deploying the net. There is big overhead rigging with winches to help lift the net, ropes, chains, and buoys up to lower them down into the water. We drag the net behind the boat for 45 minutes and then haul it in, hopefully full of fish! When the fish are on the boat there is an elaborate process to gather information about the catch.
Catch of the Day
Personal Log
3/21/17
Today is the first day at sea and everyone is busy setting up their labs and calibrating their equipment. The goal of the research is to survey the distributions and abundances of the coastal pelagic fish stocks, their prey, and their biotic and abiotic environment in the California Current Ecosystem. The Reuben Lasker is a state of the art research vessel with many specialized research laboratories.
Coronado Bridge out my window. My State Room
3/22/17
I’m getting used to the 24 hour nature of the expedition. Everyone is assigned a 12 hour shift and I’m working 12 pm to 12 am. During the day I am currently observing the methods and trying to assist where I can. At night there are multiple trawls. 2 to 5 trawl are planned each night. We caught a variety of different organisms, which are weighted, measured for length, and some saved for further studies such as genetic analysis.
3/23/17
Today I woke up to rough seas with waves about 8 feet, which made it very difficult to get moving! As I moved around the ship everyone smiled because we know how each other are feeling. The seas calmed later in the day and everyone felt much better. Looking forward to doing our trawl tonight!
Did You Know?
The King of the Salmon got their name from the Makah people who believed the fish lead salmon to their spawning rivers.
The Argonaut looks like a nautilus, but they are really an octopus in which the female creates an egg case that wraps around the body.
