Cecelia Carroll: Back Home, May 16, 2017

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Cecelia Carroll

Aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow

May 2 – 14, 2017

Mission: Spring Bottom Trawl

Geographic Area: Northeastern Atlantic

Date: May 16, 2017

Reflections

With our stations complete, we headed home a bit early on Saturday, and with the approaching nor’easter on Mother’s Day, it was probably a good decision.  I thoroughly enjoyed my experience and value the efforts, hard-work, professionalism and teamwork that make an undertaking of such enormity a valued and fun endeavor.  The camaraderie of the team will be forever cherished.

We came back through the Cape Cod Canal late in the evening, on our return to Newport, RI.  We spotted joggers with head lamps running along the path of the canal. Perhaps a local road race?

It was interesting feeling in my kitchen rocking and rolling all day Sunday …. dock rock or kitchen rock???  That was a fun sensation!!

It was nice to see my students this morning, Monday, all welcoming me home and curious about my trip.  On Sunday, I had prepared a slide-show of many of my photos and projected my blog on the “Smartboard” to share with my classes.  They had a wide range of questions from what did I eat, was I seasick, what fish did we catch, did you dissect any fish, did you see any whales, how old do you have to be to go out on the ship, to what will the scientists do with the samples that were saved. They were impressed with my pictures of the goosefish, (who wouldn’t be impressed with such a fish!) and laughed at how the scientist I worked closely with nicknamed me a “Fish Wrangler” as I had caught, in midair,  some slippery, squirming, flip-flopping Red Fish as they had managed an attempted escape off the scale when a big wave hit.  I’ll wear that tag with pride!

Thank you to NOAA and their staff that prepared me for the journey.  Thank you to all the wonderful people I met on the ship.  A “Teacher at Sea” is a monicker of which I will be always proud … as well as “Fish Wrangler!”

Some Photos

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This lobster is regenerating a new claw!! Amazing!

 

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Mike deciding which species of fish we will run on the conveyor ( let go to the end of the conveyor belt without sorting manually straight into a basket )

 

 

 

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