NOAA Teacher at Sea
Stacey Morris
Aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker
July 26-August 10, 2026
Mission: Integrated West Coast Pelagics Survey
Geographic Area of Cruise: West Coast Pacific Ocean
Date: August 2, 2026
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 42°29.6 ‘N
Longitude: 125°11.9’W
Wind Speed: 27 kts
Air Temperature: 15.8°C
Science and Technology Log
The day before I left for my trip aboard NOAA Reuben Lasker, I received an exciting email from the Teacher at Sea program. I was going to have the opportunity to participate in NOAA’s Adopt-a-Drifter Program, and I would be getting three drifter buoys that I would be releasing along our journey north along the coastline.
A drifting buoy, frequently called a “drifter,” is designed primarily to track sea surface temperatures. They can also capture data on everything from winds and atmospheric pressure to salinity and wave height. As these buoys meander across the ocean, pushed along by currents, their internal sensors beam this information up to satellites circling overhead. By mapping their journey over time, scientists can piece together a detailed profile of how our oceans move.
To ensure it stays on track with the water rather than the wind, a drifter utilizes a “drogue,” which acts as an underwater sea anchor extending down about 20 meters (or 65 feet). This drogue is tethered to the surface float, ensuring they travel in tandem with the near-surface currents. Without that heavy drogue to steady it, a drifter would just be tossed about by the wind and waves, much like a beach ball skittering across the top of a swimming pool.
Drifter information is vital for mapping worldwide ocean currents and eddies, validating satellite readings, and constructing complex weather and climate models. These sensors also help predict where pollutants might travel after a spill, how garbage moves through the ocean, and even help track the path of approaching hurricanes.
This data isn’t just for scientists—the general public and students have full access to it. Through the Global Drifter Program, classes can follow their own adopted buoy or any others in the fleet in near real-time. Students can retrieve and plot coordinates, time stamps, and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) to create their own time series or map their drifter’s journey over a day, a month, or even a full year.
This is why I have this opportunity to be part of this amazing study. It was suggested I personalize the buoys, so I reached out to a local print shop to see about getting Churchill High School stickers made, although I felt it was a long shot due to the short turnaround time. Luckily, QSL Printing saved the day, and all they wanted for compensation was a picture of the buoys covered with their stickers. I was so thankful for their help!
I named the buoys after my two sons and a family friend’s daughter: Otto, Nicolai, and Zoe, respectively. Shaun Dolk at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami let me know that the best location to drop the drifters would be off the coast of Eureka, California. The ship’s chief scientist, Kevin Stierhoff, and I decided that deploying them every ½ hour would give some spacing between buoys, thereby decreasing the chance they would drift together.
We dropped Otto overboard first, and I realized it was a little odd dropping something named after my child into the ocean. He quickly bobbed away into the distance and I hoped that he would have a safe passage to wherever he might end up. Nicolai and Zoe met a similar fate soon after, although Zoe was greeted by whales that were traveling alongside the ship.
The expected/average lifetime of a drifter is around 450 days. Each drifter has a full identifier number, and the IMEI numbers are preprogrammed into each transmitter. The IMEI number is sent as a “signature” within each data message received. With nearly 1300 drifters transmitting every hour, it is essential to differentiate messages and separate them accordingly.
Should you happen to encounter one of these drifting buoys, you should reach out to the Global Drifter Program team with the details displayed on its surface float. In cases where the instrument is still functional and powered, they will coordinate its redeployment to continue its mission. While most of these instruments have a much shorter lifespan, the most resilient drifter ever documented managed to send back signals for an incredible 10 years, 4 months, and 21 days. It’ll be interesting to see how long my kiddos will be afloat!
When the drifters start transmitting, I will share a link with you all to see where they are out in the world!
Personal Log
Switching to working in the evening has been tiring, and it’s sometimes unclear what day it is. I now have pork chops for breakfast, and french toast for dinner which hasn’t been such a bad thing. We’re settling into our daily routine onboard. We haul up three trawls of fish every evening, as weather allows it. We’ve had great weather, and only a couple days of rougher seas. Speaking of which…have you ever used a treadmill on a ship? You don’t need to use the incline function, as you’ll be going up and down with the waves. You definitely need to hang on and it adds an extra work out element to your exercise routine.
Between trawls, the scientists have some downtime and we’ve learned how to felt sea creatures. Here are some examples of their creations:
Felted ray, crab, and jellyfish
Did you Know?
Before we do any trawl for fish, we do a mammal watch 15 minutes before we put the net into the water. The net has a metal grate that is designed to keep any large creatures from entering, but it’s possible for dolphins or sea lions to get entangled in the mesh. We scan the water for any splashing, sounds, or spoutings. It’s difficult to discern in the dark, however.
This year, the science team has acquired infrared binoculars, which helps tremendously. You can see almost as well as daylight viewing, and I was able to see whales that were in the distance very easily. There is also a sonar that can show dolphin echolocation soundings, which also assists crew in checking if they are in the area. We had to cancel a trawl this past week due to dolphins hanging around the ship, even after we tried moving to another area. Last night, a sea lion followed us a bit, but we were able to do our trawl after it lost interest.