NOAA Teacher at Sea
Phil Moorhouse
Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson
August 27 – September 15, 2019
Mission: Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations.
Geographic Area of Cruise: Gulf of Alaska (Kodiak – Aleutian Islands)
Date: August 27, 2019
Personal Introduction:
OK, this may be the science geek in me, but I’m feeling a bit like Leonard from Big Bang Theory when he was invited on Stephen Hawking’s expedition to the North Sea. My excitement has been simmering as I made it through what I thought was going to be an expedition to the Caribbean coral reefs – only to have it cancelled due to ship engine problems. Luckily, I was rescheduled for a different expedition; this time off the coast of Alaska.
There was a silver lining to having the first trip cancelled. In its place, I was able to join with fellow science teachers and Chesapeake Bay Foundation staff for a week studying the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the effects of global warming and erosion on Tangier Island. It was interesting getting a taste of the scientific research done while taking samples and measuring water quality of both the James River and the Chesapeake Bay near Tangier Island for comparison. The environmental challenges facing Tangier Island and the Chesapeake Bay are similar to the challenges facing other places. Now I am anxious to head the other direction to the seas of Alaska to do some real scientific work aboard the Oscar Dyson!
Striped Burrfish 
Blue Crab
Striped Burrfish – a native of the Chesapeake Bay, a bottom-dweller found in the grassbeds eating invertebrates such as hermit crabs and barnacles.
Blue Crab – living in the grass beds of the bay, they are an important economic species of the Chesapeake Bay as well as an important key to the reading the health of the bay. (and very tasty!)
Tangier Waterman 
Tangier Island
Tangier waterman out checking crab pots. 35% of the blue crabs caught in the United States come from the Chesapeake Bay.
Tangier Island has shrank by 66% since 1850 and could completely disappear by the end of this century.
Science Introduction
The research team on NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson is conducting an acoustic-trawl (AT) survey to collect data, primarily on walleye pollock, to be used in stock assessment models for determining commercial fisheries quotas. When collecting data, scientists will work in 12 hour shifts and be looking to determine things such as species composition, age, length distribution etc.
Photo credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Growing up as a farm boy in Kansas, I never dreamed I would have a chance to spend two weeks on a research ship in the middle of the ocean exploring a part of our world that we really know little about. In teaching my students about the importance of learning about the world around us and taking care of this rock we live on, I find it ironic how we know more about space than we do about our oceans. I myself spent a 20-year career in the Army that took me to numerous parts of the world, but my experience with the oceans has been limited to time at the beach, paddling or snorkeling close to the shore, or researching on land.
This is one of the reasons I am so excited about being selected for this specific expedition. I have joined the concerns of many scientists where it comes to the receding of our glaciers and icebergs and what this means to our Earth as a whole. The health of our oceans is so important to the health of our earth as a whole. and yet we are just now realizing how our species has created such havoc to the ocean ecosystems. I can’t wait to bring back everything I learn from this trip to share with my students.