chief steward – Page 2 – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

NOAA Teacher At Sea
Liz Harrington
Aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II
August 10 – 25, 2013

Mission : Shark/Red Snapper Bottom Longline
Geographical area of cruise: Western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico
Date: Aug 25 , 2013

Weather: current conditions from the bridge:
Partly Sunny
Lat. 30.15 °N Lon. 88.46 °W
Temp. 80 °F (26.9 °C)
Humidity 82 %
Wind speed 8.26 knots
Barometer 30.08 in (1018.75 mb)
Visibility 10 mi

Science and Career Log

It has been just over two weeks since I boarded the Oregon II. In that time I have had the chance to speak with many people who work aboard the ship. These people are either members of the NOAA Corps, members of the scientific team or civilian mariners employed by NOAA. The NOAA Commissioned Officers Corps is one of the seven uniform services of the United States. Corps graduates operate NOAA’s ships and aircraft and work in positions to support NOAA’s environmental and scientific missions. Their job assignments alternate between sea duty (or air duty if associated with the aviation program) and land duty. It is an interesting career that offers the opportunity to travel as well as to be a participant in NOAA missions.

Of the five ship officers, four are members of the NOAA Corps: the Executive Officer (second in command of the ship) LCDR Eric Johnson, Operations Officer LTJG Matthew Griffin, Navigation Officer Brian Adornato and Junior Officer Rachel Pryor. The Commanding Officer, Master Dave Nelson, is a civilian captain who has spent his life on the water and has worked his way up from a deck hand. All of the ship’s officers are friendly, knowledgeable and professional. I’m in great hands with them in charge.

During some free time away from her NOAA Corps duties, ENS Rachel Pryor would sometimes help the day shift. Here she teaches Micayla how to remove otoliths.

choosing the best course — Officers and Chief Scientists often discuss the best possible course when sites are clustered together.

possible course — One possible route for the day. This may change depending on weather, tide and currents.

The deck crew who worked the day shift with me consisted of the Chief Boatswain Tim Martin and the Skilled Fishermen Chuck Godwin and Mike Conway. They work well together and they were very helpful to me while I was learning the deck routines. The Chief Boatswain (pronounce bō´ sun) supervises members of the deck crew and oversees all deck operations, including safety, training and maintenance.

There are four NOAA scientists onboard, two for each shift. Scientists Lisa Jones and Eric Hoffmayer are both on the night shift with the three volunteers Dave, Al and Muri. The day shift is covered with research biologists Kristin Hannan and Amy Schmitt, along with volunteers Mikayla, Cliff and Daniel. Kristin is the Chief Scientist for this leg of the cruise, so she is in charge of making the decisions dealing with the scientific portion of the cruise. This involves coordination between herself, officers on the bridge (where the ship is being driven) and the deck shift leader. This role is rotated among the some of the scientists. Lisa will be the Chief Scientist for the next leg of the cruise.

Ready to set the line — Kristin and Tim are ready to set the line. They will receive word from the bridge when the ship has reached the correct coordinates.

One important job on this ship that I have to mention is the Chief Steward, which is held by Walter Coghlan. Walter is in charge of feeding everyone on board and he is great at what he does. As a Chief de Cuisine, he is very well trained and it shows in his meals. When living aboard a ship I think the food takes on more importance. It is not easy to keep everyone happy but Walter is doing it. The menu always has a number of choices and the meals are prepared fresh daily. I’m eating like a queen.

Chief Steward Walter Coghlan keeps everyone well fed.

Personal Log

My days aboard the Oregon II are coming to an end. We had been working our way north along the western coast of Florida. Now the fishing has stopped and we are traveling along the panhandle towards the home port of Pascagoula, Mississippi. This morning, far on the horizon, I could just barely make out the rectangular shapes of beachside hotels and condominiums. But the fishing remained good to the end with two different shark species being caught. One was an Angel Shark (genus Squatina), which I’m told is not normally caught on a longline. The other was a Cuban Dogfish(Squalus cubensis), which was the first one caught this season. So, we are ending on a good note. We will now travel to the harbor entrance off the coast of Pascagoula. We will wait until morning and arrive at the dock bright and early.

I have mixed feelings about the going to shore. I’m happy to be going home to see my family and begin school, but I am sorry this experience is coming to an end. I have enjoyed every minute of this trip. Of course it is the people that have made it so rewarding. They have been so friendly and welcoming to me. The science has been very interesting to me as well. I have lots of stories to share and a new interest in sharks. Back at school we’ll be following the sharks with the satellite tags. One part of this experience that I hadn’t put much thought into before coming is the life at sea. Living aboard a ship is a unique experience with the limited amount of space, the 24/7 schedules, the weather and the constant motion of the waves. It bonds the people into a big family, one that I’m going to miss but will be talking about for a long time.

New Term- Dock rock = The sensation the ground is moving after spending time at sea.

David holds an Angel Shark caught on the last haul back. (photo courtesy of David Seay)

Liz with Tile Fish (photo courtesy of Micayla Keipert)

Pale Spotted Eel can be difficult to measure.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — There is lots of life on this piece of coral that was brought up on the line.

door latch — Everything aboard a ship needs to be secured due to the motion of the waves. The doors are secured with a hook like this one.

getting ready for haul back — Getting ready for the haul back – rain or shine. (photo courtesy of Micayla Keipert)

Removing hook — Chuck and Kristin remove a hook from a Sandbar Shark.

"The Day Shift". In back from left: Cliff, Daniel, Kristin and Micayla. Front from left: Liz and Amy. (Photo courtesy of Tim Martin) — “The Day Shift”. In back from left: Cliff, Daniel, Kristin and Micayla. Front from left: Liz and Amy. (Photo courtesy of Tim Martin)

Weighing a shark — Scientists Kristin Hannan and Amy Schmitt prepare to weigh a shark that has been brought up on deck.

Oregon II in Pascagoula. — One last picture before leaving the Oregon II. (photo courtesy of Lisa Jones)

NOAA Teacher At Sea: Elizabeth Warren
Aboard NOAA Ship Pisces

Mission: Reef Fish Surveys
Geographical Area of Cruise: Gulf of Mexico
Date: July, 10 2010

Another day.. more and more

Weather Data from the Bridge:
Temperature: Water: 30.3 ℃ (which is 86.5℉ ) Air: 29.6 ℃
Wind: 2.55 knots
Swell: .2 meters
Location: 27. 51° N, 93.18° W
Weather: Sunny, Humidity 62%, 25% cloud cover

Science/Technology Log:

Each time we drop the camera array at a site attached to the aluminum case is a little device called a Temperature Depth Recorder or a TDR. It measures exactly that. As the camera array sinks to the bottom it records the temperature and depth. When the camera array is brought back on board the ship one of the scientists unclip it and bring it into the lab. To get the information off you hit it once with a magnet that communicates with the chip inside telling it you want to download the information. Then the scientist places a stylus on the device and it downloads the information to the computer. The data is saved under the name of the site and then the information is entered into a spreadsheet that converts the information to the psi to meters. To clear the TDR you hit it four times with the magnet and when it flashes red it is clear! This is a picture of Kevin explaining to Anne Marie and I how to work the TDR.

At every site a CTD is also dropped into the water. A CTD (Conductivity Temperature Recorder) gives a hydrographic (use your Greek roots) profile of the water column. The CTD is attached to the bottom of a rosette or carousel that also contains water sampling bottles. Attached to the rosette is also a conductive wire that sends information to the lab. Mike, the survey technician, comes into the lab after every camera array is dropped and runs the CTD process. The CTD is placed in the water and allowed to acclimate for 3 minutes before they begin taking readings. The CTD is dropped to the bottom of the seafloor and Mike monitors from the dry lab. Also, once a week Mike also uses the water bottles. To take a sample they use a remote from inside the dry lab to trigger the bottles to close them. The thing that kept sticking in my mind is that at one point all of this was done by hand, someone had to do the math and all of these tests!

In the morning Kevin goes through the video footage from the previous day and for each site he identifies what is on the bottom of the seafloor “sandy flat bottom”, “rock shelf” and then he identifies briefly any fish that he sees. When he is doing this process being in the lab is necessary because he will call us over anytime he sees a neat fish and explain how he can tell what the species is. Today, we dropped the camera array in 8 different sites within Bright Bank sites. The two chevron fish traps brought up a whole lot of nothing. On the bandit reel we caught one fish. It was a sand tile fish (Malacanthus pulmieri). Anne-Marie weighed and measured him and then we threw him back. I was really proud of her because she doesn’t really like fish, but she put gloves on and did everything! Today was a little frustrating it even got Kevin a little down.

Personal Log:

Kevin calls living on board being “lovingly incarcerated” beacuse you are stuck here but you are well taken care of. For instance, Ohhh, the food! The Chief Steward, Jessie Stiggins is keeping us well fed. Every morning the meals are posted in the mess for everyone to see. We learned from Captain Jerry that food on the ship is very important and is actually a part of the contract. In the contract it states that lunch and dinner must include a prepared dessert. “Plain cake shall not constitute a prepared dessert but a cake with icing shall.” We have had dessert with every meal! Some of the desserts are Coconut Crème Pie, French Silk Pie, White cake with fluffy whip-cream frosting and strawberries, cookies, and pecan pie to name a few. Plus there is a freezer full of ice cream which oddly enough I haven’t gotten into yet. Right now, I’m in seafood heaven… we have had halibut, calamari, and catfish. Throughout the trip it has just gotten more impressive! We’ve had stuffed chicken breasts, rack of lamb, filet mignon, lobster, a taco bar, the amberjack that Ryan caught, and pulled pork. Jessie is saving the menu’s for us so we can show them off when we get back.

A few nights ago, Captain Jerry let Anne Marie and I drive the ship. He explained that we were driving a 52 million dollar vessel with 30 lives on board, as if I wasn’t nervous already. We were moving to the next days work area so the bridge would be driving there all night. Anne Marie went first and I listened as Captain Jerry and Ensign Kelly Schill explained how to drive and the proper language. Everywhere you go on the ship there is certain etiquette for the way you talk and the way you dress. (No tank tops in the mess and closed toe shoes everywhere but your stateroom.) When you are steering you are following a set course with a gyroscopic compass as well as a digital heading reading, you are steering the rudder by degrees. You state the heading in single digits so 173 would be one seven three. We were driving in the dark so they had all the lights off and they even had red flashlights so they wouldn’t ruin their night vision. Anne Marie and I both got a chance to turn the ship in circles. Anne Marie even did a Williamson turn, which is done when there is a man overboard. You turn 60° to the left and then an equal amount to the other side so you are back on your course but turned around to pick up the person who is overboard. When she was doing this, the ETA to the next way point changed from 6:10 am to NEVER. We both laughed pretty hard! Dynamic Positioning system that is the automatic pilot is called Betty, she talks to the crew on the bridge and is extremely polite. The Captain promised to show us how to turn the DP on and off. Everything on the bridge is electronic. You can click a button and see how much fresh water is on board, how much fuel, which engines are working and even wake someone up! I’m consistently in awe of how much technology goes into running a ship of this magnitude. Tomorrow Chief Engineer Garett is giving us a tour of the engine room. In fact he told me he is going to make us espresso and then take us down! I’m really, really, having a great time!

The water here is so blue! It’s a different shade of blue than the Pacific or Puget Sound. It’s bluer than green that’s the difference, there is no green. Even the seaweed isn’t green it’s a brownish yellow color, it’s called sargassum. The exchange intern Jose used a line and a hook to catch some so I could bring it back to show off. Looking over the side you often spot giant fish swimming along because the visibility is so high. This made me think of a lot of questions to ask Kevin tomorrow: Are there algae/plankton blooms in the Gulf? If so where do they happen? Does the temperature vary depending on the time of year or is it always warm? What do hurricanes do to the sea creatures? Have you noticed a rise or fall after a hurricane?

Being on board a ship makes me feel like I’m 7 years old again and I don’t want to go to bed because I’m sure my parents are making me miss whatever fun thing they are doing at night. I don’t want to go to my stateroom, I wish I could be everywhere at once, on the bridge talking to the Captain and asking questions, listening to the stories of the crew, watching them fish, talking to the birders up on the flying deck, sitting in the lab and listening to the scientists joke or explain how to identify a fish or a coral or an algae. I wish I were able to be out here longer although, I have to say having a shorter cruise does make me appreciate every minute.

Tag: chief steward

Liz Harrington: Good to the End, August 25, 2013

Elizabeth Warren, July 10, 2010

Another day.. more and more