copepods – Page 2 – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

April 10, 2014August 20, 2021

Kimberly Gogan: A Ship Full of Science! April 9, 2014

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kim Gogan
Aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter
April 7 – May 1, 2014

Mission: AMAPPS & Turtle Abundance Survey, Ecosystem Monitoring
Geographical area of cruise: North Atlantic Ocean
Date: Wednesday, April 9th

Weather Data from the Bridge
Air Temp: 5.5 Degrees Celsius
Wind Speed: 9.0 Knots
Water Temp: 4.6 Degrees Celsius
ater Depth: 41.2 Meters

The Science Teams (Photo Credit to Mark Weekley) — The Science Teams – Photo by Mark Weekly

Science and Technology Log

If Science at Sea is what I wanted, this is the ship for it! The evening of our departure from Newport, R.I. on Monday, April 7th, the group of scientists met in the staff lounge for a meeting of the minds. I soon found out that there was an array of scientist on the ship all with different goals and science they wanted to conduct. On this ship we have two teams of Oceanographers, a day team and a night team. The Oceanographers are generally taking underwater tests and samples using a variety of equipment. We also have the Marine Mammal Observer Team who are on the look out for any sort of mammals that may poke head out of the water such as whales and dolphins.

There is also a group of Birders collecting data on any bird sightings. And lastly we have our Acoustics, or sound team, that is listening for the sounds of marine mammals. I also learned at that meeting that it would take a lot of teamwork and collaboration on the part of each of the Scientist crews, as well as the NOAA Corps and crew to make it all happen.

Every day the representatives from each team have to get together to coordinate the timing of each of the events that will happen throughout the day. The Mammal and Birding Observer teams are on the same schedule and can collect sighting data throughout the day from 7 AM to 7 PM, only stopping for lunch, as they need daylight to conduct their work. The daytime Oceanographers plan their work of collecting samples around the observer teams, sending off their collection equipment before 7AM, at lunch, and then again at 7PM when the observers teams are done. The nighttime Oceanographers are not working during the same time as other scientists so this gives them the opportunity to to do as many test and collections as they can without interrupting anyone else’s work. The Acoustic team can work anytime of day or during any kind of weather without conflicting with anyone as long as the water is deep enough to drop their equipment. It sounds like an easy schedule but there are many things, like weather, technology and location, that could disrupt this carefully orchestrated schedule of science. When that happens, and it has, everyone must be flexible and work together to make sure everyone can conduct the science they need.

Me helping to bring the Bongo net back onto the ship for cleaning. (Photo credit Chris) — Me helping to bring the Bongo net back onto the ship for cleaning. – Photo by Chris Tremblay

Jerry Prezioso tying the bottom of the Bongo nets getting them really to be put in the water. — Scientist Jerry Prezioso tying the bottom of the Bong nets getting them really to be put in the water.

Science Spotlight

Since there is so much science happening on the ship that I am doing every day, I am going to have to share just one thing at a time or I would be writing for hours! Today’s science spotlight is about scientist Jerry Prezioso and the Bongo nets. Jerry is an Oceanographer who works at the NOAA Lab in Narragansett, R.I. Jerry primarily studies plankton distribution. He has been on many trips on NOAA ships since he was 18!

Today Jerry taught me how to do a Bongo net sample that is used to collect plankton from the various water columns. At the top of the net there is a piece of equipment called a CTD (Conductivity Temperature & Depth Unit) that communicates with the computers in the lab on the ship. The scientists in the lab use that piece of equipment to detect how far down the net is going and when it is close to the bottom, as well as collect data on the water temperature and salinity.

Once the CTD is set and turned on, the Bongo net can be lowered into the water. The nets have weights on them to sink them close to the bottom. Once the nets are close a scientist at the computer has the cable operator pull the nets up and out of the water. Once they are on deck they have to be washed down so all the organisms that were caught in the netting go to the cod end of the nets. The cod ends of the nets are opened up and the organisms are rinsed into a sieve where they will carefully be transferred into glass bottles, treated with formaldehyde and sent to a lab for sorting. There were lots of organisms that were caught in the net. Some that we saw today were: Copepods, Comb Jellies or Ctenophora, Herring Larva, aquatic Arrow Worms or Chaetognaths and tons of Phytoplankton and Zooplankton. The Bongo nets are towed several times a day and night to collect samples of plankton.

Jerry Prezioso and I washing down the Bongo Nets. – Photo by Chris Tremblay.

A shot of some of the creatures we caught being filtered into sampling jars for processing.

Personal Log

The start to the trip has been a little rough. It feels like this is the first day we have been able to do anything. Monday we had to sit in port and wait for a scientist to calibrate some equipment before we left so we didn’t get underway until bed time. When we awoke, the weather was bad and the seas were very rough. Several people were very sick and some still are. We were only able to drop one piece of acoustic equipment all day (more on that in another blog). We also had to change the plans on where we were going and move closer to shore due to the weather.

On a ship you need to be very flexible as things are changing all the time! Today was the the first day we were able to do any real science for a sustained amount of time and there were definitely lots of bugs and kinks that needed to be worked out. On top of dropping the BONGO nets with Jerry, I was also able to spend some time and fill in some shifts on the the decks with the Marine Mammal team watching for whales and dolphins. We had a few cool sighting of Humpbacks, Minke, and a Right Whales! (More on them and what they do in another blog too.) On another note, the state rooms are huge and I am sharing a room with one of the acoustic scientists, Genevieve. She is very nice and helpful. The food on the ship is spectacular! I am very surprised how good it is and how many choices there are every meal. All and all things are off to a good start and there is so much more I have to share with everyone about what all these scientist do and it is only our first “real” day!

Did You Know?

Did you know that North Atlantic Right Whales have a V- shaped blow. Their blow holes (two) are separated which gives them the characteristic blow shape.

Check out this link to the website at Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Protected Species Branch (NEFSC PSB) Right Whale Team and the work we do there. There is an interactive Google map site and wonderful links.

Boarding the NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter in Newport, R.I.

September 16, 2013August 20, 2021

Britta Culbertson: The Beat of the Bongo (Part 2) – Catching Zooplankton, September 12, 2013

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Britta Culbertson
Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson
September 4-19, 2013

Mission: Juvenile Walley Pollock and Forage Fish Survey
Geographical Area of Cruise: Gulf of Alaska
Date: Wednesday, September 12th, 2013

Weather Data from the Bridge (for Sept 12^th, 2013 at 9:57 PM UTC):
Wind Speed: 23.05 kts
Air Temperature: 11.10 degrees C
Relative Humidity: 93%
Barometric Pressure: 1012.30 mb
Latitude: 58.73 N Longitude: 151.13 W

Science and Technology Log

We have been seeing a lot of humpback whales lately on the cruise. Humpback whales can weigh anywhere from 25-40 tons, are up to 60 feet in length, and consume tiny crustaceans, plankton, and small fish. They can consume up to 3,000 pounds of these tiny creatures per day (Source: NOAA Fisheries). Humpback whales are filter feeders and they filter these small organisms through baleen. Baleen is made out of hard, flexible material and is rooted in the whale’s upper jaw. The baleen is like a comb and allows the whale to filter plankton and small fish out of the water.

Baleen — This whale baleen is used for filter feeding. It’s like a small comb and helps to filter zooplankton out of the water. (Photo credit: NOAA)

I’ve always wondered how whales can eat that much plankton! Three thousand pounds is a lot of plankton. I guess I felt that way because I had never seen plankton in real-life and I didn’t have a concept of how abundant plankton is in the ocean. Now that I’m exposed to zooplankton every day, I’m beginning to get a sense of the diversity and abundance of zooplantkon.

In my last blog entry I explained how we use the bongo nets to capture zooplankton. In this entry, I’ll describe some of the species that we find when clean out the codends of the net. As you will see, there are a wide variety of zooplankton and though the actual abundance of zooplankton will not be measured until later, it is interesting to see how much we capture with nets that have 20 cm and 60 cm mouths and are towed for only 5-10 minutes at each location. Whales have much larger mouths and feed for much longer than 10 minutes a day!

Cleaning the codends is fairly simple; we spray them down with a saltwater hose in the wet lab and dump the contents through a sieve with the same mesh size as the bongo net where the codend was attached. The only time that this proves challenging is if there is a lot of algae, which clogs up the mesh and makes it hard to rinse the sample. Also, the crab larvae that we find tend to hook their little legs into the sieve and resist being washed out. Below are two images of 500 micrometer sieves with zooplankton in them.

Crab larvae (megalopae) that we emptied out of the codend.

Some of the species of zooplankton we are finding include different types of:

Megalopae (crab larvae)
Amphipods
Euphausiid (krill)
Chaetognaths
Pteropods (shelled: Limasina and shell-less: Clione)
Copepods (Calanus spp., Neocalanus spp., and Metridea spp.)
Larval fish
Jellyfish
Ctenophores

The other day we had a sieve full of ctenophores, which are sometimes known as comb jellies because they possess rows of cilia down their sides. The cilia are used to propel the ctenophores through the water. Some ctenophores are bioluminescent. Ctenophores are voracious predators, but lack stinging cells like jellyfish and corals. Instead they possess sticky cells that they use to trap predators (Source: UC Berkeley). Below is a picture of our 500 micrometer sieve full of ctenophores and below that is a close-up photo of a ctenophore.

It’s fun to compare what we find in the bongo nets to the type of organisms we find in the trawl at the same station. We were curious about what some of the fish we were eating, so we dissected two of the Silver Salmon that we had found and in one of them, the stomach contents were entirely crab larvae! In another salmon that we dissected from a later haul, the stomach contents included a whole capelin fish.

Juvenile pollock are indiscriminate zooplanktivores. That means that they will eat anything, but they prefer copepods and euphausiids, which have a high lipid (fat) content. Once the pollock get to be about 100 mm or greater in size, they switch from being zooplanktivores to being piscivorous. Piscivorous means “fish eater.” I was surprised to hear that pollock sometimes eat each other. Older pollock still eat zooplankton, but they are cannibalistic as well. Age one pollock will eat age zero pollock (those that haven’t had a first birthday yet), but the bigger threat to age zero pollock is the 2 year old and older cohorts of pollock. Age zeros will eat small pollock larvae if they can find them. Age zero pollock are also food for adult Pacific Cod and adult Arrowtooth Flounder. Older pollock, Pacific Cod, and Arrowtooth Flounder are the most voracious predators of age 0 pollock. Recently, in the Gulf of Alaska, Arrowtooth Flounder have increased in biomass (amount of biological material) and this has put a lot of pressure on the pollock population. Scientists are not yet sure why the biomass of Arrowtooth Flounder is increasing. (Source: Janet Duffy-Anderson – Chief Scientist aboard the Dyson and Alaska Fisheries Science Center).

The magnified images below, which I found online, are the same or similar to some of the species of zooplankton we have been catching in our bongo nets. Click on the images for more details.

A chaetognath found in the Bering Sea. (Photo credit: Dave Forcucci, NOAA)

A type of euphausiid called Thysanoessa raschii. (Photo credit: WoRMS Database)

Dungeness crab megalopa (larval form). Photo credit: Liz Leavens, Padilla Bay NERR

A type of naked or shell-less pteropod called an “ice snail”. (Photo credit: Kevin Raskoff, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration)

A type of copepod called Calanus. (Photocredit: Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

Limacina helicina, a type of shelled pteropod. (Photo credit: Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

Neocalanus critatus – a type of copepod found in the Gulf of Alaska. (Photocredit: Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

A type of amphipod found in the cold waters around Alaska. (Photo credit: Russ Hopcroft, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration)

Metridia pacifica – a type of copepod found the Gulf of Alaska. (Photo credit: Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

Personal Log (morning of September 14, 2013)

I’m thankful that last night we had calm seas and I was able to get a full eight hours of sleep without feeling like I was going to be thrown from my bed. This morning we are headed toward the Kenai Peninsula, so I’m excited that we might get to see some amazing views of the Alaskan landscape. The weather looks like it will improve and the winds have died down to about 14 knots this morning. Last night’s shift caught an octopus in their trawl net; so hopefully, we will find something more interesting than just kelp and jellyfish in our trawls today.

Did You Know?

I mentioned that we had found some different types of pteropods in our bongo nets. Pteropods are a main food source for North Pacific juvenile salmon and are eaten by many marine organisms from krill to whales. There are two main varieties of pteropods; there are those with shells and those without. Pteropods are sometimes called sea butterflies.

Unfortunately, shelled pteropods are very susceptible to ocean acidification. Scientists conducted an experiment in which they placed shelled pteropods in seawater with pH and carbonate levels that are projected for the year 2100. In the image below, you can see that the shell dissolved slowly after 45 days. If pteropods are at the bottom of the food chain, think of the implications of the loss of pteropods for the organisms that eat them!

Read more about ocean acidification on the NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) website. Also, check out this press release from November 2012 by the British Antarctic Survey about the first evidence of ocean acidification affecting marine life in the Southern Ocean.

Teacher’s Corner

In my last blog entry on the bongo, I talked about using the “frying pan” or clinometer to measure wire angle. If you’re interested in other applications of clinometers, there are instructions for making homemade clinometers here and there’s also a lesson plan from National Ocean Services Education about geographic positioning and the use of clinometers this website.

If you are interested in teaching your students about different types of plankton, here is a Plankton Wars lesson plan from NOAA and the Southeast Phytoplankton Monitoring Network, which helps students to understand how plankton stay afloat and how surface area plays a role in plankton survival.

If you would like to show your students time series visualizations of phytoplankton and zooplankton, go to NOAA’s COPEPODite website.

Zooplankton time series visualization from the COPEPODite website.

For more plankton visualizations and data, check out NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service website.

If you are interested in having your students learn more about ocean acidification, there is a great ocean acidification module developed for the NOAA Ocean Data Education Project on the Data in the Classroom website.

May 19, 2013August 11, 2021

Emilisa Saunders: Finding the rhythm aboard the Oregon II, May18, 2013

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Emilisa Saunders

Aboard NOAA ship Oregon II

May 14, 2013 – May 30 2013

Mission: SEAMAP Spring Plankton Survey

Geographical Area of Cruise: Gulf of Mexico

Date: May 18, 2013

Weather Data: Wind Speed: 13.94 knots; Surface water temperature: 25.4; Air temperature: 26.4; Relative humidity: 87%; Barometric pressure: 1,015.33 mb

Science and Technology Log:

For the scientists on board the Oregon II, each shift follows roughly the same routine. When we start our shift, we check in at the dry lab to see how much time we have until the next sampling station. These stations are points on the map of the Gulf of Mexico; they were chosen to provide the best coverage of the Gulf waters. Our ETA, or estimated time of arrival, is determined by how fast the ship is moving, which is influenced by wind and currents, which you can see in the map below. A monitor mounted in the dry lab shows us a feed of the route mapping system that is used by the crew on the Bridge to drive the ship. This system allows us to see where we are, where we are headed, and what our ETA is for the next station. We also get warnings from the Bridge at one hour, at thirty minutes, and at ten minutes before arrival.

Gulf Currents — The currents in the Gulf of Mexico, plus our planned route. Image courtesy of NOAA.

At the 10-minute mark, we put on our protective gear – more on that later in this post – and bring the cod ends up to the bow of the boat, where we attach them to the ends of the appropriate nets. Then, we drop the Bongo nets, the regular Neuston net, the Sub-surface Neuston net, and the CTD into the water, in that order. These all go down one at a time, and each one is pulled out and the samples collected before the next net goes in.

Towing the Neuston net on the night shift

The idea of dropping a net into the water probably sounds pretty simple, but it is actually a multiple-step process that requires excellent teamwork and communication amongst several of the ship’s teams. The scientists ready the nets by attaching cod ends and making note of the data that tracks the flow of water through the net. Because the nets are large and heavy, and because of the strong pressure of the water flowing through the nets, they are lifted into the water using winches that are operated by the ship’s crew. The crew members operate the machinery, and guide the nets over the side of the ship. While this is happening, the crew members communicate by radio with the Bridge, providing them with information about the angle of the cable that is attached to the net, so that the Bridge can maintain the a speed that will keep the net at the correct angle. At the same time, a scientist in the dry lab monitors how deep the net is and communicates with the deck crew about when to raise and lower the nets. This communication takes place mostly over walkie-talkies, which means that clear and precise instructions and feedback are very important.

Operating the winches — Crewmember Reggie operating the winch, while crewmember Chris measures the angle of the cable

When each net is pulled back out of the water after roughly 5-10 minutes, we use a hose to spray any little creatures who might be clinging to the net, down into the cod end. At stations where we run the MOCNESS, we head to the stern of the ship, where the huge MOCNESS unit rests on a frame. Lowering the MOCNESS takes a strong team effort, since it is so large. After we retrieve each net, we detach the cod ends and bring them to the stern, where a station is set up for us to preserve the specimens. I’ll go into more detail about the process of preserving plankton samples in a later post.

Hosing down the nets — Alonzo, hosing down the Bongo nets before bringing them aboard.

We’ve had a couple of nights of collecting now, and so far it has been completely fascinating. I’m in awe of the variety of organisms that we’ve come across. The scientists on my shift, Glenn and Alonzo, are super knowledgeable and have been very helpful in explaining to me what we are finding in the nets. Although this is a Bluefin Tuna study, we collect and preserve any plankton that ends up in the nets, which can include copepods, myctophids, jellies, filefish larvae and eel larvae, to name a few. When we get the samples back to shore, they will be sent to a lab in Poland, where the species will be sorted and counted; then, the tuna larvae will be sent back to labs in Mississippi or Florida for further study and sometimes genetic testing.

My favorite creature find so far has been the pyrosome. While a pyrosome looks like a single, strange creature, it is actually a colony of tiny creatures called zooids that live together in a tube-shaped structure called a tunic. The tunic feels similar to cartilage, like the upper part of your ear. Pyrosomes are filter feeders, which means they draw in water from one opening, eat the phytoplankton that passes through, and push out the clean water from the other end. So far on the night shift, we’ve found two pyrosomes about four inches in length and one that was about a foot long; the day crew found one that filled two five-gallon buckets!

Alonzo and the pyrosome — Alonzo holding the pyrosome

Challenge Yourself:

Hello, Nature Exchange Traders! Pick one of the of the zooplankton listed in bold above, and research some facts about it: Where does it live? What does it eat? What eats it? Write down what you find out and bring it in to the Nature Exchange for bonus points. Be sure to tell them Emmi sent you!

Gumby Suit — In the Gumby suit, practicing the Abandon Ship drill. Photo by Glenn Zapfe

Personal Log:

Safety is the top priority on board the Oregon II. We wouldn’t be able to accomplish any of our scientific goals if people got hurt and equipment got damaged. We started our first day at sea with three safety drills: the Man Overboard drill, the Abandon Ship drill and the Escape Hatch drill. For Man Overboard, everyone on board gathered, or mustered, at specific locations; for the Science team, our location was at the stern, or back of the ship. Aft is another word for the back. From there, we all scanned the water for the imaginary person while members of the crew lowered a rescue boat into the water and circled the Oregon II to practice the rescue.

For the Abandon Ship drill, we all grabbed our floatation devices and survival suits from our staterooms and mustered toward the bow, or front of the ship. I got to practice putting on the survival suit, which is affectionately called a Gumby suit. In the unlikely event that we would ever have to abandon ship, the suit would help us float and stay relatively warm and dry; it also includes a whistle and a strobe light so that aircraft overhead can see us in the water.

For the Escape Hatch drill, we all gathered below deck where our staterooms are, and climbed a ladder, where crew members helped pull us up onto the weather deck (the area of the ship exposed to weather) on the bow of the ship. This is meant to show us how to escape dangers such as fire or flood below deck.

Safety gear on; ready for station! Photo by Glenn Zapfe

But safety isn’t just practiced during drills; it’s pretty much a way of life on the ship. Whenever winches or other machinery are in operation, we all have to wear hard hats and life jackets; that means that we wear them every time we reach a station and drop the nets. We are also all required to wear closed-toed and closed-heeled shoes at all times, unless we’re sleeping or showering. Another small safety trick that is helpful is the idea of, “keep one hand for yourself and one hand for the ship.” That means we carry gear in one hand and leave one free to hold onto the swaying ship. This has been really useful for me as I get used to the ship’s movements.

Until next time, everyone – don’t forget to track the Oregon II here: NOAA Ship Tracker

May 8, 2013August 11, 2021

Frank Hubacz: Ice in the Bering Sea, May 7, 2013

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Frank Hubacz
Aboard NOAA ship Oscar Dyson
April 29 – May 10, 2013

Mission: Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Mooring Deployment and Recovery
Geographical Area of Cruise: Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea
Date: May 7, 2013

Weather Data from the Bridge (0500):
N wind 10 to 25kt. Partly cloudy.
Air Temperature 0.8C
Relative Humidity 90%
Barometer 1019.80 mb
Surface Water Temperature 2.30 C
Surface Water Salinity 31.96 PSU
Seas 4 to 9ft

Science and Technology Log

Remember that in my last blog you were left with a question…

If you still have not guessed what this is then here is a hint…

You are correct! This is a Marine Assessment Monitoring and Prediction (MARMAP) Bongo tow with two 20cm and two 60 cm ring openings! The 60 cm ring has a 500µm mesh net and the 20 cm ring has a 150µm. I knew that most of you would guess the correct answer. These nets are towed through the ocean to collect zooplankton samples. Plankton are important members of the ocean food web converting energy from the primary producer level into a form that is useable by animals in the upper levels of the marine food web. The word plankton is derived from the Greek word planktos, which means wandering. Plankton drift, or swim weakly, traveling wherever the ocean takes them. Phytoplankton are able to produce their own food (autotrophic), as the name suggests, via the process of photosynthesis. Zooplankton are heterotrophic and eat the primary producers in the ocean food web, the phytoplankton. Zooplankton are the most numerous consumers in the entire ocean with nearly every major animal group being represented. The most abundant, accounting for 70% of individuals, are copepods (crustaceans). You are all probably most familiar with the organism within this group known as krill. They are very abundant in the waters of the Arctic.

These shrimp-like marine organisms grow no larger than 4 to 6 cm and serve as food for baleen whales, penguins, seals, fish, sea birds, and many other predators. 80(+) species of krill have been identified in oceans around the world. Their habitats range from abyssal depths (5,000 m) to near shore kelp beds (10 m), and from warm tropical seas to the freezing Antarctic Ocean. (http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02quest/background/krill/krill.html)

Marine scientist use bongo nets to catch these small creatures and study them. The net size is selected to catch zooplankton as opposed to smaller phytoplankton. The bongo net has a flow meter installed in each net to calculate the volume of water sampled. Plankton tows can be done at any depth or time of day and the samples are caught in a small rigid container, the codend.

Cod-end of Bongo tow net — Codend of Bongo net where the sample is collected

Our night shift deploying our Bongo net — Our night shift readying our Bongo net

Deploying the Bongo net in dark icy waters of the Bering Sea

Matt washing the contents of the codend into a straining sieve

The Bongo tow used on this cruise also has attached an SBE-19 SEACAT system which measures salinity, depth, and temperature.

SEACAT System attached to Bongo tow — SEACAT System (on right) attached to Bongo tow

Additionally deployed on this cruise were drogue drifters. Drogue drifters help determine the flow of ocean currents using a sort of “message in a bottle” approach, the drogue drifter, which is connected to a surface buoy. The buoy communicates its location to an ARGOS satellite system producing a map of its path. The drogue portion is really a “holey-sock” that flows below the surface to indicate subsurface ocean currents.

: Bill preparing the drogue drifter for launch

: Drogue drifter entering the water with attached satellite buoy

Overnight on the 7th we turned north-north-west hoping to sample water near the edge of the ice sheet. We found ice much earlier than hoped and at approximately 0630 a decision was made that we could travel no further! Upon collecting a sample at this station we turned south to sample along the 70 meter line for several miles.

Ice flow...picture taken at 0300 — Ice flow…picture taken at 0300

Ice as seen from the bridge(Photo courtesy of Matt Wilson)

Saying good bye to the ice!(Photo courtesy of Matt Wilson)

Personal Log

Sampling continues around the clock now that all of the moorings have been deployed. I continue to collect nutrient samples from each CTD launch, usually 5 to 7 per draw, assist with washing the Bongo nets, and helping wherever I can . Our midnight to noon shift goes by quickly. After my shift I have been relaxing by reading and then going to bed by 0300 before waking at 2300. Now that we are heading south our satellite “issues” have been resolved and so the internet works great. Keep those questions coming.

We had an abandon ship drill today and I finally was able to “slip” into my Survivor Suit! You will get to meet the science crew in my next blog!

Arriving at the WRONG station! — Arriving at the WRONG life boat station! (Port is left)

March 26, 2012August 11, 2021

Jennifer Fry: March 17, 2012, Oscar Elton Sette

: These crustaceans are sorting into a tray then measured for length (mm), volume (ml), and mass (g).

Mission: Fisheries Study
Geographical area of cruise: American Samoa
Date: March 17, 2012

Pago Pago, American Samoa

Cobb Trawl Day 6

Location: Wet Lab

Poetry into the Wee Hours of the Night

Here’s the data from Cobb Trawl Day: 6.1 Total mass of trawl: 490 g

Name of fish:	Numbers Count	Volume (milliliters)	Mass (grams)
Myctophids	124	140	150
Non-Myctophids	58	80	75
Crustaceans	14	negl	negl
Cephalopods:	10	30	30
Gelatinous zooplankton	59	104	100
Misc. zooplankton	n/a	60	97

Animals seen:

Lizard fish

Light fish

Mantis shrimp

Ctenophore/ comb jellies

Stomatopod

This coronet fish, in its larval form, was found in the Cobb trawl net.

The snipe eel is one the longer fish we caught measuring 150 mm.

sorting fish caught in trawl nets — Scientists sort the nightly catch after each Cobb trawl. Trays are used to divide into each catagory: myctophids, non-myctophids, crustaceans, cephalopods, gelatinous zooplankton, and misc. zooplankton

Cob Trawl Day 6.2 :Total Mass 1035 g

Name of fish:	Numbers Count	Volume (milliliters)	Mass (grams)
Myctophids	385	300	232
Non-Myctophids	51	60	70
Crustaceans	17	6	7
Cephalopods:	32	26	55
Gelatinous zooplankton	122	400	405
Misc. zooplankton	n/a	240	225

Animals seen:

Trumpet / coronet fish

Snip eel

Salps

Balloon squid

Fulmar bird

This fulmer bird landed on the deck of the ship during nighttime Cobb net trawling.

Poetry into the Wee Hours of the Night: A collaborative effort:

“The Cobb Trawl Net” / With my week nearly over working on the Cobb Trawl Net, I asked the scientists to join me in writing some scientific poetry about the operation. The Cobb Trawl Net operation is overseen by John Denton and Aimee Hoover. The net is brought out of the water twice during the wee hours of the night, using a large noisy winch which certainly disturbs the slumber of those light-sleepers on the ship. Coinciding with the Cobb Trawl Net activities are nightly Plankton Tows.

“I Wander Lonely as a Plankton” and “Plankton Mother” honor the various types of plankton and microplastics that Emily Norton and Louise Giuseffi are studying. We have been towing in different regions of American Samoan seas. One area is called 2% Bank. The other banks are called Northwest Bank and Southbank.

“Myctohpids” / Since most of the bio-mass of the ocean is taken up by the little myctohpid fish, they are represented with an acrostic poem. The poems show a passion for science and the research being conducted here in American Samoa. I truly thank these scientists, John, Aimee, Emily, and Louise for their teachings, patience, and sheer enthusiasm for their scientific projects.

The Cobb Trawl Net

inspired by” The Fog” by Carl Sandberg

The trawl net comes in on thundering howl

The great black maw

Grinding and snarling brings in its folded catch,

The ocean’s toothy offering from the liquid, teeming abyss.

I Wander Lonely as a Plankton

Inspired by “I Wander Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth

I wander lonely as a copepod

That floats high and low in the sapphire blue water column ofAmerican Samoa

When all at once I saw a school

A host of dog tooth tuna

Along the 2% Bank

Beneath the NOAA ship OscarElton Sette

Thunniform undulation and escaping through the gently rolling waves.

Plankton Mother

Meticulously, she guards her catch

A treasure trove of tiny beasts

Carefully each dish is filled for observation.

Peering through the powerful microscope the

Blinking, pulsing Cephalopods, the cobalt Copepods, and spiral, conical Pteropods

So fragile to the touch

Tweezers carefully coax each delicate specimen into position

Checking for morphological traits

Does it have…

…Mysterious dark organ on its tiny body?

…Pointy sword-like structure on its rostrum?

The newly found charge is preserved in a viscous solution

Our link to plankton’s DNA

transcriptome: all our DNA used to make proteins,

the building blocks of life

life’s basic units for construction

Myctophids

Multitudes of photophores, cup-shaped light emitting organs of epidermal origin. Many many millions of blinking dots

Yellow irises look with dreamy eyes like a glazed over donut.

Clues to many different species found in the mesopelagic layer of the deep, ebony ocean.

The ctenoid scales possessing sharp, spiky spines

Out of the obsidian shoots the silver sprites, the beautiful slender fish

Prickly long-tailed myctophids with their stern-chasers, supracaudal/infracaudal luminous organs

Hungry for krill, small crustaceans, copepods and other planktonic creatures

Iridescent

Densly packed balls of gleaming, pulsing Actinopterygians A.K.A. Actinops

Schooling, synchronistic swimmers, tiny voices of light circumgloabally distributed around the world, cosmopolites.

A collaboration by:

John Denton, Emily Norton, Aimee Hoover, Megan Duncan, Louise Guiseffi, and Jennifer Fry