Tag: Delaware II

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Jessie Soder: Drag It Along, Dump It Out, Count ‘Em Up, August 14, 2011

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Jessie Soder
Aboard NOAA Ship Delaware II
August 8 – 19, 2011 

Mission: Atlantic Surfclam and Ocean Quahog Survey
Geographical Area of Cruise:  Northern Atlantic
Date: Wednesday, August 14, 2011 

Weather Data
Time:  16:00
Location:  41°47N, 67°47W
Air Temp:  18°C  (64°F)
Water Temp:  16.5°C  (62°F)
Wind Direction:  SE
Wind Speed:  6 knots
Sea Wave height:  0
Sea Swell:  0

Science and Technology Log

A fellow volunteer, Rebecca, and myself measuring clams

When I found out that the Teacher at Sea trip that I would be on was a clam survey, I thought, “Oh, clams.  I see those on the beach all the time.  No problem.”  I learned that the clams are collected using a hydraulic dredge.  I knew  that a dredge was something that you dragged along the bottom of the ocean.  That seemed simple enough.  Drag it along, dump it out, count ‘em up, and you’re done.

Quickly, I learned that this project is not that simple!  A few questions came to mind after we had done a couple of tows:  How many people are needed to conduct one tow for clams and quahogs? (operate the machinery, the ship, sort through a tow, collect the data, etc.)  How many different jobs are there during one tow?

Sorting through contents of a dredge

Those questions are hard to answer, and I don’t have a precise answer.  What I have learned is that it takes a lot of people and everyone that is involved has a job that is important.  I asked the Chief Scientist, Victor Nordahl, how many people he preferred to have on a science team per watch.   He told me that it is ideal to have six people dedicated to working on sorting the contents of the dredge, processing the catch, and collecting data per watch.  Additionally, he likes to have one “floater,” who can be available to help during each watch.  This seems like a lot of people, but, when there is a big catch this number of people makes the work much more manageable.  There are six people, including myself, on my watch.  Four of us are volunteers.

Each time the dredge is lowered, pulled along the ocean floor, and then brought back onto the ship it is called an “event.”  In my last post I included a video of the dredge being hauled up onto the deck of the ship after it had been pulled along the bottom.  An entire tow, or “event,” is no small feat!  During my watch Rick operates the machinery that raises and lowers the dredge.  (Don’t forget the dredge weighs 2500 pounds!)

There are also two people working on deck that assist him.  (You can see them in the video from my last post.  They are wearing hard hats and life vests.)  Additionally, an officer on the bridge needs to be operating and navigating the ship during the entire event.  There are specific times where they must speed up, slow down, and stop the ship during a tow.  They also have to make sure that the ship is in the correct location because there are planned locations for each tow.  Throughout the entire event the science team, deck crew, and the bridge crew communicate by radio.

Rick, in front of the controls he uses to lower and raise the dredge

As I said, this project is not simple!  To make it more complicated, equipment often breaks, or is damaged, which means that the deck crew and the science team have to stop and fix it. On this trip we have stopped to fix equipment several times.  Various parts of the dredge get bent and broken from rocks on the ocean floor.  Before the dredge is lowered, the bottom is scouted with a depth sounder to try to avoid really rough terrain.  On the screen of the depth sounder different substrates are shown in different colors.  For example sand is shown in green and rocks are shown in red.  We try to avoid a lot of rocks.  However, all the rocks cannot be avoided and sometimes we hit them!

Personal Log

Vic getting a hair cut

Before coming on this trip I was told that the work can be strenuous and, sure enough, it is.  Sometimes a tow brings up hundreds of pounds of rocks (with some clams mixed in!) that we need to sort through and, as you know, rocks are heavy!  The work is also a bit, well, gross.  We have to measure all the clams, whole and broken and we also have to collect weights of “clam meat.”  That means that we have to open the shells and scrape the meat out.  I have a pretty high tolerance for gross things, but I am starting to grow weary of clam guts!

In between tows there is a little bit of down time to catch your breath, drink coffee and eat cookies, watch the ocean, and read a book.  During one of these breaks, the Chief Scientist Victor Nordahl, took the moment and had his hair cut!

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Anne Artz: August 8, 2011

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Anne Artz
Aboard NOAA Ship Delaware II
July 25 — August 5, 2011

Mission: Clam and Quahog Survey
Geographical Area: North Atlantic
Date: August 8, 2011

Personal Log

I’m home now in Southern California but still reveling in the experience I had aboard NOAA Ship Delaware II.  When people ask me what it was like, I tell them it was some of the hardest work I’ve ever done.  It was also one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had since I left the biotech industry some 23 years ago.  It reminded me of why I enjoy science in general and research in particular.  I tell my students each year that I love science simply because it’s always new.  I hope I can pass along my enthusiasm for learning to my students and share with them the importance of ongoing research.

One of the final thoughts I wanted to share was about the people who choose to do this kind of work on a daily basis.  I met people who were into it for the science, people who just loved being at sea, and those people who had a real aptitude for mechanics and physics.  There were people who could repair just about any piece of equipment on the ship — the mechanical and the electronic.  There were people who had an excellent sense of the ocean and its movements, currents, and the life it holds.  I was impressed by the friendliness of all the people on board the Delaware II and their willingness to answer all my questions and share with me about their daily jobs.

As promised, I’ve included here on my final blog the interview I had with one of the NOAA Commissioned Corps officers, ENS Hefferan.  I intend to have my students do a project investigating the careers available through NOAA as soon as school begins.  I realize not everyone is cut out to work in a lab doing experiments but maybe there is a student out there who will recognize that some of the best science, the most exciting science, is taking place on ships like the Delaware II.

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Anne Artz: August 4, 2011

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Anne Artz
Aboard NOAA Ship Delaware II
July 25 — August 5, 2011

Mission: Clam and Quahog Survey
Geographical Area: North Atlantic
Date: August 4, 2011

Weather Data from the Bridge
Location:  41 10.239 N; 67 36.023 W
Conditions:  Foggy in the morning giving way to partly cloudy skies; warming up, water calm.

Science and Technology Log

Today at approximately 11 am we finished our last dredge of this leg of the clam survey.  We just completed station #371.  There are approximately 500 stations scheduled for the entire clam survey with the final 2-week leg still left to complete.  We return to Woods Hole tomorrow morning and the Delaware II is expected to leave for the final leg on Monday morning, returning to Georges Bank to complete the final station dredges there.

Volunteer clam counters on the Delaware II

The past two days we have encountered some mechanical problems which the very capable crew repaired, and the past 12 hours we have collected large quantities of quahogs and surfclams in our final ten dredges.  We will spend the remainder of today cleaning up the deck, the wet lab, the dry lab, and putting away all the equipment we’ve been using.  The trip home will take approximately 12 hours.  We anticipate arriving in Woods Hole at 7 am in the morning.

Personal Log

It’s been an incredible trip for me — I’ve really come to appreciate what life at sea is like for the men and women who do this day in and day out all year long.  We were fortunate to have excellent weather and relatively calm seas and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to do this type of work in cold, windy rain, rough seas, or even with ice covering the deck and its equipment.  There are two teams or shifts: the day shift (noon to midnight) and the night shift (midnight to noon).  Each shift has a Watch Chief who coordinates the work of the science crew, enters all the data of all the clams and other things we bring up, and communicates with the bridge and Chief Scientist.

Watch Chief Jonathan Duquette
Watch Chief Nicole Charriere

Jonathan Duquette is the day shift Watch Chief and Nicole Charriere is the night shift Watch Chief, both of whom do an excellent job not only coordinating the work in the lab but also keeping the science crew (mostly us volunteers) informed of what we’re doing, where we’re going, and what we can do to help.  They are extremely hard-working and it’s been a privilege to work alongside both of them.

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Jessie Soder: Introduction, August 1, 2011

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Jessie Soder
Aboard NOAA Ship Delaware II
August 8 — 19, 2011

Mission: Clam and Quahog Survey
Geographical Area: North Atlantic
Date: August 1, 2011

It is hard to leave Alaska in the summer, but on Friday I will  be leaving my home in Gustavus, Alaska, to travel to Woods Hole, Massachusetts.  Last February, I found out that I was chosen to participate in NOAA‘s Teacher at Sea Program and on August 8th, I will be joining Leg 3 of the Atlantic surfclam/ocean quahog survey on NOAA Ship Delaware II.   This survey helps scientists to determine the distribution and abundance of Atlantic surfclams and ocean quahogs.

Students Collecting Data on a Dark November Day
Students Collecting Data on a Dark November Day

Living and teaching in Southeast Alaska has provided me with several opportunities to learn about and spend time on the ocean.  However, this will be my first time on the Atlantic Ocean and I am really excited.  It will also be my first time on a large research ship.  The NOAA Ship Delaware II is 155 feet long.

Not only am I excited, but my students are too.  They love the ocean and learning about the animals that live in it.  I teach all subjects to a multi-age class of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.  Last year we spent a lot of time at the beach exploring the intertidal zone and collecting data about the animals that live there.  (My students were conducting a year-long study and shared their field reports and photos on their blog.  Check it out:  Gustavus 3rd-5th Grade Blog)    Needless to say, they are just as excited as I am to learn about all the animals that I will be finding during the Atlantic surfclam/ocean quahog survey.  We are all curious to learn about the similarities and the differences between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.

Alaskan Sea Stars
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Anne Artz: July 30, 2011

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Anne Artz
Aboard NOAA Ship Delaware II
July 25 — August 5, 2011

Mission: Clam and Quahog Survey
Geographical Area: North Atlantic
Date: July 30, 2011

Weather Data from the Bridge
Location:  Off the coast of New York (Long Island)
40 36.212 N; 72 07.159 W
Conditions: Warm, sunny with very few clouds, very little wind, calm water

Science and Technology Log

The process of sampling the ocean bottom for surfclams and quohogs isn’t as easy as it sounds.  Both of these animals live below the surface of the ocean bottom and that ocean bottom can be sand, mud, or contain a large number of rocks.   To get to the clams the dredge is lowered into the water using a large crane and cable.  Once on the ocean floor, a pump directs the edge of the dredge into the sand/mud and at the same time blows back anything collected into the back of the dredge.  The entire time the ship is moving, dragging the dredge along the bottom.  The idea is for the clams and other larger samples to remain in the dredge while mud and sand wash out the sides and the back.  This works most of the time but occasionally we have brought up the dredge filled with grey sticky mud or large amounts of sand and rocks.  We can put the dredge back into the water off the stern (rear) of the ship and wash away some, but the sticky grey mud has caused problems and we keep our fingers crossed each time the dredge comes up.

The dredge that is lowered to the ocean floor to collect samples

Before sending the dredge down, three sensors are loaded onto the top and side.  These are similar to flash drives that collect certain data such as water depth, temperature, and tilt. This data is retrieved and downloaded into the computer after each “event” (the term used for each sample).  I’ve been trained on setting up the event using the computer in the bridge.  It requires communicating with the NOAA Corps officers who are on the bridge navigating the ship.  These people work closely with the winch operator who is lowering the dredge into the water at designated points.

NOAA Lead Fisherman Todd Wilson is responsible for operation of the winch that lowers the dredge.

The winch operator is also in direct communication with the crew on the deck who assist in lowering and raising the dredge and providing for a safe working environment for the volunteers and scientists.  Because of  all the heavy equipment on the deck, we are all required to wear hard hats when on the deck.  Of course, we also wear our life jackets.  The process of lowering and raising the dredge in specific areas is highly technical and one that is worked out well in advance of each sea trip.  Once at sea, it is the job of the Chief Scientist (Jakub Kircun) to monitor our sampling sites.

The Chief Scientist of the Delaware II Jakub Kircun

Occasionally we have to make adjustments, such as yesterday when the blade assembly of the dredge was damaged by rocks.

The broken blade apparatus that had to be removed from the dredge and replaced.

We had to stop our work for almost two hours while the crew removed the damaged part and replaced it with a new one.  This happens with some regularity so the ship carries extra blades and blade assemblies.  There are only two more assemblies left (of the part we replaced yesterday) and approximately three more weeks of sampling.  I asked what would happen if we ran out of blades and/or blade assemblies and was told the last leg (the last two weeks of sampling) may have to be cut short.  If possible, the crew may try to repair the broken part.

Personal Log

I’ve gotten to know my fellow team (those of us on the noon-midnight shift) through our long hours on deck and in the lab.  Two of the volunteers are like me – here for this particular leg.  Brenna O’Neill  is a graduate student at the Florida Institute of Technology and works in marine sciences.  Henry Hope is a NOAA employee who usually works in a lab in Woods Hole, MA but volunteered for this trip to see what kind of science we did at sea.  The other members of our team are all NOAA employees – either working continuously on the ship for all the science expeditions or part time on the ship and part time in a lab.  I was surprised to find out that there are various science expeditions carried out all year long – including in the middle of winter.  One of the crew told me of working on deck having to chip away ice from the equipment before it could be used.  It’s been so warm and humid on this trip I can’t imagine being that cold.  In fact, I brought several sweatshirts and jeans with me thinking it might be cool out at sea but haven’t even looked at them since I arrived.  It’s been all t-shirts and shorts even at midnight.  Last night we had another 2-hour delay because of a lightning storm – this time we DID hear the thunder!