NOAA Teacher at Sea Louise Todd Aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II September 13 – 29, 2013
Mission: Shark and Red Snapper Bottom Longline Survey Geographical Area of Cruise: Gulf of Mexico Date: September 23, 2013
Weather Data from the Bridge: Barometric Pressure: 1009.89mb
Sea Temperature: 28˚C
Air Temperature: 28.2˚C
Wind speed: 8.29knots
Science and Technology Log:
The haul back is definitely the most exciting part of each station. Bringing the line back in gives you the chance to see what you caught! Usually there is at least something on the line but my shift has had two totally empty lines which can be pretty disappointing. An empty line is called a water haul since all you are hauling back is water!
After the line has been in the water for one hour, everyone on the shift assembles on the bow to help with the haul back. One crew member operates the large winch used to wind the main line back up so it can be reused.
Winch holding the main line
The crew member operating the winch unhooks each gangion from the main line and hands it to another crew member. That crew member passes it to a member of our shift who unhooks the number from the gangion. The gangions are carefully placed back in the barrels so they are ready for the next station. When something is on the line, the person handling the gangions will say “Fish on”.
Nurse Shark on the line
Everyone gets ready to work when we hear that call. Every fish that comes on board is measured. Usually fish are measured on their sides as that makes it easy to read the markings on the measuring board.
Measuring a Yellowedge Grouper (Photo credit Christine Seither)Christine and Nick measuring a Sandbar Shark
Each shark is examined to determine its gender.
Determining the sex of a sharpnose shark (Photo credit Deb Zimmerman)
Male sharks have claspers, modified pelvic fins that are used during reproduction. Female sharks do not have claspers.
Claspers on a Blacktip
Fin clips, small pieces of the fin, are taken from all species of sharks. The fin clips are used to examine the genetics of the sharks for confirmation of identification and population structure, both of which are important for management decisions.
That’s me in the blue hardhat taking a fin clip from a Sandbar Shark(Photo credit Lisa Jones)
Skin biopsies are taken from any dogfish sharks in order to differentiate between the species. Tags are applied to all sharks. Tags are useful in tracing the movement of sharks. When a shark, or any fish with a tag, is recaptured there is a phone number on the tag to call and report the location where the shark was recaptured.
Some sharks are small and relatively easy to handle.
Small Cuban Dogfish (Photo credit Christine Seither)
Other sharks are large and need to be hauled out of the water using the cradle. The cradle enables the larger sharks to be processed quickly and then returned to the water. A scale on the cradle provides a weight on the shark. Today was the first time my shift caught anything big enough to need the cradle. We used the cradle today for one Sandbar and two Silky Sharks. Everyone on deck has to put a hardhat on when the cradle is used since the cradle is operated using a crane.
Silky shark coming up in the cradleSandbar Shark in the cradle
Personal Log:
I continue to have such a good time on the Oregon II. My shift has had some successful stations which is always exciting. We have had less downtime in between our stations than we did the first few days so we are usually able to do more than one station in our shifts. The weather in the Gulf forced us to make a few small detours and gave us some rain yesterday but otherwise the seas have been calm and the weather has been beautiful. It is hard to believe my first week is already over. I am hopeful that we will continue our good luck with the stations this week! The rocking of the boat makes it very easy for me to sleep at night when my shift is over. I sleep very soundly! The food in the galley is delicious and there are plenty of options at each meal. I feel right at home on the Oregon II!
Did You Know?
Flying fish are active around the boat, especially when the spotlights are on during a haul back at night. Flying fish are able to “fly” using their modified pectoral fins that they spread out. This flying fish flew right onto the boat!
NOAA Teacher at Sea Sarah Boehm Aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II June 23 – July 7, 2013
Mission: Summer Groundfish Survey Geographic area of cruise: Gulf of Mexico Date: July 10, 2013
Personal Log
The Oregon II pulled into port Sunday morning after a successful 2 week leg of the summer groundfish survey. The first thing I wanted to do when we got to land was to go for a walk. It did feel great to stretch my legs and move more than 170 feet at a time. Being on land again felt funny, as if the ground was moving under me. I thought this “dock rock” would pass quickly, but even two days later I had moments of feeling unsteady. On Monday I made my way back home to Massachusetts, arriving after 12 hours of planes and cars to a delightfully cool evening (although I hear it had been very hot while I was gone.)
I still have some photos and videos I wanted to share, so I thought I’d put together one more blog post with some amazing and fun creatures we saw.
We saw sharks swimming near the boat a few times, but this video shows the most dramatic time. This group of at least 8 sharks attacked the net as it brought up a bunch of fish, ripping holes in the net and spilling the fish. They then feasted on all that easy food floating in the water.
Adult puffer fish on the left from a groundfish trawl and a baby puffer from a plankton tow on the rightIcicles? Nope. Those are jellies that got caught in the net.A very small flying fish with its “wings” extended.
One of my favorite fish is the flying fish. These fish have very long pectoral fins on the side of their bodies that act like wings. They can’t really fly, but they can soar an impressive distance through the air. We sometimes caught them in the Neuston net as it skimmed the top of the water. They are great fun to watch as groups of them will take to the air to get out of the way of the boat. Even more fun was watching dolphins hunting the flying fish! I was unsuccessful at getting a video, but you can watch them in this BBC clip.
It must be the end of watch. Me with a flying fish.
Another cool animal we found were hermit crabs. The ones we caught were bigger than any I had found at a beach. The shell they live in was made by a gastropod (snail). As the hermit crab grows it has to find a bigger shell to move into.
A large hermit crab in its shell.We had to take the hermit crab out of its shell to weigh it. The head and claws have a hard shell, but the back part is soft and squishy.This hermit crab has sea anemones living on its shell.
Look closely at the spots of color on this video of a squid. You can see how the color and patterns are changing.
A few more cool critters we found:
This stargazer looks like a dragon, but fits in the palm of your hand. It buries itself in the mud and then springs out to grab prey.We found many mantis shrimp. It gets its name because those front legs are similar to those of the praying mantis. Those legs are incredibly fast and strong to kill its prey.
I knew there were many oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico, but I was surprised by just how many we passed. There are almost 4,000 active rigs in the waters from Texas to Alabama. While we went through this area there were always a few visible. They reminded me of walkers, the long legged vehicles from the Star Wars movies, with their boxy shapes perched above the water. By comparison, the waters near Florida were deserted because offshore oil drilling is not allowed and there were few other ships.
Oil rigsWork on an oil rig also goes on 24 hours a day.
It was fabulous spending this time out on the groundfish survey with the scientists and crew of the Oregon II. Now I have a greater understanding of the Gulf ecosystem and science in action. I truly appreciate the time people on board spent to teach me new things and answer all my questions. I also have enjoyed all my students’ comments and questions. Keep them coming!
Getting just one small jar of plankton back to the lab on shore requires a lot of work. First comes all of the net-dropping work I described in the last post, which is a team effort from everyone on board, just to bring the samples onto the ship. From there, we have to take several more steps in order to preserve the sample.
Step 1: After the nets are brought back onto the bow of the ship, we hose them down very thoroughly using a seawater hose, in order to wash any clinging plankton down into the cod end.
Here I am, hosing down the Bongo nets. Photo by Alonzo Hamilton
Then we detach the cod end and bring it to the stern of the ship, where a prep station is set up. The prep table is stocked with funnels, sieves, seawater hoses and jars, and the chemicals that we need to preserve the plankton that we collect – formalin and ethyl alcohol.
Prep Station
Step 2: We carefully pour the specimen through the fine-mesh sieve to catch the plankton and drain out the water. It’s amazing to see what’s in the sample. This, of course, includes lots of tiny plankton; all together, they look kind of like sludge, until you look very closely to see the individual creatures. Lots of the fish larvae have tiny, bright blue eyes. (On a funny note, my breakfast granola has started to look like plankton after a week of collecting!)
Plankton in a sieve
Getting to see what makes it into each sample is kind of like a treasure hunt. Sometimes bigger organisms like fish, sea jellies, eel larvae, pyrosomes and snails end up in the sample. Quite frequently there is sargassum, which is a type of floating seaweed that does a great job of hiding small creatures. Take a look at the pictures at the end of the post to see some of these!
Step 3: Next, the sample goes into a jar. We use seawater from a hose to push the sample to one side of the sieve, and let the water drain out. Then, we put a funnel in a clean, dry jar and use a squeeze bottle of ethyl alcohol to wash the sample into the jar through the funnel. We top the jar off with ethyl alcohol, which draws the moisture out of the bodies of the plankton so that they don’t decompose or rot in the jar. The sample from the left bongo – just this sample and no other – is preserved in a mixture of formalin and seawater because it goes through different testing than the other samples do once back on shore. We top all of the bottles with a lid and label them: R for Right Bongo, L for Left Bongo, RN for Regular Neuston, and SN for Subsurface Neuston.
Plankton Ready to go in the Jar
Step 4: After the jars are filled, Alonzo and I bring them back to the wet lab, where Glenn attaches labels to the tops of the jars, and puts a matching label inside of each jar as well. The label inside the jar is there in case the label on the lid falls off one day. These labels provide detailed information about where and when the sample was collected, and from which net.
A label on the jar gives detailed information about the plankton inside
Step 5: After 24 hours, it’s time to do transfers. Transfers involve emptying the samples from the jars through a sieve again, and putting them back into the jars with fresh ethyl alcohol. We do this because the alcohol draws water out of the bodies of the plankton, so the alcohol becomes watered-down in the first 24 hours and is not as effective. Adding fresh alcohol keeps the sample from going bad before it can be studied. Once the transfers are done, we draw a line through the label to show that the sample is well-preserved and ready to be boxed up and brought back to the lab!
Boxes full of plankton samples ready to be brought back to shore
Personal Log:
I have the great fortune of working with some intelligent, knowledgeable and friendly scientists here on the Oregon II. Jana is my bunkmate and one of the scientists; she pointed out to me that just about every animal you can imagine that lives in the ocean started off as plankton. As a result, while the scientists who work with plankton do each have a specialty or specific type of plankton that they focus on, at the same time, they have to know a little bit about many types of organisms and the basics of all of their life cycle stages. In a way I can relate to this as a Naturalist; I need to have a bit of knowledge about many plants, animals, minerals and fossils from the Mojave Desert and beyond, because chances are, my smart and curious Nature Exchange traders will eventually bring them all in for me to see and identify!
The science team, from left to right: Andy, Alonzo, Glenn, me, Jana and Brittany. Photo by Brian Adornado
I want to take a few moments to introduce all of the members of the science team. I thought I’d have fun with it and use my own version of the Pivot questionnaire:
Meet Alonzo Hamilton
Alonzo Hamilton, scientist, testing water samples in the Wet Lab.
Alonzo is a Research Fisheries Biologist; he has been working with NOAA since 1984. Alonzo earned an Associate’s degree in Science, a Bachelor’s degree in biology, and a Master’s degree in Biology with an emphasis in Marine Science. Alonzo was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Mississippi.
What is your favorite word? Data
What is your least favorite word? No or can’t. There’s always a solution; you just have to keep trying until you find it.
What excites you about doing science? Discovery
What do you dislike about doing science? The financial side of it.
What is your favorite plankton? Tripod fish plankton
What sound or noise on the ship do you love? The main engines
What sound or noise do you hate? The alarm bells
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? An electrician. There are some neat jobs in that field.
What profession would you not like to do? Lawyer. There’s a risk of becoming too jaded.
If you could talk to any marine creature, which one would it be, and what would you ask it? A coelacanth. What is your life history? What’s a typical day of feeding like? Is there a hierarchy of fish, and what is it? What determines who gets to eat first?
********************
Meet Glenn Zapfe
Glenn Zapfe, scientist, contemplating the plankton samples.
Glenn is a Research Fisheries Biologist; he worked with NOAA as a contractor for 8 years before being hired on as a Federal employee three years ago. Glenn earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Life, and a Master’s degree in Coastal Science. He grew up in the Chicago area.
What is your favorite word? Quirky
What is your least favorite word? Nostalgia
What excites you about doing science? Going to sea and seeing organisms in their natural environment.
What do you dislike about doing science? Statistics. They can sometimes be manipulated to fit individual needs.
What is your favorite plankton? Amphipods
What sound or noise on the ship do you love? The hum of the engine
What sound or noise do you hate? The emergency alarm bells
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Glenn grew up wanting to be a cartoonist – but he can’t draw.
What profession would you not like to do? Lawyer
If you could talk to any marine creature, which one would it be, and what would you ask it? A cuttlefish, to ask about how they are able to change the color of their skin.
*************************
Meet Jana Herrmann
Jana Hermann, scientist and volunteer, aboard the Oregon II
Jana is a Fisheries Technician with the Gulf Coast Research Lab, and is on this cruise as a volunteer. She has worked with the Gulf Coast Research Lab since February 2013, but worked within the local Marine Sciences field for 8 years before that. Jana earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology and Environmental biology, and will be starting graduate school in the fall of 2013. Jana grew up in Tennessee.
What is your favorite word? Pandemonium
What is your least favorite word? Anything derogatory
What excites you about doing science? Just when you think you have it all figured out, something new comes up.
What do you dislike about doing science? Dealing with bureaucracy and having to jump through hoops to get the work done.
What is your favorite plankton? Janthina
What sound or noise on the ship do you love? This is Jana’s first cruise on the Oregon II, so she doesn’t have a favorite noise yet.
What sound or noise do you hate? Any noises that keep her from sleeping.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? A baker or pastry chef.
What profession would you not like to do? Any mundane office job with no creative outlet.
If you could talk to any marine creature, which one would it be, and what would you ask it? She would ask a blue whale if it is sad about the state of the environment, and she would ask it if mermaids are real.
******************
Meet Brittany Palm
Brittany Palm, scientist, aboard the Oregon II
Brittany is a Research Fisheries Biologist; she has worked with NOAA for 4 years. Brittany earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology, and is currently working on her Master’s degree in Marine Science. Brittany grew up on Long Island.
What is your favorite word? Midnattsol – the Norwegian word for “midnight sun”
What is your least favorite word? Editing. That’s not a fun word to hear when you hand in drafts of your thesis!
What excites you about doing science? Constantly learning. All of the fields of science, from chemistry to physics to biology, are interwoven. You have to know a little bit about all of them.
What do you dislike about doing science? Also, constantly learning! Every time you think you know something, a new paper comes out.
What is your favorite plankton? Glaucus
What sound or noise on the ship do you love? The ship’s sound signal, which is a deep, booming horn that ships use to communicate with each other.
What sound or noise do you hate? When she’s trying to sleep in rough seas and something in one of the drawers is rolling back and forth. She has to get up and go through all of the drawers and cabinets to try to find it and make it stop!
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Opening a dance studio. Brittany competed on dance teams throughout high school and college.
What profession would you not like to do? Anything in the health field, because she empathizes more with animals than people.
If you could talk to any marine creature, which one would it be, and what would you ask it? The Croaker fish. Brittany is studying Croaker diets and has dissected over a thousand stomachs. She would like to be able to just ask them what they eat!
*********************
Meet Andy Millett
Andy Millett, scientist, in the Dry Lab of the Oregon II.
Andy is a Research Fisheries Biologist, and is the Field Party Chief for this cruise. He has worked with NOAA for 3 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology and a Master’s degree in Marine Science. Andy grew up in Massachusetts.
What is your favorite word? Parallel
What is your least favorite word? Silly
What excites you about doing science? When all of the data comes together and tells you a story.
What do you dislike about doing science? Having to be so organized and meticulous, since he is typically pretty disorganized.
What is your favorite plankton? Pelagia
What sound or noise on the ship do you love? Spinning the flowmeters on the nets. It sounds like a card in the spokes of a bicycle.
What sound or noise do you hate? Alarms of any kind, whether they are emergency alarms or alarm clocks.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Video game designer
What profession would you not like to do? Anything in retail or customer service
If you could talk to any marine creature, which one would it be, and what would you ask it? A giant squid, because we don’t know much about them. Andy would ask what it eats, where it lives, and other basic questions about its life.
******************
Challenge Yourself: Hey, Nature Exchange traders! The scientists shared their favorite plankton types; all of them are truly fascinating in their own way. Research one of these animals and write down a few facts. Or, pick your favorite Mojave Desert animal and write about that. Bring your research into the Nature Exchange for bonus points. Tell them Emmi sent you!
Bristletooth Conger Eel Larva. See its tiny little face on the left?Sargassum is a floating seaweed that often ends up in our Neuston nets. We record its volume and throw it back.Sea jellySargassum fish – they hide in the sargassum!Porpita jellyMyctophids are shiny silver and black, and quite pretty!A juvenile flying fish. I’ve seen some adults gliding through the air as well!Alonzo holding a juvenile filefish
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Deb Novak
Aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II
August 10 – 25, 2012
Mission: Shark Longline Survey Geographical Area: Gulf of Mexico Date: Friday, August 17, 2012
Weather Data from the Bridge: Air temperature: 30.8 degrees C
Sea temperature: 29.9 degrees C
2/8ths cloud cover
10 miles of visibility
0-1 foot wave height
Wind speed 16.9 knots
Wind direction WSW
Science and Technology Log:
How to set a line:
A circle hook is used on the longline. It can hold the fish, but does not hurt them as much as other kinds of hooks.This is one job that I have only done once. I needed help to get the High Flyer over the top line and into position.Fish heads and middles and tails! A piece on every hook to try to entice a shark to bite.
I am pretty good at cutting the bait fish. It is all fractions – for large fish it is cut into 4 pieces, for the smaller bait fish, three pieces. Putting the bait securely on the hooks is hard, careful work. You don’t want the bait to fall off the hook as it is put in the water, and the hooks are sharp so I went slow to not stab myself.
A computer program is used to track equipment and GPS the locations of the beginning and end High Flyers, three sets of weights that keep the line on the bottom and each of the 100 hooks that are set out.Slinging the baited hooks. Justin is attaching the number tags.
Just like using the Scientific Method in class experiments, we have to follow a set procedure for laying out the line. This way the data gathered can be compared to previous years and from set to set. The set locations are randomly generated for sections of the Gulf. We will lay lines in each grid square. Lines are set at three different depths, shallow, medium and deep. Even the deepest sets are still on the continental shelf and not in the truly deep, central Gulf waters. The line is set and left on the ocean floor for one hour. Then it is time to Haul Back — bring the line up and see what we caught.
Weighing a barracuda – just look at the teeth!
Every hook is recorded as it comes back on the boat. If the hook is empty or still has bait, or the most wonderful moment — if there is a fish! — everything is recorded. Each fish is recorded in great detail: species, length, weight where it was caught and other comments. Almost everything we catch is released. There are a few types of fish that are kept to take samples for scientific studies being done.
David measuring the spotted eel’s length.
Personal Log:
This blog is mostly pictures with captions. I feel fine even when the waves pick up and the boat starts to rock and roll, WoooHoo! But 10 minutes on the computer leaves me nauseous and green for a good long while.
My favorite thing to do is watch the flying fish skitter across the water surface. It is amazing to me how far they can “fly”.
The Oregon II
Water and fuel are vital to keeping people and the boat going. Both are carefully monitored several times a day.
Gauges throughout the ship show water levels.
Drinking water is produced by reverse osmosis, sea water comes in and is put through several filters for us to drink and shower. With 30 people on board for two weeks at a time we would need huge tanks and the weight would be enormous. So fresh water is made on board. Sea water is used to clean the decks and to flush the toilets.
The fuel tank levels are checked using a plumb gauge. This is a long ruler with a weight on the end.
NOAA Teacher at Sea Andrea Schmuttermair Aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II June 22 – July 3
Mission: Groundfish Survey Geographical area of cruise: Gulf of Mexico Date: June 26, 2012
Ship Data from the Bridge: Latitude: 2805.26N
Longitude: 9234.19W
Speed: 10mph
Wind Speed: 5.86 knots
Wind Direction: E/SE
Surface Water Salinity: 35.867 PPT
Air Temperature: 28.8 C
Relative Humidity: 86%
Barometric Pressure: 1010.51 mb
Water Depth: 96.5 m
Science and Technology Log
Sunrise on the Oregon II
Opisthonema oglinum, Lagadon rhomboides, Chloroscombus chrysurus…..yes, I have officially started dreaming about taxonomic names of our fish. It’s day 4 and I now have a much better grasp at identifying the variety of critters we pull up in our trawls. I am always excited to be out on deck when they bring up the trawl to see what interesting critters we catch. Surprises are great!
Do you want to know where the Oregon II is headed?
If you click on the link above, you can see the path that our ship is taking to hit all of our stations for the survey. We often have station after station to hit- meaning as soon as we are done sorting and measuring, we have to bring in the next catch. Because some stations are only 3-5 miles apart, we sometimes have to do “double dips”, where we put in the trawl for 30 minutes, pull it up, and put it right back in again.
It’s been interesting to note the variety of our catches. Croakers, bumperfish, and shrimp have been in high abundance the last 2 days as we were in shallower water. Before that we had a couple of catches that had a high abundance of pinfish. When we take our subsample, we typically enter data for up to 20 of that particular species. We take length measurements on each fish, and on every fifth fish. We will also weigh and sex it (if sexing is possible).
A comparison of the various sizes of shrimp we pull up from our trawls.A relatively small catch in comparison to the 200+ we’ve been pulling up recently.
When we were in shallower waters, we had a significant increase in the number of shrimp we brought up. Tuesday morning was the first catch that did not have well over 200 shrimp (this is because we’ve been moving into deeper waters). For the 3 commercial shrimp, white (farfantepenaeussetiferus), pink (farfantepenaeusduorarum), and brown (farfantepenaeusaztecus), we take 200 samples, as opposed to our high-quantity fish, where we will only take 20 samples. For each of the commercial shrimp we catch, we measure, weigh and sex each shrimp. I’ve gotten very good at identifying the sex of shrimp- some of the fish are much more difficult to tell. The information we get from this survey will determine the amount of shrimp that boats can take during the shrimping season in Louisiana and Mississippi. During the first leg of the groundfish survey, the data collected determined the amount of shrimp that could be caught in Texas. The groundfish survey is crucial for the shrimping industry and for ensuring that shrimp are not overfished.
Students- think of the food chain. What would happen if we overfished and took out too many shrimp? (Hint: Think of predators and prey.)
The trawl net at sunrise
We’ve now started doing 2 different tows in addition to our trawls. Some of the stations are trawl stations, whereas others are plankton stations.
Alex, Alonzo and Reggie unloading the trawl net.
At a trawl station, we lower the trawl from the stern down to the ocean floor. The trawl net is meant for catching larger critters that live at the bottom of the ocean. There is a chain, also known as a “tickler”, which moves lightly across the ocean floor to lure fish to leave their hiding spots and swim into our net. The trawl is down for 30 minutes, after which it is brought back on deck to weigh the total catch, and then brought back into the wet lab for sorting.
Another important mission of the groundfish survey is to collect plankton samples. To do this, we use a Neuston tow and a bongo tow.
The Neuston tow about to pick up a lot of Sargassum- oh no!
The Neuston tow has a large, rectangular frame with a fine mesh net attached to it. At the end of the net is a large cylindrical bucket, called a codend, with a mesh screen meant for catching the organisms. In comparison to the trawl net, which has openings of 41.4mm , the Neuston’s mesh is only 0.947mm. This means the mesh is significantly finer, meant for catching some of the smaller critters and plankton that would otherwise escape the trawl net. The Neuston tow is put on the surface of the water and towed for 10 minutes. Half the tow is in the water while half is out. We end up picking up a lot of Sargassum, or, seaweed, that is found floating at the water’s surface. When we gather a lot of Sargassum, we have to sift through it and spray it to get out any of the organisms that like to hide in their protective paradise.
The bongo tow on deck waiting to be sent down to about 3m from the ocean floor.
After we’ve completed the Neuston tow, we do the bongo tow. The bongo’s mesh is even finer than the Neuston tow’s mesh at only 0.333mm. The bongo has 2 parts- a left and a right bongo (and yes they do look a little like bongo drums- hence their name). The top part of the bongo is a large cylinder with an open bottom and top. The net is attached to this cylinder, and again at the bottom of each side is cylindrical tube called codends meant to catch the plankton. The bongo tow is meant to take a sample from the entire water column. This means that instead of riding on the surface of the water, it gets sent down to about 3 meters from the ocean floor (there is a sensor at the top that is 2m from the bottom of the net) and brought back up immediately.
The remnants from our Neuston tow. This is the sieve we use to weed out what we want and don’t want.Here are our 2 samples from the bongo tow. The left one is preserved in ethanol and the right is preserved in formaldehyde (10% formalin and sea water)Here is a sample from the Neuston tow. Carefully camouflaged are thousands of crab megalops, aka juvenille crabs.
For both tows, it is important to rinse the nets to get any lasting organisms we might not see with our own eyes into our sample. Once we’ve done this, we bring the tubes back into the wet lab where we continue to rinse them through a sieve so that only certain items are leftover. In the Neuston, we often find small fish (usually less than 3mm), baby shrimp, crabs and Jessica’s favorite, the Sargassum fish. Most recently a few flying fish got caught in our Neuston tow. Prior to pulling it up, I was enjoying watching them flit across the water- they were about all we could see in the water in the middle of the night. After being rinsed thoroughly through the sieve, we preserve them by placing the sample in a glass jar with either ethanol or formaldehyde solutions. They are preserved in ethanol for DNA work and in formaldehyde for long-term preservation. These samples are then saved to send to a lab in Poland, which is the sorting center for the SEAMAP samples.
Flying fish we pulled up in our Neuston tow at nighttime.
Personal Log
My sleeping quarters (top bunk), also known as a stateroom. My roommate is Kristin, one of the scientists on board.
Well, I think I am finally getting used to the schedule of working the night shift. I am thankful that my bunk is on the bottom floor of the ship- which means it is completely dark- so that I can sleep during the daytime. Yesterday was probably one of the least busy days we’ve had so far, and because we were in deeper waters, our trawls were much smaller. This means I had a little more time to work on my blogs, which at times can be hard to fit in. It amazes me that we have internet access on the ship, and it’s not even as slow as I expected. It goes down from time to time, especially when the waters are rough. We’ve been fortunate to have pretty calm waters, aside from the first day.
You may have heard about Hurricane Debby on the news as it prepared to hit the Gulf. On Sunday, we were heavily debating heading back to Galveston to “bunker down” and ride out the storm. However, the storm that was forming seemed to dissipate and head in a different direction, thank goodness. I was not thrilled about the possibility of heading back to port!
We had our first drills the day after we set sail. The drills- fire and abandon ship are distinguished by different types of bells, similar to using Morse code. The abandon ship drill was fun. We got to put on our survival suit, which is like a big orange Gumby suit. It not only protects you in cold water, but also makes you highly visible. I remember reading some of the former TAS blogs, and this picture was always in. Of course, I’ve got to add mine as well.
Here I am in my survival suit. Judd also decided to be in the picture. 🙂
I’ve been having fun exploring different areas of the ship, even though there is only so far you can go on the ship. Yesterday, I went up to the bridge, which is the front of the ship where the captain or the NOAA Corps officers steer the ship from. You can think of it like a control center of an airplane. There are navigation charts (both computerized and paper) and radars that help guide the ship so it knows what obstacles are out there. There is a great view from the bridge that you don’t get anywhere else on the ship. It’s also fun to watch the folks down on deck when they are deploying the CTD or either of the 2 tows.
We’ve caught such an abundance of critters, I thought I’d share some of my favorite catches thus far:
Here I am holding a cownose ray (Rhinoptera bonasus)- my favorite catch yet. He weighed about 25lbs! This one was the highlight of my day as rays are some of my favorite ocean critters!
–
One of the 4 Atlantic sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) we’ve caught so far.
A sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates)- these guys hang onto sharks to catch a ride- he’s still alive so is able to hang onto my arm!
Critter Query Time!
Critter Query #1: What is a fathom (in your own words please)?
Critter Query #2: What are the differences between skates and rays?
