Here in Longmont, Colorado where I live, we are settling into warm summer days often topping out in the high 80’s to 90’s F and typically with low humidity. In Galveston, Texas, where I’ll board the ship it is in the 80’s F this week with 90% humidity. I’ll have to get used to that humid air.
Science and Technology Log
NOAA Ship Oregon II. Photo courtesy of NOAA.
I will spend two weeks aboard the NOAA fisheries research vessel Oregon II, in the Gulf of Mexico, working on the SEAMAP (Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program) Summer Groundfish Survey. The objective of the survey is to monitor the size and distribution of shrimp and groundfish in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf of Mexico. Photo from world atlas.com
What are groundfish, you ask? These are the fish that live near or on the bottom of the ocean. This survey is conducted twice per year; the data help scientists monitor trends in shrimp and fish abundance as well as changes over time. We will also be collecting plankton samples and environmental data at each site. The second leg of the groundfish survey works off of the Louisiana coast and the outlet of the Mississippi River where a “dead” or hypoxic zone forms in the summer. I am very interested to see the what we pull up in this area.
Personal Log
I’m all geared up and ready to go!
When the NOAA Teacher at Sea email arrived in my inbox in February, I held my breath as I opened and read it as fast as possible. I was accepted! I was going to sea! I am honored to be a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Teacher at Sea program.
I teach Biology and direct the Experiential Education program at the Dawson School in Lafayette, Colorado. I love sharing my passion for learning about the biological world with my students and engaging my students’ curiosities. Many of my favorite teaching moments have been times when I can take students outside to observe and explore their surroundings.
My classroom for a week in the San Juan Mountain Range, CO. March 2017. Photo credit Pete Devlin
I’ve lived in Colorado for about 17 years and love to play in the mountain environment on foot, ski or bike. Having lived land locked for most of my life, I can’t wait for the opportunity to explore the ocean ecosystem this summer. As a child, I spent short amounts of time exploring tide pools in Maine and beaches in Florida and was always intrigued by the vastness and mystery of the ocean.
Tending my garden to grow delicious food
Now, I’m heading out to sea for two weeks to dive right into (not literally) learning about the ocean. Like my students, I learn best by doing, so I am thrilled to be working with the NOAA Fisheries team.
Did You Know?
Did you know that June is national ocean month? Celebrate the ocean this month.Check out this great video from NOAA and visit NOAA’s Celebrate the Ocean page for more information.
Dawson Sixth Grade Queries
Just before the end of the school year, I visited the Dawson sixth graders to talk about my NOAA Teacher at Sea expedition. We learned about the importance of the ocean, even for us here in Colorado, and the sixth graders wrote questions for me to answer while I’m at sea. Look for this section in my blog where I will answer some of those questions.
Dawson School sixth grade. Photo by RuthAnne Schedler.
-What do you think the most common organism is that you will find? (from Allison)
One of the main goals of the Groundfish survey is to collect data on the abundance and distribution of shrimp, so I think I’ll be seeing a lot of shrimp in our net. I’ll be sure to post photos of what we find.
-Are you going to scuba dive? (from Gemma, Emma and Margaret)
I will not be scuba diving on my trip. I am not certified and the Teacher at Sea program does not allow teachers to scuba (even if they are certified). Instead I will be learning from above the water’s surface and pulling up samples to learn about what lives deep below.
Now it’s your turn to ask the questions…
What are you curious about? Maybe you are interested to know more about what we haul up in our nets or how to become a NOAA scientist. You can write questions at the end of any of my blog posts in the “comments” section and I’ll try to answer them.
There is truly so much to learn on the Oregon II. It’s almost like a small city with all the jobs everyone has, food preparation on board, safety drills, and a community of people working together to make everything successful. I am working the noon to midnight shift and am partnered with kind, intelligent team members that are helping me learn what it takes to work for NOAA. Our team consists of Michael, Mark, and Brittany. Each has so much knowledge of marine animals that I certainly feel like I have much to learn. It’s pretty amazing how they know the scientific names of most animals and plants we come across while trawling from the Oregon II.
I’m dressed in a survival suit looking a bit like an orange Gumby. These survival suits would protect us from hypothermia if we needed to abandon ship. In order to wear these, you must lay the suit flat on the floor and crawl into it. It took Ensign Laura Dwyer, a Junior Officer, and me working together to get it on. I really was tempted to Sumo wrestle with it on!
When it was time to “haul back” the net that was trawling for fish, everyone rushed to get to work. The trawl caught a wide variety of fish, shells, and plants. In the wet lab, all the scientists quickly began sorting the fish into baskets and began identifying them. The data must be entered into the computer with the name of the fish, quantity, weight, etc. On the rare occasion they may not be able to identify the plant or animal immediately, they refer to descriptive books such as Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico.
This is a trawl used to catch fish (and other surprises).The fish on the left are Diplectrum formosum and on the right are Haemulon aurolineatum.
Scientist Spotlight: Meet Brittany Palm-She really knows her “stuff” and she is so helpful in explaining everything to me so I can understand. Brittany is a Fisheries Biologist and will soon begin to work on her PhD. Brittany explained the CTD device to me. It measures conductivity, temperature, and depth. It soaks at the surface for 3 minutes to calibrate and flush out sensors. The CTD is then sent from the surface of the water to the bottom and then back up to the surface. It records environmental data for the scientists.
Brittany is a Fisheries Biologist on the Oregon II.This is me standing by the Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth Measuring Device.
During a trawl today, we had quite a surprise! Check it out below:
Look who showed up on deck of the Oregon II. It’s a Loggerhead turtle. Pretty amazing! After checking out his stats, we returned him to sea.
All in all, it’s been a great day learning lots with some pretty cool people!
NOAA Teacher at Sea Chris Peters Onboard NOAA Ship Oregon II July 10 – 19, 2013
Mission: SEAMAP Summer Groundfish Survey Geographic Area of Cruise: Gulf of Mexico, leaving from Pascagoula, MS Date: July 13, 2013
Weather and Location: Time: 23:24 Greenwich Mean Time (7:24 p.m. in Rockville, MD)
Latitude: 25.5340
Longitude: -82.0215
Speed (knots): 9.30
Water temperature: 28.90 degrees Celsius
Salinity (PSU = Practical Salinity Units): 35.38
Air temperature: 31.20 degrees Celsius
Relative Humidity: 65%
Wind Speed (knots): 8.92
Barometric Pressure (mb): 1013.34
Depth (m) = 19.20
Science and Technology Log
Our Mission
In my introduction I explained that SEAMAP is a state, federal, and university program. In fact, there is a managing unit called the SEAMAP– Gulf Subcommittee of the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Technical Coordinating Committee who manages the activities and operations, including collecting samples and interpreting data, of the Gulf participants, including the Mississippi Laboratory of NOAA and the states of Louisiana, Mississippi,Texas, Alabama, and Florida, as well as certain universities. Parts of the program include bottom trawls, CTD deployment, and Bongo and Neuston tows. The bottom trawls involve towing nets at randomly selected spots for ten to thirty minutes. The sea life caught in the nets, normally shrimp and other animals that live at the bottom of the Gulf, are sorted, identified and measured. All of the data is recorded and helps to determine where the fish and shrimp are, and how much exists in the Gulf. Because the NOAA Laboratory and the states have worked so well together on this project, most of the trawls were completed on earlier legs of the trip and on the state boats. We have had opportunities, though, to observe and identify some of the fish from an earlier leg that had been put on ice. We’ll come back to that process a bit later.
The first twenty-four hours underway were spent heading to our first station, off the southwest coast of Florida. We have spent much of our time on this leg of the trip completing plankton collections. My students should remember that plankton includes small and microscopic (too small to see with only your eyes) organisms. The organisms may be animals, plants and plant-like organisms, or bacteria. The plankton found in the water can tell what the animal population looks like, or will look like if the conditions of the water do not change too much. Plankton is also a source of food for certain animals, so looking at plankton can give us information about whether enough of a food source is present for those animals. The purpose of the Bongo and Neuston tows is to collect plankton. Before we do those tows at each station, however, we deploy the CTD to collect some important information.
A scientist and deckhand help bring in the CTDThe chief scientist, Kim Johnson, takes water samples from the CTD to verify it’s dissolved oxygen readings.
CTD stands for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth. The machine collects data in those areas, as well as other data. The conductivity data tells how much salt (salinity) is in the water because the amount of salt affects how well the water will conduct (allow to pass through) electricity. The CTD also measures the oxygen content of the water. Remember learning about algae bloom in the Chesapeake Bay, and how the algae sucks up all of the oxygen, leaving the plants and animals in the area to die? When a body of water has an unhealthy level of oxygen, it is called hypoxic. Scientists are worried about the same kind of thing happening in the Gulf of Mexico, so determining the oxygen content in the water provides important information. In the stations we have tested so far, the oxygen content has been healthy. However, we have been far from land and much closer to where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Gulf. To learn more about hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, visit NOAA’s hypoxia page. Don’t forget to click on the links at the bottom that will take you to descriptions of the problems and causes of hypoxia in the Gulf.
After bringing the CTD back onto the deck, it is time to start a Neuston tow. The Neuston net is very fine, and attaches to a one meter by two meter frame at the top. The net gets narrower, and attaches to a “cod end”, a plastic cylinder with screened openings, at the bottom. This is hoisted out of the boat and into the water by a crane. It takes several people to launch the Neuston, as the frame is heavy, and it can be hard to manage in the wind.
The Neuston net is tied down to the boat until it is ready to be deployed.
The Neuston is pulled through the water, with about a foot above the surface, and the rest below. The purpose is to collect plankton on or near the surface of the water. Since sargassum, or seaweed, often floats on the surface of the water, sometimes the Neuston collects a lot of that. We continue to tow the net for ten minutes, and then retrieve it into the boat, again using the crane. While we did not do trawls and pull in large fish, we did see different kinds of baby fish at almost every station.
The Neuston net is dragged at the top of the water for five to ten minutes
The Bongo contains two 61 centimeter, circular, sturdy plastic frames, to which fine nets are attached. These nets also narrow to a small area, to which cod ends are attached. The Bongos are lowered off the port side by using the J frame. The bongos are towed from the surface to the bottom, but no deeper than 200 meters. The bongo also has the flowmeters on it to calculate how much water passes through the net. The sample is used to estimate the populations, number, and location of animals in parts of the Gulf. The Bongo also has instruments attached to it that measure temperature, salinity (salt), and depth. In addition, the bongos have flowmeters attached to calculate how much water passes through the nets.
The Bongo nets must be rinsed down before being brought into to boat to make sure no plankton is stuck at the top of the nets.
These are complicated tools, and some of the instruments are electronic. If the instruments are not working correctly, the scientists and engineers must have a back-up plan. In fact, at one station, the Bongo instruments were not giving accurate readings when the head of the watch (the scientist in charge) looked at the readings from inside. The back-up plan was for the deckhands to use less accurate depth finding instruments when lowering the Bongo. This can sometimes present a problem because if the instruments are off, and the Bongo drags on the bottom, a lot of mud can end up in the sample. Fortunately, a little troubleshooting, in the form of tightening some connections, solved the problem. Sometimes it’s easy to forget to check the obvious!
Once the Neuston and Bongo are up, we can detach the cod ends, and get to work preserving the plankton samples. The plankton from the Neuston, and from each of the Bongo cod ends, are preserved and stored separately. The Neuston and right Bongo plankton are rinsed through a very fine sieve with a chemical solution that is mostly ethanol, and then poured through a funnel into a jar, which is finally filled with the ethanol solution. The left Bongo plankton is handled similarly, but instead of being stored in ethanol, it is stored in salt water from the Gulf, and a small amount of formalin. Formalin contains a small amount of formaldehyde, and is used to preserve tissues. It is a toxic chemical that is harmful to humans, and must be handled very carefully, always using gloves. The samples are later sent to various laboratories to be sorted and counted. In addition to providing information about amount and location of different species, scientists can also use the preserved plankton to determine the age, as specific as the number of days old, and genetics of the baby sea animal. The formalin helps preserve the otoliths a LOT better, where the ethanol helps preserve the tissue and/or DNA better. The otolith is part of the inner ear of the animal and is the part that is used to determine age.
The work station at the stern of Oregon II is where we rinse the plankton and add the chemicals for preservation.Sometimes we have to remove jellyfish from our samples. The plankton must be rinsed off the jellyfish before counting and discarding them.
With stations normally being about three hours apart, it would seem like we should have a lot of down time. However, when there is a lot of sargassum in the Neuston, it must be rinsed to try to get the plankton out of it. This can take quite a long time. In addition, sometimes we do get small fish or other animals that need to be sorted, counted, measured and weighed.
There were over 300 of these file fish in one plankton sample. The color made them difficult to find in the sargassum.A pipe fish from one of the Neuston samples. What does it remind you of?This is a plankton sample from a Neuston tow after it has been preserved in ethanol.
Don’t forget to track our progress by visiting http://shiptracker.noaa.gov/shiptracker.html and choosing Oregon II. While you are there, don’t forget to check out the different types of maps available for tracking Oregon II. Look in the upper left-hand corner (Streets, Topo, Imagery, NOAA Nautical Charts, and Weather).
Personal Log
Settling in and enjoying the ride
The first three days of the trip had us motoring through incredibly calm waters and sunny days. Some of the veteran crew members commented that they had never seen the Gulf so calm. As we traveled further from Pascagoula, the water started getting bluer and bluer. It is hard to describe the deep blue that we sailed through and the camera just doesn’t seem to capture it. As we left the waters around Pascagoula, we saw many large ships, possible oil tankers, and quite a few oil rigs. However, once we passed them, we’ve barely seen another boat. It is something to look out from the bow of the boat and see nothing but water in every direction.
A calm day in the Gulf of Mexico
As promised, the food on board is delicious. The cooks take great pride in the food they serve, and there are always choices at every meal. We’ve had beef tenderloin, veal parmesan, omelets, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, pasta, Mexican, chocolate custard pie, cookies, pecan pie – all homemade! The galley is also well-stocked with snacks. Meals are served on a strict schedule – about an hour and a half for each meal. However, if you know you will miss a meal, the cooks are happy to set some food aside for you, nicely wrapped in the refrigerator. Luckily for me, I have the day shift, and if I miss a meal, it is normally breakfast.
Everyone on the ship has been very encouraging and helpful. Some of the guys did a dive and brought me back some interesting shells to share with my students. The other scientists have been incredibly patient and helpful. Kim, the chief scientist, is a great teacher and is always looking for opportunities for me to learn something new, or practice something I just learned!
Did you know?
The starboard side of the ship is the right side, and the port side is the left side. Starboard comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word, “steorbord” because the steering oar was on the right side of the boat. Because of this, the ship would pull up to the dock, or port, on the left side. This would avoid damaging the steering oar.
Questions for my students:
What unit of measurement do you think we use to measure the small fish found in the Neuston and Bongo tows?
Can you think of any sea animals that use plankton as their main source of food? It is okay to research this before you answer!
Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you will check back in a few days for an update!
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 6, 2013
Weather at 21:21 Air temperature: 27°C (81°F)
Barometer: 1016 mb
Humidity: 82 %
Wind speed: 5 knots
Water temp: 26°C
Latitude: 30.13° N
Longitude: 87.96° W
Science and Technology Log
The daily ritual of cleaning up the wet lab
We are steaming our way to port now after 14 days at sea. We will pull in to Pascagoula, Mississippi tomorrow morning. Research has finished and our last task today was to clean up the wet lab. Even though we haven’t had fish in the wet lab in days, a slight fishy smell lingers there and on the stern deck where the nets are stored. My nose must be fairly used to it by this point though, because it was far more noticeable the first days on the boat. A few students asked if the boat was smelly – I think at this point my shoes are the smelliest things on board, despite my efforts to wash off the fish slime and salty crust.
We finished all our trawling stations a few days ago and switched to plankton stations. So instead of pulling up big fish, we used smaller nets to pull up the tiny organisms that float about on ocean currents. We sample with two types of nets: the Neuston net skims the surface of the water and the bongo nets have a weight that pulls them down into deep water.
The Neuston net gathering plankton at the surfaceThe bongo nets being lowered into the water.This batch of plankton has a lot of tiny shrimp and a few little fish
A lot of plankton is microscopic algae and protists that are the base of the ocean food web. This study is more interested in ichthyoplankton – baby fish. Most fish and marine invertebrates actually start life as plankton, floating about until they are big and strong enough to swim against the current. We collect plankton in the nets, transfer them over to glass jars and preserve them in alcohol. Back in the lab scientists will use microscopes to identify and study the little guys.
Tiny planktonic crittersSargassum floating by
Sometimes the Neuston goes through sargassum, a free floating seaweed. The sargassum sometimes floats as small clumps, and sometimes vast mats cover the water. I watched a few pieces float by with fish seeking protection by carefully positioning themselves directly underneath the seaweed. The sargassum is great refuge for little critters and we have to pick through it carefully to pull out all the plankton, many of which are well camouflaged in the tangle of orange.
Tiny fish living in the protection of floating sargassum. Notice how well they camouflage with the orange/brown of the sargassum.
Personal Log
The folks on board the Oregon II are knowledgeable, professional, and a whole lot of fun. I’d love to introduce you to everyone – but I’m out of time, so let’s go with the day watch science team.
The science day watch team – Mara, Joey, Andre, Sarah, and CaitlinAndre measures a sting ray.
Andre, our watch leader, is a biologist with the groundfish survey at the NOAA Pascagoula lab. He can identify and give the scientific names for an impressive amount of fish and invertebrates we pull up in the nets. Joey is also a biologist at the labs and while he works mainly with reef fish, he also knows a lot about everything from plankton to sharks. Andre and Joey are also good teachers who helped us learn those scientific names through lots of jokes and nicknames (Celine Dion, Tom Hanks, and Burt from Sesame Street each are now associated with a specific species of fish in my mind, and Mel Gibson is a lovely crab with purple legs).
Mara and Caitlin filling a jar with plankton
Also on our watch are two interns. Caitlin graduates at the end of the summer from University of Texas at Corpus Christi and is on the groundfish survey as part of her summer internship with the Center for Coastal Studies. As part of her internship she dissected a few larger fish to examine their stomach contents, determining if that partially digested thing was a squid, crab, fish, etc. The other member of our team is Mara Castro, from Puerto Rico where she is a graduate student at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan working on her Environmental Health Masters degree. She is doing an internship at the Pascagoula labs this summer and came out for this leg of the groundfish survey. Her favorite part of being on the boat is working with the fish, especially trying to identify them. She also loves the unusual fish we pull up, from transparent plankton to large shark suckers.
I have loved being out at sea for two weeks, but sometimes I felt a little trapped in such a small space. Then I would go up to the top deck, the flying bridge, and enjoy the view and the wind. It is a great place to watch the water and clouds and look for dolphins and birds. On a regular day on land I would move my body a lot more through normal activities like walking around the grocery store or climbing the stairs to the 3rd floor office at school. When I found myself with pent up energy I’d drag out the rowing machine or yoga mat that are stored up on the flying bridge to get some exercise. I have mixed feelings about reaching port tomorrow. I am ready to be on land again, but will miss all the people I have gotten to know and the beauty of the sea.
CDCPS Science Students –
Where do you think the bongo nets got their name?
What does ” ichthyo” mean? Two words that use this root are ichthyoplankton and ichthyologist.
NOAA Teacher at Sea Chris Peters Onboard NOAA Ship Oregon II July 10 – 19, 2013
Mission: SEAMAP Summer Groundfish Survey Geographic Area of Cruise: Gulf of Mexico, leaving from Pascagoula, MS Date: July 3, 2013
Welcome to my NOAA blog!
A little about my background…
Christine Peters
I am Christina (Chris) Peters, from Farmland Elementary School in Rockville, Maryland. I have been a fourth grade teacher at Farmland for the past eight years, after trying out some other careers. While my past teaching has included all subjects, I am excited to get to focus more on science this coming year as my team will be departmentalizing and I will be teaching two classes of science. We spend half the school year learning about life sciences and the environment.
I grew up only a few miles from where I teach today, and was the third of ten children in my family. My father loved to fish and used to take us fishing, in turns of course, in his seventeen foot motor boat. Most often we fished in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of New Jersey, where my family frequently visited. We also fished in the Chesapeake Bay on occasion. One of my favorite summer meals was fresh bluefish. These experiences taught me to love the water, and to care about protecting that environment.
My father and I after a fishing trip. I was about ten, the same age as many of my students.
In addition to learning about and participating in the SEAMAP Summer Groundfish Survey, I will be learning something else completely new to me – how to blog! While I consider myself pretty technologically informed, I am new to blogging and am very excited, and a little nervous, about writing my own blog describing my Teacher at Sea experience.
Our mission on Oregon II
I will be flying to Mississippi next week and will be joining the crew of Oregon II on July 10 to participate in the SEAMAP Summer Groundfish Survey. To see pictures of the Oregon II, and to learn more about the ship, you can visit the website that describes details of the ship, as well as the different past and present projects for which Oregon II has been used. We will be departing from Pascagoula, Mississippi and measuring data on groundfish in the Gulf of Mexico. The Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) is a state/federal program designed to collect, manage and disseminate fishery-independent data in the southeastern U.S. I am excited to learn more about how the scientists and crew actually complete the surveys and record data. One of my goals is to pass along what I learn to everyone who reads my blog.
Furthermore, while the Groundfish Survey is the mission of the scientists and crew onboard Oregon II, I will have an additional goal of learning all about the jobs of the crew, and sharing much of that information with the readers of my blog. Hopefully, when you read about these exciting and important careers, many of you will consider the possibility of pursuing one similar to those described.
To all my upcoming fourth grade students, I am looking forward to adapting the data collection tools I learn about to our science activities in the coming year. I hope my past students will visit my blog and think about connections they can make to our fourth grade science units where we created and observed our own model ecosystems.
