lab – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Charlotte Sutton
Aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker
June 7 – June 18, 2024

Mission: Rockfish Recruitment and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (RREAS)

Geographic Area of Cruise: Pacific Ocean; U.S. West Coast

Date: June 6th, 2024

Weather Data (Santa Cruz)

Date: 06/06/2024
Time: 08:00
Latitude: 36.98°N
Temperature: 60°F
Longitude: 122.01°W

Introduction

Hello! My name is Charlotte Sutton and I am thrilled to be a Teacher at Sea for the 2024 Season. I have been teaching for 5 years, and currently teach preschool at Orion Elementary at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson (JBER), Alaska. It is truly my passion to teach our littlest learners, and to help them grow and learn each day. Teaching in Alaska, students are surrounded by nature and wildlife. JBER is located near both the Knik Arm (Dena’ina: Nuti) and the Turnagain Arm (Dena’ina: Tutl’uh) waterways that are part of the northwestern Gulf of Alaska, as well as many mountain ranges and forests. My students are very curious about the world around them, and often tell me about the fish (especially salmon), beluga whales, moose, and bears that they see around the Anchorage area. In my classroom, I love to help students investigate the world around them by explicitly teaching and practicing the foundations of the scientific inquiry process to help them to become resilient problem solvers not just in preschool but in the years ahead.

I plan to use my experience as a NOAA Teacher at Sea to educate and inform students about the world’s oceans not just in my own classroom but throughout my community on JBER.

A view of Charlotte sitting at the helm of a small boat. She's wearing a navy blue windbreaker with the hood pulled tightly over a baseball cap, smiling, and squinting a bit into the wind. In the foreground is a compass mounted on the vessel beyond the helm. In the background, we see a cloudy sky over gray waters, with developed shoreline, trees, and the silhouettes of far distant mountains.

A wintery scene; snow blankets the ground. The outer wall of a school building fills the left side of the photo. To the right is a snowy field, a shed, and icy trees. In the center, a mother moose stands looking after her young; the juvenile moose is resting on the snow against the building wall.

Photos: Charlotte Sutton; A mother and juvenile moose outside Orion Elementary in JBER, Alaska; View of the Turnagain Arm waterway, Alaska, taken from Bird Point Trail

Science and Technology Log

This week I will be aboard the NOAA Vessel Reuben Lasker as a NOAA Teacher at Sea. The Reuben Lasker is a fisheries survey vessel, meaning the primary mission to “support fish, marine mammal, seabird and turtle surveys off the U.S. West Coast and in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean”. The main scientific focus of the upcoming mission is the Rockfish Recruitment and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (RREAS). This survey has been conducted since 1983, and the data collected on rockfish and other fish like salmon helps scientists to better understand the heath of different fish species, and make predictions and assessments of ocean trends.

When I arrived in Santa Cruz, I had the opportunity to meet with NOAA Corps Officer LTJG Bonnie Vierra, who gave me a tour around Southwest Fisheries Science Center Santa Cruz Lab. This lab is where NOAA scientists and their team conduct research and operations when not at sea. This lab hosts an array of scientists who conduct various projects. I’m excited to join the NOAA crew aboard the Lasker soon!

A partial whale skeleton (lacking skull and perhaps pectoral fin bones) mounted on metal posts at a cliffside. Coastal plants cover most of the sand surrounding the display, but a picnic bench is visible in a clearing to the right. Beyond the vegetation, the gray ocean blends into the cloudy white-gray sky, creating a notable contrast with the brown whale bones. — **Photo**: *Partial Whale Skeleton outside of the Southwest Fisheries Science Center Santa Cruz Lab*

several small vessels on boat trailers in a line at the boatyard. We can see shelves of equipment to the left, and a small garage and sheds behind the vessels.

View inside a lab - workbenches, overhead lights, microscopes, stacks of containers.

Photos: Small NOAA vessels, research lab, and salmon tank at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center Santa Cruz Lab

Full-wall indoor mural depicting species found off the California coast, including rockfish, salmon, opah

view out the window of the lab over the coastal dunes; a small stained glass sturgeon hangs from threads over the top of the window

Photos: Art found at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center Santa Cruz Lab

Personal Log

Before I left for my Teacher at Sea trip, I received a last minute invitation to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Ocean Awards Gala. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s mission is “The Foundation is a leading voice for U.S. protected waters, working with communities to conserve and expand those special places for a healthy ocean, coasts, and Great Lakes. Working together, we safeguard species and the places they call home, and preserve America’s maritime history.” The foundation supports the NOAA mission as the official nonprofit partner to NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary System.

I happened to sit at the same table as Rear Admiral (RADM) Chad Cary. RADM Cary is currently deputy director for operations, NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO), and deputy director, NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps). He also was a previous Commanding Officer (CO) of the NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker which I’ll be sailing on in just a few days! He had so many wonderful things to say about both the science research team and the officers and crew of the Lasker. RADM Cary is also originally from Alaska, and I was so fortunate to get to speak with him before my upcoming time at sea aboard the Lasker.

I am so excited for the journey ahead!

Charlotte, in a full length floral dress, stands under the words "Ocean Awards Gala" projected against a curved stone wall — Charlotte Sutton

a group of people in formal wear mingle at a gala — Charlotte Sutton

Photos: Charlotte Sutton; National Marine Sanctuary Foundation Gala at Union Station in Washington D.C.; Charlotte Sutton and RADM Chad Cary

NOAA Teacher at Sea: Sue Zupko
NOAA Ship: Pisces
Mission: Extreme Corals 2011; Study deep water coral and its habitat off the east coast of FL
Geographical Area of Cruise: SE United States from off Mayport, FL to St. Lucie, FL
Date: June 8, 2011
Time: 1900

Weather Data from the Bridge
Position: 25.3°N 79.6°W
Present weather: 3/8 Alto Cumulus
Visibility: 10 n.m.
Wind Direction: 065°true
Wind Speed: 10 kts
Surface Wave Height: 3 ft
Swell Wave Direction: 110°
Swell Wave Height: 3 ft
Surface Water Temperature: 28.4°
Barometric Pressure: 1013.2 mb
Water Depth: 363 m
Salinity: 36.28 PSU
Wet/Dry Bulb: 27.7/24.8

This blog runs in chronological order. If you haven’t been following, scroll down to “1 Introduction to my Voyage on the Pisces” and work your way back.

Take this quiz before reading this post.

Bucket hanging by rope in water — Straining bucket

Dr. Diego Figueroa and I went fishing over the side of the ship this evening with a straining bucket to try to catch zooplankton (animals which cannot swim against the current–free floating). We had no plankton net so we had to improvise.

Diego pouring a cup of water into a bucket from the bottom — Diego pours water into the bottom of the bucket

Diego, a zooplankton expert, got a plastic container like you’d use to store food in the fridge, and we headed to the lab with what we hoped would be a good catch. He got a cup of salt water from the special faucet in the ship’s science lab and poured it into the bottom of the bucket. As he poured the water, he had the plastic container at the top of the it to retrieve our catch.

Diego peering into a plastic food container with water — Diego examines our catch

We then examined the container to see what the naked eye could find.

Wow! Our first specimen was a shrimp. It’s huge. Well, huge in comparison to the other zooplankton. We still saw it best under the microscope. He left that in to container to pull out later and caught some copepods with an eye dropper.

White buglike creature, transluscent, with long antennae — Calanus copepod

Eureka! There were at least six Calanus copepods. Cope– is Greek for oar or handle and pod– means foot or limb. These are very common off the coast of Florida and about 80% of all the zooplankton on the planet are some type of copepod. He explained that the Calanus has five rows of legs that flap downward (like the doggie paddle that most of of use when learning to swim) in order to move around. The Calanus eats phytoplankton (algae), making it a primary consumer. It has five pairs of mouth parts. The hairy seta (the plural is called setae) act like a sieve when it eats. This is so interesting. The Calanus opens its mouth parts and gathers water molecules toward its body. Then, it pulls its mouth parts in and squeezes the water out. What’s left is a scrumptious meal of diatoms. The grazing copepod we watched was a female. Her tail is shaped differently than the male’s tail.

The shrimp is at least 20 times bigger than the Calanus. Diego hasn’t studied the shrimp like he has the copepods. That’s because the shrimp are one of the bigger zooplankton and large ones make up only about 5% of all zooplankton. He says that there are more copepods in the world than all the insects combined. That makes sense since the earth’s surface is 71% water.

Jellyfish with tentacles spread against a black background with white particles near — Jellyfish in snow

When the ROV was flying through the ocean, we always saw snow in the water. I used to scuba dive a lot and I never really noticed the snow. If it was deep, they weren’t there. Andy David explained that we see them so well since we’re shining light on them. These are mostly zooplankton in the water. In addition, there is a bunch of decaying organic matter called detritus flying along.

Curled up bee looking creature — Hyperiid

Further examination of the water yielded a Microsetella rosea, a hyperiid, and a Chaetognath (arrow worm). The Microsetella is a detritis-eating filter feeder, but it is only about 1/5 the size of the Calanus. Well, with micro in its name, small had to figure into it somehow. Since it’s small, it eats smaller things.

Clear ghost-like arrow-shaped creature surrounded by lines of white — Arrow worm

The arrow worm is like something from a horror movie because it attacks its prey viciously (it’s a carnivore and is a voracious predator). I asked what all the other floating bits were in the water. Detritus. It’s the snow we kept seeing.

White shrimp with one claw showing viewed through microscope — Shrimp

Diego has a special camera which attaches to the microscope. We would examine the zooplankton in the petri dish and then he would take off the microscope eyepiece and insert his camera. Then, through the viewfinder, he would try to find the zooplankton resting somewhere. Apparently, they don’t rest much, but he still got photographs.

Diego searches for our catch under the microscope while Sue looks on — Diego hunting for zooplankton

I really enjoyed this mini lab. Diego taught me things about plankton in general and I now better understand this amazing world of particulates in the ocean a bit better. Jana and I had gone on deck last night to see what it was like in the pitch black. We discovered it isn’t totally dark, though your eyes do have to adjust. The moon kept peeking from between clouds off the starboard (right) side and lights shone from portholes below deck. These lights reflected off the waves and were so fascinating to watch. I’ve only had a beachside view of the ocean at night so this was a real treat. Jana and I watched for bioluminescence in the water, a sign of some plankton. We found little sparkles of green in the wave and hypothesized these were zooplankton. After explaining what we had seen to Diego, he confirmed that these were zooplankton rather than phytoplankton. Zooplankton have little sparkles in turning water while phytoplankton will cover a large area and just glow. Too interesting.

Special thanks to Diego for sharing his knowledge with me after a long day and to Jana for helping get some pictures of this.

And the answer to the quiz above….Copepods. They are so small you don’t notice them, but there are almost as many copepods as there are grains of sand on the beach. It’s hard to fathom that many creatures swimming around. Diego said that they eat the phytoplankton so fast that often there are more zooplankton than phytoplankton.

Tag: lab

Charlotte Sutton: Introduction, June 7, 2024

Sue Zupko: 12 What’s in the Water?