Mission: Acoustic Trawl Survey (Leg 3 of 3) Geographic Area of Cruise: Pacific Ocean/ Gulf of Alaska Date: Saturday, August 19, 2023
Weather Data Lat 58.1 N, Lon 150.1 W Sky condition: Partly Sunny Wind Speed: 5.81 knots Wind Direction: 346.98° Air Temp: 12.91 °C
Science Log
The last trawl sample that the OscarDyson’s crew and scientist’s took was in deep water with a Methot net, named after Dr. Rick Methot, the NOAA scientist who developed it. This type of trawl net slows down the water as marine organisms tumble into it, so their delicate bodies are not crushed. The codend looks a lot like what you would see in a plankton tow, only it will catch a lot more organisms.
Michal Levine as he removes the codend from the Methot trawl net
Sub-samples are taken from what the Methot catches. Some krill is preserved and sent back to NOAA in Seattle for identification and analysis. On board, the krill are weighed and counted. The krill and other organisms are small, so the tools used to sort them are designed for capturing and moving small organisms.
The tools used to sort krill
Krill
After the last krill was counted and weighed, the science team quickly jumped into action cleaning up the Fish Lab. Yes, I am including this in the science log, because cleanup is an important part of science that many high school students seem to forget.
Totes and baskets were scrubbed and then washed with a pressure hose
The crew had unreeled the trawl nets and were getting ready to ship them to Washington state.
Trawl nets neatly stacked on deck
Personal Blog
Being a Teacher at Sea on the Oscar Dyson was a fantastic way to end the summer for me. Shortly I will be heading back to Anchorage where high school has already started and students have already been to my class with a substitute teacher. I look forward to teaching school, but am so thankful for the opportunity to have this adventure.
It has been so wonderful working with the science team on this cruise. After so many unforeseen delays the objectives were met through team work and the organizational skills of the lead scientist Taina Honkalehto.
The people on this ship really enjoy working on the ocean. Whether it is captaining the boat, engineering, the mess, to programming echo sounders, identifying species of fish, weighing and sampling them, they all love what they do. They also really care about the work that they are doing, the health of the ocean, and they want to support the people working and living with it. Also, there is a unique brand of humor that comes with working together for extended periods of time at sea. You just have to laugh at strange fish that come aboard and wonder at the beautiful sunsets or northern lights.
A Grenadier fishSunset at Montague islandAurora from the aft deck
On the bridge I found the ship’s communication flags. These flags are a way to communicate with other ships if the radios are not working or to hang on holidays with a message. When I was a kid back in Ketchikan, Alaska, I admired the flags so much I would draw cartoons with flag messages. So, to NOAA, the science team and the crew of the OscarDyson…
T
H
A
N
K
S
May the seas lie smooth before you. May a gentle breeze forever fill your sails. May sunshine warm your face, and Kindness warm your soul. – An Irish Sailor’s Blessing
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska Long-Term Ecological Research project
Geographic Area of Cruise: Northern Gulf of Alaska – currently
sampling in Prince William Sound
Date: September 14, 2019
Weather Data from the Bridge:
Time: 16:10 Latitude: 59º19.670’ Longitude: 146º07.196’ Wind: East 5 knots Air Temperature: 14.5ºC (58ºF) Air Pressure: 1010 millibars Clear skies
Science
and Technology Log
A Methot net is not your typical plankton
net. This large net hooks to a
stainless-steel frame and has a mesh size of 3mm. Its purpose: large jellyfish collection! The Methot is unique not only for its size
but also in its method of deployment.
The net must be craned off the starboard (right side) of the ship and
submerged just under the water. It is
then towed for 20 minutes at the surface. Similar to the smaller plankton nets,
there is a “cod-end” bucket that helps collect the jellies as the water filters
out of the net.
Heidi working to tighten the shackles on one setup for the Methot net.
Emily helps place the flow meter on the net prior to deployment to measure water flow for quantifying the abundance of organisms caught.
The setup of the Methot is tricky. The frame that we are using was fabricated
locally for these nets so there isn’t a manual for setup and a lot if trial and
error is involved in the setup process.
This entails a lot of wrenching on shackles to connect the net to the
frame, trying out a setup and then trying again once it is in place and we can
watch the positioning and motion of the net in the water. Fortunately, we have an amazingly positive
team so we were able to meet each challenge and come up with a solution. Our fourth time in resetting the net seems to
be the charm.
The Methot being craned into the water.
The Methot looks like a giant wind sock when it is fully extended in tow next to the ship.
Heidi Islas is our onboard jellyfish guru. I have never met anyone who loves jellyfish more than Heidi, and this passion and enthusiasm translates directly toward her commitment to her research. She is currently working on her master’s degree at UAF with Russ Hopcroft as her advisor. Her specific research thesis is, “the abundance and distribution of gelatinous zooplankton in the Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA).” Currently there is no baseline data on the type and biomass of the large jellies in the NGA so Heidi’s work is so important in helping identify not only what is present but how these jellies may be playing a role in this ecosystem particularly as predators on small fish.
Heidi is about to open the cod-end where the jellies are trapped at the end of the net. A few of our samples were so full the jellies were up into the net and we needed the assistance of the crane to lift it back onboard.
One of our first collections had only a few but a nice variety of jellies: 2 Lion’s Mane, 1 albino Lion’s Mane, 1 Sea Nettle and 1 Crystal jelly.
Our typical sampling includes running either a
Bongo net or Multinet off the stern (back) of the boat to collect zooplankton,
and then immediately following we lower the Methot net for its 20-minute
tow. One of the deckhands, either Dave
or Jen, run the crane for us, while the four of us help move and position the
net into and out of the water. At the
end of the tow, we hose down the net and then open the cod-end to see what we
have collected. Our first few tows had
only a few jellies but a little more variety.
Last night however, as we moved into deeper water south of Middleton
island, we had a large number of jellies to process. We assist Heidi in measuring the diameter of
bells of the jellies, as well as collecting volume and mass measurements. We then preserve any zooplankton and fish we
collect for analysis by fisheries scientists back in the lab.
Emily assists Heidi in measuring and massing the jellies.
Even though it is 3am, Heidi and I are pretty excited about our sample of Crystal jellies.
Many people might ask, why should we care about
the jellyfish? It all comes back to the
food web connectivity. For example, it
is known that jellies will feed on smaller zooplankton, such as copepods and
euphausiids (krill), but also on fish larvae, such as pollock. The commercial pollock fishery is very
interested in identifying any factor that may impact the adult pollock
numbers. Additionally, very little is
known about what else the jellies are eating, or in what quantity. So many questions arise about how these
jellies might be impacted food availability for other species as well as serving
as a food source themselves.
Russ examines a polychaete worm that was part of our sample.
Another very interesting piece of research for Heidi apart from her thesis focus is how are jellies responding to climate change. A current hypothesis was that jellies increase in number during warming events, suggesting that they may become more abundant as our climate changes with even greater impact other species. In her research on this topic, Heidi came across a paper published in 2013 that challenges this hypothesis. It demonstrated that jellyfish actually follow a natural cycle of growth and decline with a peak in abundance every 19 years. Heidi decided to analyze data that NOAA Fisheries had collected over a 38-year period from bottom trawls in the NGA. She too saw the same cycle emerge. Although this is exciting data, it leads to many more questions for her to explore. Such as what is driving this cyclic pattern?
Emily holds a giant Sea Nettle that actually got trapped in our Bongo net. We measured it before sending it back to sea.
In both the scientific and non-scientific world it is easy to see a correlation of cause and effect and jump to a conclusion. What I am realizing from the research going on aboard R/V Tiglax is that numerous variables must be considered before true causes can be determined from the data. This is why collaboration in research is so important. Physical, chemical and biological oceanographers along with fisheries biologists must work together to gain more holistic view of this NGA ecosystem to help unravel its secrets.
Personal Log
Fortitude is my word for the past few
days. I have learned so much on this
trip so far, including two important pieces of information about myself. One is that my body does not like to work
nights. The days are blurring together
for me as I adjust to my shift work. I
can say that it is definitely not an easy transition because the transition
requires more than just adjusting sleep times, but also eating patterns as
well. On Friday night, due to the nature
of our stations, we were not able to start our shift work until 1am. By 5:30 in the morning as we began our last
sample, I literally fell asleep on the rales of the ship waiting for our Bongo
net to surface. I think in another day
or two, I will have it figured out.
A second piece of information I learned about
myself, I am allergic to the scopolamine patch!
Early on Friday, I realized I was developing a rash, which soon
spread. The itching was becoming a
problem and so I immediately discontinued an antibiotic I was taking thinking
it was the culprit. After the rash
worsened, I then realized it was likely the patch. After speaking with Captain John, he
confirmed that this is a nasty side effect for some people. I removed the patch Saturday and transitioned
back to my usual medicine for motion sickness prevention: Bonine.
Unfortunately, 24 hours later, the rash and itching persists. Russ and John joke that they will be taping
my fingers soon, so I better behave.
After the first storm passed we were lucky
enough to have several days of beautiful and surprisingly warm weather as we
started along the Middleton line. I was
able to spend time on the fly bridge with Dan birding and mammal monitoring. I will definitely highlight more on this in a
later blog. From Friday to Saturday I
was fortunate enough to watch both amazing sunsets and sunrises as well as
enjoy the beauty of the full moon.
Sunset over the Northern Gulf of Alaska!
Another storm is forecast to be upon us by late
Sunday evening, so our plan is to finish the Middleton line tonight and be in
transit to GAK1 (just outside of Resurrection Bay) overnight. Currently it is calling for East 40 knot
winds and 11-13 foot seas. It should be
a fun ride.
Did You Know?
The jellies we are sampling all started out in the benthic (bottom) habitat in what is known as a polyp stage of their life cycle. These polyps are attached to the bottom and will asexually bud off into the water column. At this point, the jellies are only approximately a half of a centimeter in size. It is estimated that it takes approximately a year for the jellies to grow to the full adult medusa stage. The medusa is the bell-shaped, free floating stage that everyone recognizes as a jellyfish. This amount of growth requires a lot of energy input, and thus these jellies must feed continuously to reach the adult sizes. It is not known for sure, but it is estimated that the jellies will spend approximately a year in this phase in which they sexually reproduce. The larva will then settle back to the benthic environment and start the cycle all over again.
Geographic Area of Cruise: Gulf of Alaska (Kodiak to Yakutat Bay)
Date: 7/30/2019
Weather Data from the Gulf of Alaska: Lat: 58º 50.39’ N Long: 150º 14.72’ W
Air Temp: 14.2º C
Personal Log
Today we had the chance to sail up into Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula and it was beautiful! In general, transects, or lines the boat collects acoustic information along, run perpendicular to the Gulf of Alaska shelf because that is where pollock are most likely found. Luckily for us, a few of them travel up into bays along the coast and give us a welcomed change of scenery from the open ocean.
A map of the transects we followed up into Resurrection Bay.
Why do we survey in bays when pollock are usually open water fish? Well, during the winter, pollock sometimes aggregate to spawn (reproduce) in bays and those areas are documented by the scientists. In the summer, scientists want to see if there are still any pollock present in those areas. Unfortunately, we do not have time to survey all of the bays and so just a few are selected. For this leg, after the next couple of days back on the shelf, we will head up into Prince William Sound, which I am really looking forward to seeing.
The town of Seward – can you spot the cruise ship?
While following the transects up into Resurrection Bay, it was fun to see sailboats, fishing boats, helicopters and float planes rushing around us. To my surprise, I also saw masses of RV campers through the binoculars when looking at town. I learned that Seward is a popular place for people to visit from Anchorage and other areas for summer vacations and fishing opportunities. As for those of us on the boat, we also enjoyed the summer weather while sailing through. The sun was shining and it seemed that everyone took a moment to step outside, make a few phone calls home (we had service for a bit!) and soak up the warm weather. All in all, I think everyone feels re-energized going into our final 10 days at sea.
Enjoying the sunshine from the top deck of the boat
Science and Technology Log
We stopped to fish near the mouth of Resurrection Bay and found mostly age 1 and 2 pollock, along with a few adults. This shows us that pollock do utilize both the bay and the shelf areas during their lifecycle. Afterwards, we headed back out into the gulf and fished with a net called a Methot net.
The Methot net gets lifted up by the A-frame (yellow metal beams). I did not know the A-frame moved before this!
A Methot net is a different kind of net that is specialized to catch Euphausiids (krill). In addition to collecting data on pollock, scientists also collect data on Euphausiids (krill). The net used to collect krill is a bit different than the one used for pollock. There are no pocket nets along the side and instead of the end of the net being mesh, there is a small canister that the net filters krill into. Once we haul in the net, it is time to sort and collect data on the catch, just like the pollock trawls.
Processing fish in the wet lab. This one had a lot of jellies! Photo by Darin Jones
It has been back to regular fishing trawls since then, along with comparison trawls. A comparison trawl is when we fish twice over the same area using two different nets. This year, the scientists decided to replace the old survey net with a newly designed one that is a little bit smaller and easier for the deck crew to deploy. Now they need to compare the two nets to make sure the newer net is catching the same species and size of fish. Darin was explaining to me that they have to do approximately 25 comparison trawls on this survey and will continue comparisons during the winter survey as well. If all goes according to plan, they will permanently replace the old net next summer.
On one of our trawls the other day, we caught a lot of rockfish. Lucky for us, rockfish is a species we can keep and eat on the boat. We are not allowed to keep salmon, crab, halibut or herring since they are prohibited species. You are only allowed to keep those species if you have a special permit. While I wish we could eat the others, rockfish is also really tasty!
Lead scientist, Darin Jones, filleting dusky rockfish for dinner.
Did You Know?
There is an incinerator on NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson that burns all of our trash from the boat so that we don’t have to keep it aboard for the whole trip. Also, nothing is thrown overboard, not even food scraps. When I was taking a look yesterday, the temperature was over 800 degrees Celsius. Diesel fuel is used as fuel initially, followed by burning sludge from the boat once it gets hot enough. All leftover ash gets put into bins and discarded when back in port.
Thanks for following along!
Cheers, Jess
P.S. We go up and watch the sunrise everyday…it is beautiful out here!
Abigail McCarthy watches the sunrise every morning and ranks them. This one earned a “glorious!”
Mission: Northern Gulf of Alaska (NGA) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Geographic Area of Cruise:
Northern Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 17, 2019
Science Log
For the love of jellies
Heidi and the objects of her affection
Team Jelly on the job!
Jellyfish (or jellies, since they’re not technically fish) are one of the “delights” of recovering instruments from the sea. Often, the CTD returned to the surface covered in brown slimy tentacles, as did the sediment traps on occasion, which needed careful removal. For most of us, the jellies were more of a nuisance, but for Heidi Mendoza Islas, the jellies are love.
Heidi was on the night shift, which I didn’t get to spend as much time with as I would have liked, and her research was based on nightly Methot net drops and subsequent jelly inventories. The Methot net is a 10-meter long net on a square metal frame (roughly 5 meters per side). The net is dragged off the side of the ship for 20 minutes and then recovered. Led by Dr. Ken Coyle, Heidi and the night shift team of Caitlin, Delaney and Adriana then counted the jellies, recorded their type and their volume by type. One night, Heidi’s jelly count reached nearly 900! In the brief time I did spend with the team, I saw Heidi’s passion for jellies in her eyes and heard it in her voice as she lovingly explained the different types they had caught, often exclaiming, “Isn’t it beautiful?” Indeed, watching them swim next to the ship on our calmest days, they were.
What do you want kids to learn from your research?
Heidi: I would like to let people know that there are a ton of jellies out there in the ocean. They are very resilient to changes in the environment such as warmer temperatures, higher salinities, and low levels of oxygen, so this can allow them to easily scale up on the food chain and they might take advantage over other species like larval fish. As part of my research, I would like to determine if any correlations exist among jellyfish biomass, the environmental variables, and the early life stages of pollock.
Methot net in the water
Methot net dipping under
Methot net up on deck
Catch full of jellies
Personal Log
This Was Not A Drill:
As on any ship, safety at sea is a top priority. Early on in the voyage, Artie Levine, the Third Mate, gave us a safety briefing that included learning how to handle a fire extinguisher as well as how to put on our immersion suits and find our muster stations (gathering places) in case of emergency. We were warned at that point that a drill would occur later in the trip. Kira (my roommate) and I studied the information card on the back of our stateroom door that listed the signals for various emergencies just so we’d be prepared. It’s a testament to how seriously everyone took the safety briefing that when the ship first started sounding fog signals a couple of nights later, many of us popped our heads out of our rooms, ready to muster!
Near the end of the second week, we were indeed drilled, although we were kindly given advance warning on the message board in the mess hall. In any type of emergency, each member of the science team is required to retrieve their immersion suits and PFDs from their rooms and report to their muster stations. In addition, you must have a hat (watch cap or trucker hat) and clothing with long sleeves. In order to reduce the stress of the event, the announcement of the drill is preceded by the statement, “This is a drill” repeated several times.
My exit from the ship was a little earlier than planned, but provided both the land and ship crew with essentially a live drill practice. I woke up the morning of July 12th and found that I was experiencing severe vertigo from rolling over too quickly in bed overnight. Needless to say, it’s pretty miserable when it happens on a moving ship! Artie Levine, the Third Mate, and Christoph Gabaldo, the Chief Mate, came to take care of me and moved me to the infirmary. After my symptoms had calmed down some, it was decided that, since we were about an hour out of Seward by small boat, and that the ship was scheduled to move on to the Kodiak Line, that it would be best to bring me ashore. Artie took me in the next morning on the ship’s rescue boat. Pete, having some work he needed to do ashore, plus being a genuinely nice guy, came with me as well. Ed DeCastro, the Port Captain, met us at the dock, took me to get checked out and then found a place for me to stay. In talking to Ed, the ship and land crews do go over procedures for evacuation in theory, and they were actually grateful to be able to practice the procedures in reality without having a serious situation on their hands. I am grateful that they are prepared for any emergency, because I was taken care of very well. Thank you, Artie, Christoph and Ed, for you compassion and your professionalism!
I got on the ship not really knowing what to expect. Everything was pretty new to me, from being in Alaska, to the research, to being on a big ship. Despite my early exit, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the chance to meet a great group of people who really are unsung heroes for the research they are doing. Whether they were adding data to years of previous research or developing new ways to track changes in the ecosystem, they are on the front lines of climate change research. It was a privilege to be aboard the R/V Sikuliaq with them. Speaking of…the R/V Sikuliaq is an amazing ship with capabilities I only began to learn about. Thank you to Eric, our captain, for answering my questions about dynamic positioning and Z-drives. My respect also goes out to the crew as well for being professional in all regards and unfailingly helpful, from launching and recovering all of our nets and traps, to fixing stuck closets and to cooking 5-star meals.
The ship is is back out now, with some of the same science team on board. To them, and to the TAS who are out or yet to go, I wish you fair winds and calm seas!
Some memorable
moments:
Clay conducting the music in his headphones while doing fluorescence testing
Heidi exclaiming, “Another beautiful girl!” whenever she found a female copepod
The food…it was 5-star at every meal! Doug’s midnight chocolate chip cookies were stellar
The night shift’s tales of how they stayed awake
Cribbage with Pete, Seth and Ana
Lunchtime talks with crew members Jim and Arnel
The “Grunden Girls” (Kate and Kira) on Calvet duty
Pete’s buoys disappearing…and then reappearing (not that we had any doubt)
Steffi and the “Loch Ness monster” (the sediment trap)
Questions of the day
Dan’s mealtime reports on the sea life he saw that day
At present, there are 31 people onboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson, and each plays a vital role in making sure that everything runs as it should. One person whose job touches each and every one of us is Judy Capper, the Chief Steward. One might think that being onboard a ship for three weeks would mean limited food choices, or lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but so far every meal onboard the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson has been abundant and delicious. From shrimp kabobs to stuffed pork loin to homemade soups to delicious baked goods, Judy keeps everyone onboard fed and happy.
I got a chance to talk to Judy about her job and her journey to becoming a NOAA Chief Steward. Judy’s first career was in the corporate world (including Hewlitt-Packard) but being the oldest of 5 siblings, she has been cooking since the age of 12. An interest in cooking led her to study culinary arts at UCLA and other locations. She then took seamanship training at Orange Coast College. At the time, she owned a sailboat, and enjoyed cooking and entertaining on the boat. The captain loved her cooking and asked if she would be interested in cooking on some sailboat charters. That led to working on yachts and supply ships, and lucky for us, in 2015, Judy was hired by NOAA. Judy loves her job as a NOAA Steward. She says it is never boring and allows her to be creative. Her advice for anyone interested in following in her footsteps is to eat in good restaurants so that you develop your taste buds, get good training, and watch cooking shows.
Judy Capper, Chief Steward Extraordinaire
Science and Technology Log
Last night we used a different kind of net, known as a Methot net, in order to collect macroscopic zooplankton. Named after its designer, Richard D. Methot, it is a single net with a large square opening or mouth attached to a rigid steel frame. The net is deployed from the stern and towed behind the vessel.
Deploying the Methot Net
The Methot uses fine mesh (e.g. 2×3 mm) but has openings that are slightly larger. This design allows the net to be towed at high speeds. A flowmeter suspended in the mouth of the Methot net measures the flow of water moving through the net. Scientists use the flowmeter data to calculate the volume of water sampled.
The flowmeter
Watching the crew preparing to launch the Methot net was a lesson in teamwork. Everyone knew their job, and they reviewed what each would do when. They even discussed what hand signals they would use (“If I make this movement, that means XYZ”).
The Methot net did catch a lot more krill than I had seen before, as well as many jellyfish.
One of the many Chrysaora melanaster we came across.
Fun Jellyfish Facts:
Jellyfish are
invertebrates, and have no brain, heart, eyes, or bones. Instead they have a bag-like body that feels
like slippery jello and tentacles covered with small, stinging cells. They sting and paralyze their prey before
eating it. A jellyfish sting can be
painful, but it is not usually harmful for humans. However, some people may be allergic to the
venom, and will have a reaction.
