Tag: NOAA Ship Pisces

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Kiersten Newtoff: WiFi and Memes, Do We Really Need Anything Else? January 17, 2025

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kiersten Newtoff
Aboard NOAA Ship Pisces
January 6 – January 29, 2025

Mission: Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS)
Geographic Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Coast
Date: January 17, 2025
Data from the Bridge: Located at N37°23’0″, W75°5’0″, off the coast of Eastern Shore. A bit chilly at 38°F and very gusty at 21kt wind.

Maslov's Hierarchy of Needs, with "WIFI" added to the base.
A modern take on Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs. Credit: Tolu Aibana

Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs outlines what humans need, arranged in a pyramid. The base of the pyramid starts with physiological needs, including things like food, water, shelter, and sleep. As a general rule, people can’t address needs that are higher in the pyramid until their needs are met lower in the pyramid. It’s been jested that a new level be added to the base of the pyramid: WiFi. Having WiFi or just internet in general can help attain the needs in the pyramid. It is an interesting theory that we have been putting to the test on the Pisces.

Here enters Alex, the Chief Electronics Technician (ET). He handles all things related to electronic equipment, including WiFi. There have been some difficulties getting everyone connected to the internet and it’s been eye opening to see just how much we rely on it. I remember growing up that you had to be hard-lined in, using a phone line, and it was so incredibly slow. WiFi didn’t exist and using the internet was limited. Now 30 years later, our society can barely function without it (I say as I write this blog post, online).

A meme that says "The Internet is Broken!" at top. The picture on the left is of two women yelling and it's titled "Everyone" and the picture on the right is a white cat sitting at a dinner table with a scowl with the text "ET".
Artist: Ian

To the crew, WiFi may seem to be the most important job, but Alex takes care of so much more. He starts every morning checking and testing the SOS system, because “I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t want to be going in that water.” Same Alex, same. After checking the SOS system, he checks in with the crew on the ship to see how they are doing and if they have anything that needs to be updated, changed, fixed, etc. The equipment on a ship takes a beating between wind, waves, and salt. He maintains office hours during the day so that anyone can stop on by and ask him for help with an issue.

Alex the Electronics Techniciation sits at his desk, looking at the camera.
Alex, Chief Electronics Technician aboard NOAA Ship Pisces

This is Alex’s first solo NOAA cruise, but he has been working in the field for quite a long time. He was in the Navy for 4 years, went to community college, completed his bachelors in Neuroscience and Electrical Engineering, and worked in private sector electronics positions. He’s excited for this new role as he is passionate about science and how NOAA does research to benefit people and the environment.

How Can I Become an ET?

The most common pathway to this role is serving in the Navy as either an AET (Advanced Electronics Technician) or an EM (Electrician’s Mate), which is what Alex did as well as some private sector jobs. In these roles you gain valuable experience that directly transfers to the ET role at NOAA. If you don’t want to do military service, here’s some other things you can do to get your foot in the door:

  1. Go to trade school for electrician training (make sure to pay attention to all the electrical theory!)
  2. Go through certification pathways
  3. Find an electrical apprenticeship
  4. Join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union
  5. Pursue IT positions
  6. Take classes on Radio Frequency (RF) theory
A 6 panel meme, the text goes "Seas are Rough", "Pop a Meckie", "We low in Meckies". The corresponding images are of a dummy head with hands on his head and it says "Panik". The second one is a dummy head that says "Kalm". And the third is a dummy head with hands on his head and shaking saying "Panik".
Meckie = Meclizine, medicine for motion sickness. Artist: Ian

While Alex makes sure that everything is up and running, Ian the Survey Technician will use the equipment for water monitoring, ocean floor mapping, and helping to facilitate the science however he can. He works with a lot of different systems, such as the:

  1. TSG (thermosalinograph): Water is pumped through the TSG which measures temperature and salinity. Using these variables, we can calculate how fast sound waves are traveling through water.
  2. EK-80: This echosounder uses a single beam of sound and listens for the echo which provides information on how deep the water is and things that may be below the ship, such as fish.
  3. EM2040: Similar to the EK-80, but instead uses multiple beams. This is used in mapping the seafloor since it has a wider swath and a higher resolution.
  4. SIS: The Seafloor Information System visualizes what the EM2040 is gathering. 
  5. SCS: The Scientific Computing System allows for the real-time conveyance of oceanographic variables to the science team and other crews.

When the bioacoustics array is out, Ian puts many of the systems in passive mode so that they don’t emit any sound waves. Otherwise, the sound would make it difficult for the bioacoustics team to hear marine mammals through the hydrophones.

Ian’s other job on board is making memes. I’m not even joking. There is a screen in the galley that he updates every morning with information about the day plan, food menu, riddles, and memes. What is great about the memes though is that they reflect something that is going on with the ship and this applicability makes all of them so much funnier. He also helps manage the morale fund, which NOAA supplies for making t-shirts, organizing outings, and more. When you are on a ship with the same people for long periods of time, especially in rough weather, morale is mission critical.

Tips on Becoming a Survey Technician

Ian, the survey technician, stands next to a switchboard panel and other electronics.
Ian, Survey Technician aboard NOAA Ship Pisces
  1. The military route isn’t as common for survey techs versus ET but can still be helpful getting sea time and experience in rough weather, particularly the Navy. (Ian served in the Marine Corps Reserve for 6 years).
  2. Get an undergraduate degree in marine biology, hydrography, or geology
  3. College of Charleston has a BEAMS program which teaches students nearly every aspect of a Survey Technician; this is where Ian went. There are also programs in Mississippi and New Hampshire.
  4. Try out a lot of different positions and apply for everything
  5. Make sure that you are okay being away from family and friends >8 months of the year. Develop good communication plans with your loved ones.
  6. Be good at making memes.

Keeping the Crew Happy, a haiku

WiFi and good memes,
Do we need anything else?
Snopes, morale is high.

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Kiersten Newtoff: Do You Hear What I Hear? January 15, 2025

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kiersten Newtoff
Aboard NOAA Ship Pisces
January 6 – January 29, 2025

Mission: Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS)
Geographic Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Coast
Date: January 15, 2025
Data from the Bridge: Currently standing still at 39°12’0″N, 74°24’0″W due to offshore weather. It’s 38°F with 26kt winds.

Team Spotlight: Hydrophone Heroes

It started as periodic clicking.
Click.
Click.
Click click.
Click click click.
Cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkk.
And then nothing.

These series of clicks tell the story of a sperm whale attacking prey and feasting on its prize. This is just one of the many cool stories coming from the Hydrophone Heroes.

In Tandem, Eyes and Ears on the Ocean

All marine mammals are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and some are dually protected under the Endangered Species Act. These laws dictate that marine mammals cannot be hunted, harassed, taken, or killed; although some exclusions exist for scientific research among other things. You may recall from an earlier post that there are two marine mammal teams on the Pisces: the bioacoustics team and the visual observation team. Both teams are working toward a common goal: where are marine mammals, how are they behaving, what is the diversity, and how many are there? These surveys help NOAA propose new rules or develop new technologies to reduce the accidental bycatch or injuries from boats to preserve the species. By doing surveys periodically, we can better understand how populations are changing in response to the environment.

The sampling protocol differs between the visual and bioacoustics teams, as well as what they can and can’t detect. By combining their data together, a complete picture of marine mammal abundance can be made.

 BioacousticsVisual Observation
Detection RangeLargerSmaller
Water Depth to Operate> 100mAny
Weather ConditionsAnyBetter the more clear
Species ID ConfidenceMediumHigh
Discerning Number of IndividualsOnly when there is 1 or 2Any
Statistical Methods for AnalyzingNot well developedWell developed and standardized

The world of marine mammal bioacoustics is relatively new, starting in the 1960s but taking off in the late 1990s to early 2000s. Also, each species of marine mammal has a large ‘vocabulary’ that we are still learning. Because of this, the library of sounds of each species is limited. While it may be great to hear a click or whistle through the hydrophone, it means very little if there isn’t a visual confirmation from the observation team.

Science is the art of inquiry.
Annamaria

How Do Hydrophones Work?

As the name implies, a hydrophone is a listening device that is in the water. It can pick up frequencies higher and lower than what humans can hear and it can hear sounds from miles away. On the Pisces, the hydrophone array consists of multiple sensors and equipment in a long tube. There are three omnidirectional hydrophones in the array, and all three will pick up the same signals. However, the hydrophone that hears a sound first can give the team an idea of the direction the sounds are coming from: in front, in line, or behind the ship. This setup can’t identify starboard or port side, and that’s where the visual observation team comes in. As the ship moves and the hydrophone continues to pick up sounds, they can be triangulated to get an idea of how far away the sound is from the ship. The array setup can’t tell you how deep the sound is coming from, but some patterns of clicks of different species can give clues to if a cetacean is diving or at the surface.

The array is towed behind the ship in waters that are at least 100m deep. Although the hydrophone doesn’t actually sit that close to the bottom, it’s a fail safe for if the ship has to slow down or stop. This can cause the hydrophone array to sink and it is imperative that it does not touch the bottom. The equipment in the array is very sensitive (and very expensive!), so it’s crucial that it’s impossible for it to touch the bottom. You may be thinking “well, just tow it closer to the boat so that you can work in shallower waters”, but the problem is that the boat itself is making noise that the hydrophone will pick up. If the array is too close to the ship, the sound would be deafening, and you would miss many marine sounds. The hydrophone is set about 350m out from the ship, which does dampen the noise quite a bit. The hydrophone has a high pass filter, meaning only high frequency sounds are picked up. The auditory range of ship noise is much lower, so it gets filtered out, but unfortunately that also means filtering out some marine mammal sounds, particularly baleen whale songs. 

Audio clip of short-beaked common dolphins as heard through a hydrophone. This comes from NOAA’s Marine Mammal Sound repository, but these have been common on this trip.

There are six (!!) screens that the Hydrophone Heroes are monitoring when the array is out. They are:

a man and a woman sit in a computer lab looking at an array of computer monitors. the woman, seated directly at the computer desk, wears headphones, though they are currently positioned behind and not over her ears. She holds two fingers of her right hand up to signal the number 2 as she watches the screen.
Rob and Annamaria actively listening and recording any marine mammal sounds.
  1. High frequency setup: this is focused on high frequencies such as from dwarf and pygmy sperm whales and is giving a bearing on where they are located.  
  2. Diagnostic plots that characterize the incoming signals.
  3. A spectrogram that displays tonal signals like whistles.
  4. Data entry form to record each incoming sound.
  5. Map displays of the bearings of sounds as a way to localize and track them.
  6. Client computer which is synced with the visual team to match up sounds with visuals.

Perhaps some time in the future, machine learning can be used to automatically classify sounds picked up by a hydrophone. But in order for that to happen, we need a lot of matched acoustic and visual data to be used for training the machine learning models.

Do You Hear What I Hear? (by Bing Crosby and Kiersten)

Do you hear what I hear?
Said Rob to Annamaria

Do you see what I see?
(Do you see what I see?)
Visuals said to acoustics

Do you see what I see?
(Do you see what I see?)
A whale, a whale, leaping through the waves
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite

Meet the Hydrophone Heroes

Annamaria is a research biologist from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Massachusetts. Her love of the ocean started early, and she pursued it more intently in her high school’s oceanography club and in the Quahog Bowl . From there she got a bachelor’s degree in marine biology, during which she did an internship with the U.S. Navy in their marine mammal monitoring program. It is through this internship that Annamaria learned about bioacoustics and left with the experience of managing 93 hydrophones! She really liked the internship, especially because she was able to apply the science with real time responses (and it was paid!). Post-graduation, she worked at the Bioacoustic Research Program at Cornell University and then went to Scotland to get her master’s degree. She volunteered with the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institution working in fish bioacoustics before landing a position at NOAA in 2014.

four crewmembers stand in a row along a railing at the ship's stern. they all wear float coats or life vests and warm hats or headgear; most have gloves. together they are guiding what looks like a long black cable along the ship and then down into the ocean.
Tanya and Tasha, from the deck crew, help Annamaria and Rob set out the hydrophone array off the stern.

Rob is a biological science technician who has been working with NOAA for the past 4 years at the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu. In college he studied marine and environmental science and afterwards he looked into fisheries science so he could be outside. He ended up at the California Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) working with salmon and delta smelt and then moved to the Federal FWS. He finally moved into the Protected Species Division at NOAA where he learned about bioacoustics in cetaceans. Baby Rob’s dream was to do a cetacean cruise, and he made it!

Advice & Words of Wisdom

  1. Be curious – science is a never-ending process of asking more questions.
  2. When applying for jobs on USAJobs, cast a wide net (pun intended). There are lots more fisheries positions which can still be valuable to your career by developing transferable skills to cetaceans.
  3. If you are working with data, try to seek opportunities to see how that data is collected in the field. It can help you better understand the data which will be advantageous when running analyses.
  4. Internships are crucial and can really define your career. They also help with connections to other people in the industry.
  5. Be open to lots of career paths and gain skills to enable you to be a jack of all trades. If you have skills from multiple fields, you are more likely to find positions.

Here’s some additional pictures from setting out the array and working in the acoustics lab.

A man sits at a computer desk working on a laptop surrounded by additional computer monitors. He wears a pair of headphones over his ears. A woman watches over his shoulder.
two people (and a third mostly out of frame) stand on the back deck; a man holds a coiled rope, and a woman holds a coiled plastic tube (the hydrophone array). the sky is very blue, with white whispy clouds.
a view of two crewmembers standing at the rail holding what looks like a long plastic hose and looking down into the ocean as they lower or retrieve it
crewmembers stand around the A-frame at the aft deck of the ship. they are all wearing float coats or life jackets. one person grasps a taut cable that extends from out of frame on deck into the water. two other people hold guidelines stretched underneath the A-frame.
a woman wearing a warm jacket, a beanie, gloves, and a life vest stands at the aft of the shp, holding up a cable with two hands, and looking out into the ocean.
a view under the A-frame of the ship's aft deck. two pieces of rope extend from either side of the frame out toward a middle connection point, where they hold up a knot for the cable of the hydrophone array to slide through.
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Kiersten Newtoff: The Fastest Way to a Scientist’s Heart is Through Their Stomach, January 13, 2025

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kiersten Newtoff
Aboard NOAA Ship Pisces
January 6 – January 29, 2025

Mission: Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS)
Geographic Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Coast
Date: January 13, 2025
Current Location: 38°02.141′ N, 73°30.716 W (you can follow us on Windy in real time!)
Weather from the Bridge:

Team Spotlight: The Michelin Stars

While the purpose of NOAA cruises is conducting science, it’s not just scientists on board. There is a whole community of people who make the day-to-day on the Pisces possible. In addition to the blog series on the different science teams, we will also meet the different teams that run the Pisces. First stop – the galley.

The kitchen is the soul of the ship.
Jean

Meet Jean and Julius, easily the most loved crew members of all because they keep our bellies full of the good stuff. You know how you overeat during the holidays and when they pass you try and workout more and lessen your eating? Yeah, this cruise right after the holidays is definitely not the time to start a new diet. Jean and Julius make us three meals a day, and lunch and dinner always have dessert! I attempt to only grab 2-3 food items from the buffet bar, but it’s really hard and I rarely do. And how does someone not take dessert when they are just sitting there, waiting to be consumed? I guess I’ll start with those New Year’s resolutions after getting back.

The Michelin Stars make a wide variety of dishes each day that accommodates the diets of the 34 folks on board, and everything is incredibly delicious. Not only do they make sure that everyone has something substantial to eat; they also take care of the crew that have to miss meals based on their shift. I’m impressed that they are always so prompt with the meals; always finished the moment the meal starts. If you have seen the reality TV show Below Deck, you know that the food is never on time. I had no idea what to expect as I’ve never done a trip like this before, so most of my boat knowledge comes from that show. And it’s nothing like this. NOAA Pisces is so much better!

a view into the galley (the kitchen) across the buffet bar. in the foreground is a selection of dishes - vegetables, rice, sweet potatoes, maybe chicken - in metal bins with serving utensils. beyoned a metal counter is the open ktichen area. Jean stands in front, near a kitchen island, and Julius at the back of the kitchen.
Jean (foreground) and Julius (background) put the finishing touches on dinner.

Meet the Michelin Stars

The chief steward on board is Jean (pronounced like “John” but fancier) and the second cook is Julius. Jean is half black – half Panamanian, where he grew up. His parents met in Panama where his father was working. Jean used to work in offshore drilling, but during the COVID shutdowns, only small teams were working. Jean really wanted stability in his career and his mom, who works for NOAA, recommended filling out an application with the agency. Jean got the position and began in the laundry department. While he doesn’t work for NOAA, his dad works as a chief steward on a University of Hawaii vessel. Something tells me that Jean was destined for a chief steward role in NOAA. His first assignment was on Rainier, which experienced a fire in September 2023. Jean was on the fire team and after 3 hours the team was able to control and extinguish it. None of the 41 passengers on the ship were injured, but there was quite a bit of damage and the ship had to be towed from America Samoa to Honolulu. Since the Rainier was out of commission, Jean needed to transfer to another boat. He already knew some people aboard the Pisces and shared that it is important to have good working relationships with your crew. Jean only recently was promoted to Chief Steward, and so far, he is really enjoying the role because he gets to make decisions and please people.

Julius is a man of many hats. When he first started with NOAA in 2014, he started on deck and moved to sewage and engine before settling in as the second cook. Technically, he is assigned to the Brown, but it has been docked for repairs for Julius has been floating around different vessels. He plans on making a switch to the Pisces because he really likes the crew and working with Jean. Julius doesn’t have a culinary background, but he’s picked up a lot of skills from floating around departments and working with the different stewards for the past decade. Of all the positions he has worked, he enjoys working in the kitchen the most.

Julius and Jean do more than just cook though, there’s a lot of moving pieces to make a perfect meal. They have to inspect and repair the cooking vent systems, manage the linens, make menus (3 per day!), and ensure that dishes are clean and sanitary and not break during foul weather.

If the food’s good, people are going to be happy.
    Jean

Jean and Julius stand on opposite sides of a metal counter in the galley (kitchen). Jean is wearing black latex gloves and working with what might be chicken; next to him is something large wrapped in foil. An open can of diced tomatoes, a can of cooking spray, and some other containers are visible on the corner. Julis faces away from the camera.
Jean (left) and Julius (right) preparing the crew meal in the kitchen.

I asked the Michelin Stars about their favorite parts of their job. Julius says he really enjoys cooking and he likes seeing the crews’ faces light up as they eat something good. I think I can easily say that everyone on board loves the food, so hopefully we have been bringing them lots of enjoyment! Jean’s initial answer is that he likes getting off work and getting paid. I mean, you can’t really fault him for that, because same. He then agreed with Julius, and I am choosing to believe that would have been his real answer.

They both agreed that the hardest part of the job is being away from home so much. Julius has a wife and two kids at home and Jean has a partner at home. Jean shares that it’s hard getting into arguments when you can’t really make up. They have missed birthdays, anniversaries, and other important milestones, which is difficult. But the stableness of a position with NOAA and doing something they truly love to do has helped get through the difficulty times.

How Can You Work in the Steward Department?

Both Jean and Julius would look on USAJobs for positions with NOAA but couldn’t find any. Julius then went to the NOAA website where he found a position for the deck crew that he applied for. He got the position, but soon after boarding, he asked if he could work as a second cook, which they granted. Jean didn’t find much on the NOAA website (this was during the shutdowns when he was looking), but fortunately his mom works at NOAA and was able to forward along some job opportunities.

Neither Jean or Julius started in the steward department, they both worked their way up. You likely will have to start at a lower rank, but your work ethic will be noticed – and that goes in both directions. Although NOAA ships are found all across the US, nearly everyone knows everyone else. If you change ships, you can guarantee that word about your work ethic has already spread to your new crew. And if your work ethic is as great as Jean and Julius’, then you will be going places.

Breakfast, a Limerick
It’s 0600 and breakfast is ready.
Half of the crew is there already.
Pancakes, bacon, sausage, and cereal,
All the best for a perfect meal.
Lunch is next, hoping for spaghetti!

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Kiersten Newtoff: It Takes Two to Bongo, January 10, 2025

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kiersten Newtoff
Aboard NOAA Ship Pisces
January 6 – January 29, 2025

Mission: Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS)
Geographic Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Coast
Date: January 10, 2025
Current Location: 37° 35.83 N, 73° 39.83 W (you can follow us at Windy in real time!)
Weather from the Bridge: Waves are 3-5ft, 42°F, wind speed of 15.8kn, and we are traveling 9.9knph.

What is Zooplankton?

If you ask someone what their favorite marine animal is, I guarantee it’s either dolphins, whales, turtles, or sharks. And honestly, you can’t really blame them. The term charismatic megafauna exists for a reason. Fortunately, these animals have used their charisma to inspire us to protect them and their habitat. While they have been great stewards for conservation, they don’t tell the whole story of what’s happening in the ecosystem.

a close-up view of the bottom of a sample jar filled with krill in water; the tiny crustaceans, resemble small white shrimps, have piled up at the bottom
One example of zooplankton is small krill, as seen in this sample container.

While some of the research groups on the Pisces are focused on marine mammals and seabirds, The Bongonauts focus on zooplankton. Plankton just refers to any organism in the water that can’t swim against a current and ‘floats’ in the water column. You can then further split plankton into animal-like (zooplankton) or plant-like (phytoplankton). The marine food chain starts with phytoplankton, which get consumed by zooplankton, which might get directly eaten by a baleen whale, like humpbacks. Zooplankton may also get eaten by small fishes then larger fish that eventually are consumed by toothed whales. Identifying and quantifying the abundance of zooplankton helps us to understand the health of the food chain. There really aren’t any “Save the Zooplankton” movements happening because let’s be honest, it’s hard to get people to like microscopic organisms. But their downfall due to changes in ocean temperature, salinity, and currents will permeate to the top of the food chain of whales, dolphins, and other megafauna. If we wish to protect the ‘cute’ species, we need to protect their food too!

Let’s Get Ready to Bongo!

Here enters the bongo. If you’ve played Donkey Kong, then you already know what a bongo is.  A bongo is a set of two drums that are connected in the middle. In the marine world, what we do is beat on this drum set on the side of the boat and collect all the zooplankton that jump out of the water into collection buckets.

………………………..

Just kidding! But that would be cool.

Although we don’t have the musical bongo, we do have a plankton bongo! It was so named because there are two frames connected in the middle supporting the two plankton nets, kind of like a bongo drum. The nets are made of a mesh with openings that are 1/3 mm. As the nets travel in the water, the water can move through the mesh but larger organisms like zooplankton can’t. Part of the bongo apparatus is the CTD, which uses a series of sensors to measure conductivity, temperature, and depth. These oceanographic variables can help to explain the zooplankton communities we see.

a crewmember wearing an orange float coat and white hard hat looks over the rail of the ship as the paired bongo nets rise out of the water. It is nighttime, and we can only see a patch of the dark water illuminated by the ship's lights. A scientific probe is attached to the cable hoisting the paired nets.
Four women in float coats or life vests, reflective gear, tall boots, and hard hats pose for a photo on the aft deck of the ship. The paired bongo nets lay spread out on the deck. It is nighttime.
(Left) A bongo net is coming out of the water. The device you see on the rope is the CTD, (Right) The zooplankton team gets lots of support in deploying the bongo nets from the deck crew. Pictured (left to right): Amanda, Tanya, Tasha, and Kiersten.

Bongo time is during the evening and is deployed in the same general areas as the cetacean observations earlier in the day. This allows the scientists to make correlations between plankton communities and the cetaceans spotted earlier. We release the bongos in the evening as the speed needed for a successful deployment is around 3 knots, whereas the observation teams need to be at a minimum of 8 knots. Also, many zooplankton undergo a diel vertical migration (move upwards) in the evening, making it more likely to get a representative sample of zooplankton from the entire water column.

Bongos, a Haiku
gliding through water
collect plankton by bongo
hopefully, cool things

Meet the Bongonauts

a woman wearing an orange float coat and a white hard hat sits at a computer desk and looks at an array of monitors.
Amanda monitors the depth of the bongo so she can communicate with the boatswain when to start hauling it back to the boat.

On this cruise, Amanda and Lily make up the zooplankton team. Amanda is a Biological Science Technician and has been working with NOAA since 2018. During her undergraduate studies, she spent a semester abroad focused on marine science. As soon as she finished, she immediately began looking for marine jobs. Her first position was with NOAA focusing on commercial fisheries. A few years later in 2021, her contracting company had another position within NOAA that she switched to and started focusing on zooplankton.  One of the coolest things she’s seen in a bongo net was a strawberry squid, but don’t worry, it was promptly returned to the seas. She enjoys working with other groups on the science team to see what they are finding, and every time the nets come up there is excitement over what they may contain.

a woman lifts one sample jar out of a divided cardboard box and gazes down at the contents. Other jars in the boxes are topped with black lids and printed, detailed labels.
Lily examines the plankton spoils. Some are preserved in ethanol and others in formalin.

Lily is currently a sophomore at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The professor in one of her classes shared with her the opportunity to sail with the Pisces to volunteer on the zooplankton team and she took it up! Her future career goal is to understand the environmental impacts of cruise ships in port. Further along the line, she would like to get a Master’s in Library Science and be a children’s librarian. She chose Mass Maritime for their marine science program; other schools with similar programs were out of state or prohibitively expensive, but she feels like she’s made the right choice. Of all the things she’s told me, Mass Maritime seems really cool and gives lots of hands-on experience to their students.

Advice for Students

Amanda and Lily shared some of their insights for students who may want to work for NOAA some day.

  1. Look for jobs on Indeed and LinkedIn. If you are already working with a company, see if they have other positions that you might like.
  2. If you’re interested in marine science, go to a school that specializes in it. Avoid institutions that have it as a small program or just a minor, as you likely won’t be getting nearly as much hands-on experience as a school dedicated to it.
  3. Keep your opportunities open – you might think you like Marine Science now but that may change as you do field work.
  4. Even if an opportunity comes up that is not related to marine science, do things to give you any sort of field experience.
  5. You can volunteer with NOAA! There are lots of programs to explore.
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Kiersten Newtoff: Ode to Scopolamine. January 7, 2025

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Kiersten Newtoff

Aboard NOAA Ship Pisces

January 6 – January 29, 2025

Mission: Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS)

Geographic Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Coast

Geographic Area of Cruise: Massachusetts to North Carolina

Date: January 7, 2025

I’m finally aboard! Other than a fishing boat that was just barely in the ocean for a couple hours, I’ve never been in a ship this large, for this long, out in the open ocean. This is definitely a new adventure and really putting me to the test with the rough waters.

view of assorted plankton against a black background through a microscope
Examples of some of the plankton we may see! Credit: Dr. D. P. Wilson/Science Source

There are four scientific teams on the board: marine mammal observations, seabird observations, hydrophone for marine mammals, and plankton assessments. Since this trip is 24 days long, I’ll be bouncing around groups to learn about what they are doing. I’m starting with the plankton group, but we weren’t able to deploy last night due to weather. I’ll share more about each of the groups when I finish that “rotation” and in between I’ll write about other cool things – like motion sickness!

I’m one of those people that being in a car, metro, airplane, and boats gets me quite nauseous. My brain is like “nu-uh, not today!”. And I’ll totally admit, that was one of my concerns about joining the Teacher at Sea program because being in a boat in the ocean, especially with less than great weather, was not going to go well. Although I do not like having motion sickness, I still find it fascinating and so I went down a rabbit hole to learn more about it.

a scientific illustration of the vestibular system in the inner ear. there is a wider scale drawing of an ear and ear canal, and then a magnified view of just the vestibular system. parts labeled include the vestibular nerve, semicircular canals, utricle, vestibule, and saccule. the image is credited to the Cleveland Clinic 2024.
The vestibular system in this picture refers to the parts of the inner ear that help your brain understand where it is in space. Your brain interprets how the fluid inside the inner ear is moving so it can understand what is going on physically with the body. Credit: Cleveland Clinic.

Our bodies use lots of senses to understand the world around us and make judgements to what is safe, normal, and okay. The main players in motion sickness are your brain, your inner ears, and muscles. Your inner ear has a fluid in it and as your body moves, the liquid moves a certain amount and direction within your ear and tells your brain how much you have moved. But, if you are looking at something stationary such as reading a book or typing on a computer, your visual processing system thinks you are sanding still. When you are in a vehicle, whether it be a car, train, boat, or bus, you become more likely to develop motion sickness because your brain is confused. This trip started off with some big weather causing the boat to rock a lot. My ears and body recognize this movement and send signals to the brain about what’s happening. However, my eyes are deceiving my brain. I’m staring at this screen which my eyes are interpreting that everything is still, which it communicates to the brain. Now the brain is just confused because it’s getting mixed signals and starts assuming the worst.

a simple illustration of a brain, with an interior area highlighted in blue. there is a small green dot at the base of the brain stem, circled in red, labeled Area postrema.
Anatomy of the brain; note the small area at the base showing the area postrema, the part of the brain responsible for making sense of the signals from the body. Credit: W. McGinnis, T Audhya, & S. Edelson

There’s a couple of theories behind what exactly is happening to cause nausea, but one in particular I found interesting was the Defense Against Poison hypothesis. There is a region in the brain called the area postrema that is responsible for deciphering between conflicts in what is seen versus what is felt and it is also the area that triggers vomiting when it detects a toxin (such as food poisoning). The hypothesis is that when your brain is getting mismatched signals, your brain thinks it’s hallucinating and wants to induce vomiting because it assumes it’s a toxin causing the mismatch. Essentially, our brain is smart but it can be such a diva if things aren’t perfect.

To help prevent or lessen the impacts of motion sickness, it’s best to sit in the front of the vehicle and look out the window so that your brain feels like it’s moving too. This also means avoiding reading while on the move since keeping your eyes fixated on something stationary is what caused the problem in the first place. This boat trip I was prescribed scopolamine patches to address my motion sickness and it’s worked so wonderfully. So wonderful in fact, I decided to write a poem singing its praises.

Ode to Scopolamine

by Kiersten Newtoff

The sticker behind my ear is none other than scopolamine.

I have to take it because these treacherous waters are mean.

Without it, misery would set in.

And I’d always have to be cautious of the nearest bin.

Inside our brains is a neurotransmitter, acetylcholine.

It likes to tell on us and make our body go green.

But scopolamine is here to save the day!

You need to put it on without delay.

It blocks those transmitters in the brain,

So even if mismatched, it can’t communicate and cause you pain.

So here’s to you, my friend, scopolamine,

You are making this trip so much more serene!

view over the ocean toward he horizon at sunrise. the sun peeks through golden clouds, casting some visible sunbeams. the ocean, blue gray, has distinct waves; the image focuses on one in particular in the foreground.
A view from this morning. The waves look deceptively small, but trust me — you will feel every dip.