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Germaine Thomas: Farewell to the Oscar Dyson and Summer, August 19, 2023

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Germaine Thomas (she/her)

Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson

August 7 – August 21, 2023

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 Oscar Dyson’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.

Micheal, wearing foul weather gear, yellow gloves, a hard hat, and a flotation jacket, stands on deck holding a net draped into a plastic bin. He turns his head to the side to look at the camera for a photo. Beyond, the sky is cloudy and the water is calm and gray.
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.

several strainers resting on a white table surface. two are rimmed circles with mesh centers. one is a standard kitchen strainer with a handle. we can also see a knife, a pencil, electrical tape, and a small torpedo-shaped device for measuring flow inside the net.
The tools used to sort krill
some krill (maybe 40, not thousands) displayed on a white surface
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.

view of cleaned equipment on the aft deck. Stacks of empty buckets, some suds still visible on the deck surface. a trawl net rests in a pile in the background.
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, orange and blue in color with ropes and buoys attached to them, sit in piles on deck beneath the large spools (now empty) where they had been mounted during the survey operations
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.

two crewmembers wearing foul weather gear and large yellow gloves stand laughing at the sorting table in the wet lab. a woman holds a grenadier fish in two hands and closes her eyes in laughter while the man reaches toward the fish with something else (not discernable) in play.
A Grenadier fish
Germaine poses for a photo at the railing. the sun set creates nice pink and orange colors over a mountainous shoreline in the distance.
Sunset at Montague island
a view of the northern lights over the horizon - the water is mostly black, and the sky is dark, except amazing green light dances above tree-lined shore on the distant horizon
Aurora 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 Oscar Dyson…

Germaine, wearing her Teacher at Sea hat, holds up a flag with horizontal bars in red, white, blue, meaning "T"
T
Germaine, wearing her Teacher at Sea hat, holds up a flag with white on top and red on the bottom, meaning "H"
H
Germaine, wearing her Teacher at Sea hat, holds up a flag with white on top and blue on the bottom, and a notch in the blue, meaning "A"
A
Germaine, wearing her Teacher at Sea hat, holds up a flag with blue and white checkers, meaning "N"
N
Germaine, wearing her Teacher at Sea hat, holds up a flag with blue on top and yellow on the bottom, meaning "K"
K
Germaine, wearing her Teacher at Sea hat, holds up a white flag with a blue square in the middle, meaning "S"
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