ocean – Page 2 – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

July 5, 2012August 11, 2021

Kate DeLussey: Teacher on the Pier, July 5, 2012

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kate DeLussey
Onboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow
July 3 – 18, 2012

Mission: Deep-Sea Corals and Benthic Habitat: Ground truthing and exploration in deepwater canyons off the Northeast
Geographical area of cruise: Atlantic Ocean, Leaving from Newport, RI
Date: Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Location:
Latitude: 41.52778° N
Longitude: -71.31556° W

Weather Data from the Bridge:
Air Temperature: 28°C (83°F)
Wind Speed: 19 knots (22 mph), Beaufort scale: 5
Wind Direction: from N
Relative Humidity: 80%
Barometric Pressure: 1,014.90 mb
Surface Water Temperature: 28°C (83°F)
Happy Independence Day!

Science and Technology Log

Here aboard the Henry B. Bigelow we are sporting the red, white, and blue showing our pride for our Nation. The grill is hot and the hamburgers and hotdogs are ready for our lunch. Our July 4th is much more relaxing than we expected. We should be out gathering data. Images from TowCam verifying true bottom have not been observed. Creatures from the deep have not been collected, and important discoveries have not yet been made. We are still on Pier 2 at the Newport Naval Base. The information we have received from the Bigelow engineers is that the winches are not operational because a printed circuit board, which is involved with the computerized control of the hydraulic system that powers the winches has burnt out. It cannot be fixed with duct tape.

bigelow winches — Waiting for winches to work.

Engineers, crew and the scientific team are attempting to get the parts we need … from locations across the country…from another ship the Nancy Foster… on a holiday. Are you feeling their pain?

The scientific team has worked so diligently in preparing for this cruise. Teams of researchers who do not normally work so closely came together for this mission. They joined their funding sources, their research and their “equipment” (the ship, TowCam, computer software, etc.) to develop a multipurpose mission that will add data to their work in order to build a deeper understanding of deep-sea coral habitats. Some of the most experienced people in the ocean science community are aboard. Their enthusiasm and passion for their work is contagious. I heard one of the scientists is on his 50^th cruise! (Happy golden anniversary!) What a lineup!

While the team is visibly disappointed with the setback, they have worked together to solve the problem. During the science team meeting scientists shared when something like “this” happened to them. Executive Officer Bohaboy wrote about problem solving at sea. He wrote, “Though it is very rare that we suffer multiple lost days at sea like we did at the beginning of this trip, every cruise always has issues to overcome. The ship itself is a very complex system of linked systems. A break down in one of these systems can cause a delay in the mission. Note that one of the most important shipboard systems, which might be easy to overlook, is the ship’s crew and scientists, whose specialized skills and training are crucial to completing the mission.” Yes, the mission is not what was expected, but everyone moves forward and makes the best of a difficult situation. The members of the team have also kept working on their individual projects, and while Vince may have enough work to keep him busy for two years, I am trying to find things to do.

Personal Log

I too have made the best of the situation. Not used to sitting around, I have been reading and writing. (See I told you never to travel without a good book!) I found an excellent small picnic table on deck where I can be out of the way, and still watch what is going on. I have also found ways to keep busy by watching, listening, and having conversations with the scientists so I can build a better understanding of their work. We all have lots of questions when we are learning new things, but before I ask questions, I watch, listen and think. I try to find of answers myself. Everyone on board has been helpful and supportive. The most exciting thing is when the scientists, mappers, or modelers say, “Let me show you!”

The students at Lowell helped create a list of Big Questions about the oceans and corals, and today we will begin to talk about question #2:

Tow Cam aboard Bigelow — TowCam aboard the *Bigelow*

How do scientists study deep sea coral?

One way the scientists study the corals is by identifying places where corals like to live. They figure if they find the habitat, they will locate corals. On this mission, a TowCam (towed camera) is towed by the ship and will record images of what the bottom of the ocean looks like (Ground-truthing). It will also show what animals live there.

Personal Log

When you think about it, the technical setback is an excellent lesson for you students at Lowell School. Many times we want to do something and we just cannot do it. So many things can keep us from doing our best work. Some problems are within our ability to fix, some are not. We can blame others, get emotional, and give up, or we can find solutions that will help us meet those challenges to be better prepared the next time. This team solved their problems by cooperating with and working with one another. You can use the teamwork problem solving strategy in your work too! The simple message of problem solving crosses all activities we do as students, teachers, and scientists. We may not be conducting the research (yet), but we are problem solving. “How can we make this work?” “How can we do this better?”

Until next time:)

June 6, 2012August 11, 2021

Kate DeLussey: Introduction, June 6, 2012

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kate DeLussey
Onboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow
July 3 – 18, 2012

Mission: Deep Sea Coral Survey
Geographical area of cruise: Atlantic Ocean, Leaving from Newport, RI
Date: June 6, 2012

Current Location: Philadelphia, PA; Latitude:40.0409483; Longitude:-75.1287162

Greetings and Welcome to My NOAA Blog!

I am Kathleen (Kate) DeLussey from the J. R. Lowell School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in a city of 1.5 million, I have spent most of my life in the same five-mile radius. The school where I teach is right down the street from the elementary school I went to when I was a child. I am a true city kid. You may have taken a yellow bus to school, but I rode the “El” train. Water came out of the “tap” and early fish experiences included both rectangular “sticks” and orange pets, but we will not talk about either of those things here.

So, you may question why a woman like me, a teacher with four children who experienced her first plane flight last year, would be excited about participating in scientific research aboard a NOAA vessel as a Teacher at Sea. Especially when I am not exactly sure about what I am going to be doing, (Hint: The more I learn about the Oceans and Atmosphere, the more information I have to share with our students at Lowell School.)

You may also be wondering why a Reading Specialist in a K-4 school would be so interested in what is happening in Earth’s Oceans and Atmosphere, especially when I come from such a large city. (Hint: We all need to learn about and care for our Earth’s Oceans.)

Finally, you may be wondering how a teacher’s experience at sea will encourage our students, and their families to connect with and learn more about the Earth’s Oceans and Atmosphere. (Hint: When I show you how wonderful and important our Oceans are to the life of all things on Earth, you will just have to get involved!)

If you are thinking and asking questions like these as you read, GREAT! When students and teachers just have to know, they are behaving like scientists, and like writers.

I just had to know more about NOAA’s work. I have read many things, seen TV programs, and visited Web sites to teach me about oceans, but I still have many questions.

How do the scientists at NOAA understand and forecast the weather?

How do they understand fish?

What types of jobs do the people at NOAA have?

How can my students prepare for careers at NOAA?

Where can my students find the answers to their own questions?

How can I find out more?

I was researching the answers to these questions on the NOAA website when I saw the chance for teachers to go to sea. I applied, and I was chosen! To use the words of our principal Mrs. Runner, “WHOOOO WHOOOO!” I am so excited to be participating as a Teacher at Sea.

After I found out I was going to be a NOAA Teacher at Sea, I wanted to prepare my students for ocean learning and did what all good teachers do at the beginning of a lesson. I asked my third grade friends in Room 207 some questions. “What do you know about the Oceans? Tell me everything you know!” Of course, the students wrote the “lists” of things they “knew” about the oceans and they really shared some of their thinking as they wrote.

What the students in Room 207 report they know about the oceans:

Emily, Isaiah, and Lusine had the longest lists, and while all of the students reported they “knew” something about oceans, most of the answers on the student lists looked like this:

The oceans cover most of the Earth’s surface
The oceans have lots of living things like fish, crabs, and sharks
The oceans are important to the Earth
You can swim in the ocean

You can see that for our students to become ocean experts, they really needed more details to add to their list of “what they know.”

(Some of the ideas the students put on the list were not true, and I do not want to put those ideas on this list, because I want to include only true information in my Blog.) I do not want to confuse anyone about a topic as important as Earth’s Oceans.

This list only had Big Ideas about the oceans and even with my thinking, we could not add many details. You can see we all have a lot to learn about our oceans.

So, I am be bringing the future “Ocean Literacy” of our 1,000 students with me as I work with NOAA during my Teacher at Sea adventure. (Hi kids!)

Our big questions for this mission will be:

What are Deep Sea Coral Reefs?
How do scientists study deep sea coral reefs?
What do scientists do with the information they gather during their research?

I am participating on this trip because I want to find answers to our questions. I also want to be sure everyone understands NOAA’s work so we all can participate as scientists and writers to help protect our Earth’s Oceans and Atmosphere.

Join me–not only a teacher–but also a citizen of the Earth planet as I work as a guest scientist aboard the Henry B. Bigelow, a NOAA research vessel.

Continue to ask questions as you read my blogs. We may not find the answers to all of our Big Questions, but we will be better prepared to find our answers as we gain knowledge and as we add details to our scientific knowledge and to our writing.

Hopefully, at the end of my journey, you may be wondering if you could to this “At Sea” research too!

July 20, 2011April 28, 2021

Anne Mortimer: Shelikof Strait, July 16, 2011

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Anne Mortimer
Onboard NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson
July 4 — 22, 2011

Mission: Pollock Survey
Geographical area of cruise: Gulf of Alaska
Date: July 16, 2011

Weather Data from the Bridge
Sat. July 16, 2011—sunny and windy
Air Temperature: 10.8⁰C
Sea Temperature: 9.3 ⁰C
Wind direction: 208.9⁰C
Wind speed: 23 knots

Science and Technology Log

Everyday on the ship there are many other research projects that are occurring, in addition to the pollock survey. Other scientists (currently not on this leg) are collecting data from a multiple beam system to look at the characteristics of the ocean floor, such as roughness or sound reflectivity, using 30 sound beams (of various frequencies between 100 and 115kHz) in a fan-shaped configuration. For this project, the researchers use several devices. First, they need updated temperature and depth data, which allows them to calculate the speed of sound and the attenuation coefficient (how easily a fish is penetrated by a beam – a large attenuation coefficient means that the beam is quickly weakened as it goes through the fish), which vary as a function of temperature and salinity. To do this, they have chosen select locations to release an expendable bathythermograph, or “XBT.”

nav chart — This chart shows locations for XBT drops. The yellow and blue stars show where on the transect the XBT should be released.

This torpedo-shaped device is launched overboard with a gun-like dispenser. It has a long coil of fine, copper wire that begins spinning out when it’s released and the wire transmits temperature data back to the ship through the cable in the launch dispenser, and then to the database in the lab. The depth is calculated based on the assumed descent rate of the torpedo.

Link to Graph of XBT data

In order to confirm the suspected bottom composition from the multi-beam measurements, a drop camera is deployed at specific locations. The drop camera is usually performed off the side of the ship at night, so it doesn’t interfere with operations that can only happen during the day. The deck crew will deploy the drop-camera using a hydraulic winch, where it is lowered to the bottom. The camera then records for 5 minutes of time at the bottom. Several camera drops are usually completed in an area.

Another operation that happens mostly at night, is using the “Drop TS” or Drop Target Strength echo-sounder. The DTS is used to get a stronger signal at closer range to fish. This helps the scientists differentiate the signals, or echo, that individual fish may give. Many fish have swim bladders (or air bladders) that allow them to regulate their buoyancy in the water. There is a large difference in the sound velocity in air and in water, so this swim bladder causes fish to give strong echo returns. The DTS can give them a better idea of fish counts when looking at the echograms, but they aren’t perfect. No fish will remain still or perfectly straight. Just like the echograms from the single source mounted on the hull of the ship, the colors red and brown show strong signals, yellow is medium, and blue and green are weak.

dts — This echogram was created with data from the DTS. Each wavy line is probably a separate fish.

Shelikof Strait

We are now traveling south through Shelikof Strait. This body of water runs northeast to southwest along the Alaska Peninsula on the east side of the Kodiak Archipelago. It extends about 150 miles and is dominated by many glaciers, cliffs, and both active and dormant volcanoes. The Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands are part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire.” This is a seismically active area because the Pacific plate is subducting below the North American plate. This has been occurring for millions of years, also giving glaciers time to scour away at the mountains, creating U-shaped valleys and sharp peaks. We’ve had particularly good weather the past few days and caught a great sunset behind the island-volcano Augustine.

Personal Log

So far we are on day 2 (3?) of fair weather and partly sunny skies and I love it. Shelikof Strait is just amazing–there are volcanoes every direction you look and we’ve had beautiful sunset after beautiful sunset. The transect lines we are running in these waters run east-west so we are very close to shore every few hours which means lots of time for pictures. Tonight I went to the flying bridge with Kathleen, the other teacher, so we could whale watch. She had been up earlier (she works the day shift!) and saw a fin whale not too far from the shore and boat. We saw lots of whale blows far off in many directions, but none again that close.

Later after the sun went down and I had started my laundry and next blog entry. The net was in the water for another trawl. Luckily it wasn’t a big catch (I was tired and not ready to slice open tons of fish), but a very little one — literally! We caught mostly juvenile pollock and some smelt fish called eulachon and capelin. We also got our token salmon — we seem to catch one with every trawl — and some squid and jellies. We had some technical difficulties with the catch-processing program, so we were a little delayed in getting started and we had a team of two rather than three. Needless to say, we didn’t finish until after 2 am. Just in time to have some Cheerios for dinner.

The highlight of the night was Dall’s porpoises, which were following the boat to four different drop-camera sights! They were darting everywhere — it was fantastic!

Species Observed

Humpback whales, seagulls, storm petrel, northern fulmar, Dall’s porpoises, juvenile pollock, eulachon, capelin, squid, adult pollock, chum salmon

July 5, 2011April 28, 2021

Steven Wilkie: July 4, 2011

NOAA TEACHER AT SEA
STEVEN WILKIE
ONBOARD NOAA SHIP OREGON II
JUNE 23 — JULY 4, 2011

Mission: Summer Groundfish Survey
Geographic Location: Northern Gulf of Mexico
Date: July 4, 2011

Ship Data

Latitude	29.31
Longitude	-94.79
Speed	0.00 kts
Course	172.00
Wind Speed	4.99 kts
Wind Dir.	268.67 º
Surf. Water Temp.	30.60 ºC
Surf. Water Sal.	24.88 PSU
Air Temperature	30.70 ºC
Relative Humidity	68.00 %
Barometric Pres.	1014.50 mb
Water Depth	10.40 m

Personal Log

My final watch ended last night with what was one of our largest catches of the trip. The knowledge that it was our last trawl–well mine at least–and the Oregon II will head back out in a few days for its final leg of the ground fish survey, allowed us to knock it out in no time.

Our Final Catch Onboard — Our final (and one of our largest) catches waiting to be sorted.

It is amazing how similar my experience has been on this trip to the experiences I have with my students in my classes at school. They come in “green” on the first few days of class: some of them have a some background knowledge, some of them have little, but slowly but surely as we build on their existing knowledge they get to a point where they are confident enough to speak up about issues and content that we have been discussing. Towards the end of the year, they can link the ideas of what was talked about at the beginning of the year to what we discussed the week before final exams. Everything is connected.

I feel now, how I hope my students feel on their last few days of my classes. A sense of understanding, a battery of skills that I didn’t have when I started now at my disposal, and an appreciation for what it is that the people who taught me know and do on a daily basis. In all of my years of professional development, summer workshops and the like, I can say that none has been as enjoyable or rewarding as this experience.

Refreshing Old Skills — With the help of chief scientist Michael Hendon, I remove the otiliths (ear bones) from a snapper. These bones can be used to help determine the age of a fish.

I came into the Teacher at Sea program with a good sense of the marine environment, and I have relied heavily on NOAA’s resources for years to help my students better understand the ocean and its processes. But to see firsthand how some of that information is gathered and to get a sense of how hard these scientists work to ensure their data and procedures are valid is both commendable and reassuring, as I am consistently telling my students how good procedures will lead them to good data, and will, in turn, allow them to draw well-supported conclusions.

I pride myself on the hands-on approach I bring to science in my classroom, and nothing is more hands on then being elbow deep in 600 croakers flopping on the deck! Everyone learns differently. I am a learn-by-doing kind of guy, and I try to provide as much of that in my classroom as possible, but even doing something doesn’t guarantee that you will understand it–that often requires a good teacher. The Oregon II’s crew is the epitome of good teachers in action. I have to personally extend a thank you to Brittany Palm, my watch leader, and Michael Hendon the chief scientist on board. Both of these gifted scientists helped me go from a fumbling, taxonomically challenged amateur, to a less fumbling, taxonomically appreciative assistant in training! Their patience as we butchered scientific names and misidentified organisms allowed us to slowly but surely get a better understanding of the procedures until we could practically work up a catch on our own. Well, we left the fish we couldn’t identify for them, but none the less….

I am happy to be heading home to my family and to a more regular work day (12 hour shifts are tough), but I do think I will miss the experience and the camaraderie among the people on the ship, and the soothing rhythm of the ship’s engines and the waves. I hope those of you that read this get a sense of what an awesome experience this is, as well as take away the importance of the work that NOAA does, and the need for it!