NOAA Teacher at Sea
Gail Tang
Aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette
August 4, 2023 – September 1, 2023
Mission: Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey (HICEAS)
Geographic Area of Cruise: Hawaiian archipelago
Date: July 14, 2023
Update!
We got notification that we have a Chief Engineer. However, we also got news that the ship needs some repair. The new sail date is now Friday July 21, which means I will not be able to sail on Leg 1 and that I will be returning home. Luckily, Chief Scientist Erin Oleson, the Teacher at Sea Program, and my university granted me permission to sail on Leg 2 of the HICEAS Survey! I will teach my classes on board NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette, so I will truly be a Teacher at Sea!
Engineer Highlight
In my previous post, I talked about the structure of the crew on the ship. We currently have four engineers on the ship: Jason Dlugos (3rd Assistant Engineer), Dylan Hepburn (3rd Assistant Engineer), Greg White (JUE), and Shannica (Neek) Matthews (General Vessel Assistant). I was fortunate to spend a good deal of time with each of the engineers. The engineers are responsible for a myriad of tasks on the ship, and the primary one is making sure the engines of the ship function properly. The engine room also holds generators, as well as the salt water filtration system that cools the ship and provides the ship with drinking and cleaning water. I am simplifying the engine room for this post, but it is very clear that the jobs of the engineers on the ship are absolutely crucial to mission success.
In this post, I will share some of my conversations with Neek. Neek’s homebase is in Virginia. After high school, she worked in the shipyard painting ships and installing insulation. She spent most of her time at dry dock, but then learned about opportunities working on traveling vessels. She started looking into jobs on vessels that explored the world. Now, she splits her time working on ships at the shipyard and ships out at sea. Through her job, she’s traveled nationally to Seattle and Hawaii, as well as internationally to Japan, Greece, Italy, and France. She said it’s the best decision she’s ever made! What she enjoys the most about her work is that she gets to solve problems and be creative.
In her current position, Neek is learning new things in the engine room so that she can work more within that department in the future. Her company is also sponsoring her to take classes to further her engineering career. As the Wiper, she performs her work in every space of the ship. She describes her responsibilities as keeping spaces clean (picking up trash and wiping down oil and water), and making sure everything is secure. Both cleanliness and security are very important for all of our safety aboard the ship. When I’ve run into Neek on the ship, she’s been working with Dylan on fixing plumbing on toilets, examining leaks, and using the technique of sounding to measure the height of fluids in tanks. Unfortunately, Neek is only on Leg 1 so we will miss sailing with each other on NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette! Regardless, it’s been a blast hanging out with her and the other engineers!
Science and Technology Log
The Marine Mammal Observers (MMO), Birders, and I continue to help the Monk Seal and Green Turtle groups prepare for their projects. Since everything is so new to me, I really enjoy learning about the science!
I helped Biologist Shawn Murakawa from the Marine Turtle Biology & Assessment Program sort green turtle humeri! In my conversations with Shawn and in my reading of the National Sea Turtle Aging Laboratory Protocol for Processing Sea Turtle Bones for Age Estimation (Goshe et al., 2020) she provided, I learned about the process and will provide a summary of it below.
Humeri bones are important in estimating the turtle’s age and growth since there are currently no known age estimating techniques using external structures. By looking at the cross-sections of these humerus bones, scientists can analyze growth marks to estimate the age of a turtle—similar to looking at the rings of a tree, but not quite. This age-estimation method is called skeletochronology. Before all this, scientists need to carefully clean the humerus bones and then dry them—a process that can take up to 30 days. Measurements of the bones such as diameter and length are taken, followed by cutting cross sections. Thin 2-3 cm cross-sections are decalcified and then stained with hematoxilyn. The stained thin section is now ready to be mounted on a slide for imaging. An example of the final result for a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) is shown below:
I helped to sort bones that were already dried. If the clearing and drying process is not sufficient, the bones begin to degrade and are no longer useful for skeletochronology. My job (then Suzanne Yin, Allan Ligon, and Dawn Breese joined me later) was to sort the bones into three categories:
1) moldy bones for discarding
2) good candidates for skeletochronology that came from turtles with no tumors from Fibropapillomatosis
3) good candidates for skeletochronology that came from turtles with tumors from Fibropapillomatosis.
According to the NOAA (2011), fibropapillomatosis is a tumor-causing disease that debilitates sea turtles and can cause death depending on the severity and size of the tumors. While the disease is most common in green sea turtles, it is now found in all seven sea turtle species. It is not yet known how this disease is spread or caused so there is not yet any treatment for it.
Later, Yin organized a group of us to go take a tour of the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), a University of Hawaiʻi campus on Moku o Loʻe (Coconut Island). Lars Bejder, the director of the Marine Mammal Research Program at the institute, was our host and gave us a tour of the labs on the islands. Some of the research conducted by the labs include testing out shark deterrents, creating structures to grow coral, and recording the body condition indices of female whales during gestation and after birth. For internship and volunteer opportunities, check out their webpage: https://www.himb.hawaii.edu/education/interns_volunteers/
After the tour, we listened to a talk by Jessica Kendall-Barr, a Scripps Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Marine Biotechnology & Biomedicine at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in UC San Diego, on the sleeping behavior of Elephant Seals. Jessica’s integrated art and science into her talk which made it very engaging. She did a really good job motivating the research and outlining the implications of the results. In a nutshell, wild animals have developed sleeping adaptations to balance feeding and sleeping while avoiding predation (Kendall-Barr et al., 2023). For example, “cows sleep-chew, horses sleep-stand, ostriches sleep-stare, and frigate birds sleep-fly” (Kendall-Barr et al., 2023, p.260). After developing a new submersible system to record brain activity, heart rate, depth of dive and elephant seal motion, Kendall-Barr et al. (2023) showed that elephant seals sleep-spiral at depths of approximately 300 m, where they are largely out of sight of predators, for a total of about 2 hours a day over the course of 7 months. The results have implications on conservation efforts as well as aid in understanding conditions for human free divers.
You can access the article here:
Brain activity of diving seals reveals short sleep cycles at depth
References:
Goshe, L.R., L. Avens, M.L. Snover, and A.A. Hohn. 2020. National Sea Turtle Aging Laboratory Protocol for processing sea turtle bones for age estimation. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-746, 49 p. https://doi.org/10.25923/gqva-9y22.
Kendall-Bar, J., Williams, T., Mukherji, R., Lozano, D., Pitman, J., Holser R., Keates, T., Beltran, R., Robinson, P., Crocker, D., Adachi, T., Lyamin, O., Vyssotski, A., & Costa, D. (2023). Brain activity of diving seals reveals short sleep cycles at depth. Science, 380, 260-265. DOI:10.1126/science.adf0566
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Fisheries. (2011, February 11). Fibropapillomatosis and Sea Turtles – Frequently Asked Questions. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/fibropapillomatosis-and-sea-turtles-frequently-asked-questions#:~:text=%E2%80%9CFibropapillomatosis%2C%E2%80%9D%20commonly%20referred%20to,also%20form%20in%20internal%20organs.
Personal Log
I had been looking forward to sailing since 2019 and was thrilled to finally meet the scientists and crew; they are all so inspiring! Each task the Chief Sci had us work on was all so exciting and new. I truly enjoyed working with the MMOs and Birders to support the monk seal and green turtle research teams. When I first got the notification that the mission was delayed a second time, curtailing it to just one week at sea, I was devastated because it meant I would be probably going home. I am really grateful that Erin (Chief Sci) and Emily (Teacher at Sea) could arrange for me to join leg 2! I’ve been learning the visual surveying procedures and bonded with the MMOs and the birders so I’m overjoyed to be returning. Let’s just keep in mind that I’m not guaranteed to sail because anything can still happen.
Below are some group pictures with my team!
Food Log
The food on board continues to be too good. On weekdays while in port, we get breakfast and lunch. The menu is displayed on a whiteboard. As you can see in the image, there is usually a little spark of joy written on them that bring a smile to my face. (I think Medical Officer Jamie Delgado writes them!)
Ichthyoplankton researcher, Justin Suca, invited us to a Fish Fry to enjoy the fish he and his friend, sailor Ateeba, speared. It was my first fish fry and it was incredible! They caught Tako (Octopus), Nenue (Sea Chub), A’awa (Table Boss), Uhu (Parrotfish), and Kumu (Goatfish). They prepared the Tako as ceviche, Nenue as poke, A’awa as fish nuggets, and very interestingly, the Uhu and Kumu were prepared Chinese-style. Chinese-style fish is first steamed (in this case Justin “steamed” in foil on the grill), usually with ginger, garlic, and green part of scallions. After steaming, heat up oil, pour it on the fish, and delight in the sizzling sounds. Add some shoyu (soy sauce), and maybe some Shaoxing cooking wine, if you wish. The Kumu was my absolute favorite. It was so silky and smooth.
Did You Know?
Since the toilet water is pumped from sea water, you can see the bioluminescent life if you turn off the lights while flushing! I found the best time to do it is early in the morning when no one has used the toilet in a while. MMO and roomie Andrea Bendlin shared this little special gem with me.
