stargazer – NOAA Teacher at Sea Blog

October 30, 2026

Melina Vella: Southern Stations – Hot or Not? September 20, 2026

View of the back deck of NOAA Ship Henry B Bigelow

NOAA Teacher at Sea

Melina Vella

Aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow

September 10 – 30, 2026

Mission: Northeast Fisheries Science Center Bottom Trawl Survey – Leg 1

Geographic Area of Cruise: Northeast Atlantic U.S. Coast

Date: September 20, 2026

Weather Data from the Bridge

Latitude: 34º48.0551’N

Longitude: 075º48.6160’W

Air Temperature: 25.5ºC (77.9ºF)

Science and Technology Log

It’s human nature to want to celebrate a big milestone. There’s a reason we look forward to birthdays and holidays. Studies show that it’s good for the brain to have checkpoints to mark our accomplishments. The big landmark (is it still a landmark if we’re at sea?) we’ve all been counting down to has finally arrived: the southernmost stations!

A closeup of a monitor showing the Coastal Explorer navigating system. The ship’s current location is represented by the lime green ship icon. Each set of blue circles represents a sampling location. These seven stations shown are the furthest south of the entire mission!

As you may recall, the range of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center Bottom Trawl Survey spans from Maine down to North Carolina. The past few days everyone onboard has been abuzz with excitement about the potential for some unique critters as we continue heading south. The novelty for me still hasn’t worn off—every item we bring up is equally thrilling—but the idea of even more rare species is enticing.

map of the east coast of the United States from Maine to North Carolina, with yellow coloring filling in the continental shelf offshore of the coast. the shelf is widest east of Boston, and narrower down near North Carolina. — A very basic map I made to visualize the general area covered by the survey using the publicly available polygon layer (NOAA NEFSC).

As we head towards the equator, we’re also heading towards much warmer water. The sea surface temperature on the first day of our trip was a chilly 20.9ºC (69.62ºF). In contrast, the sea surface temperature measured 29.2ºC (84.6ºF) on the day we reached the southernmost stations. That difference of about 10ºC (15ºF) has the potential to make a huge difference.

view of sunrise from the flying bridge of NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. we see a man in a baseball cap standing at a railing, looking toward the sunrise, in silhouette. — You can’t beat the view of a sunrise from the flying bridge. It’s the perfect mid-watch pick-me-up after being in the lab in the middle of the night.

About a week into the mission, everyone’s settled into their sleeping and meal routines. We’re a well-oiled but exhausted machine.

It’s around midnight on the 17th and we’ve just switched shifts. A few members of the day watch have already retreated to their rooms after a long day while others are lingering to fill us in on the day’s trawls. From what I can tell, it was a day with just a couple of stations, but a lot of time spent in the wet lab.

Extended time in the lab can mean a couple different things:

Giant tows with an overwhelming quantity of biomass. See my last blog post, featuring the Great 3000 Pound Scallop Tow, for instance. It simply takes a long time to process the sheer number of organisms.
Back to back stations that are close together. The first few days our distances between stations (steams) were very long, sometimes hours apart. In contrast, some stations are only a few nautical miles from one another.
Smaller tows but with high biodiversity. In other words, even if there are fewer fish overall, there may be lots of different individual species. Each of them will be sorted as precisely as possible, and the extra minutes it takes to tell them apart adds up quickly.

view over the aft deck from an upper deck, down at a sorting table containing some fish. two crewmembers wearing hard hats, life vests, and gloves stand at the sorting table and look up and smile for the camera. another crewmember similarly dressed walks along the deck, heading out of frame. — Joey Dunphy, Mei Lin McLaughlin, and Ben Tuttle around the checker pen (where the net deposits the haul of fish for processing) working on the back deck.

The watch leader of day shift, Jenn, said that there was a very high amount of diversity on their shift. They pulled up some unique juvenile fish alongside a large sea sponge which caused some major excitement.

view down over the aft deck from an upper deck as perhaps 12 crewmembers wearing hard hats (many with gloves) lean over bins to examine the catch — I was able to observe the day watch team from an upper deck, giving me a bird’s eye view. They’re all working diligently to examine every tiny nook and cranny of the sponge for any animals!

We’re hoping that the night shift will be filled with just as much excitement. The door to the acoustics lab bangs open and the night watch survey technician comes in announcing with fanfare, “Almost to the southernmost station!” He and an experienced sea-going science team member are chattering away about what we might catch. We’re all throwing out things we desperately hope to see (on my end, the biggest shark one could possibly catch), and ones that we would rather not deal with (anything too venomous or bitey).

There’s an equal amount of skepticism and optimism. Another science team member, Joey Dunphy, calls the southernmost station “the most overhyped station.” He says that “sometimes it delivers, but other years it falls flat.”

So what was the verdict this year?

I know this is my first rodeo—but I’d say that it delivered above and beyond. From the tiniest of crabs to cornetfish a few feet long, there was something for everybody. Here are some of the highlights:

Disclaimer: not all of these photos are from the southernmost station, but they were all caught off the coast of North Carolina, the most southern state of the whole survey so I’m including them here anyway…

Melina, wearing large orange overalls and blue gloves, holds up an inflated porcupinefish (looks like a pufferfish) for a photo near the side rail of NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow. We can see other crewmembers beyond. — Here I am holding a Porcupinefish (*Diodon*). They’re related to other inflating fishes like pufferfishes in the order Tetraodontiformes.
Image Credit: Kate Bemis

In the wet lab, a NOAA Corps officer smiles as he takes a photo with his phone of a butterflyfish that an out-of-frame science team member is holding out in a gloved hand. — The excitement was contagious! People from all over the ship showed up to celebrate and see the critters! A science team member is displaying a Spotfin Butterflyfish (*Chaetodon ocellatus*) to a NOAA Corps officer.

view of two preserved butterflyfish of different species, pinned on styrofoam (like collections of true butterflies) to extend the fins for comparison. — One of the ways that specimens are preserved is by pinning them. The photo above is of a Spotted Butterflyfish and Reef Butterflyfish (*Chaetodon sedentarius*).
Image Credit: Daniel DiMichele of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

close-up photo of a round spiky fish (a striped burrfish, inflated) in a gloved hand — An inflated Striped Burrfish (*Chilomycterus schoepfi*).
Image Credit: Science Team Volunteer Mei Lin McLaughlin

a close up of a small spiky fish (a striped burrfish, NOT inflated) lying on wet sand surrounded by bubbles — I’ve only ever seen preserved or recently washed ashore Striped Burrfish in Delaware. The one above was found on Slaughter Beach, Delaware in August 2025 during a nature center beachcombing program.

a stargazer on a metal surface next to a printed ID tag that reads Cruise ID 202604, Station 136, Kathetostoma albigutta (lancer stargazer), Date: 2026-09-17, John Galbraith. — Stargazers, of the Uranoscopidae family, have eyes on the top of their heads looking up. This particular fish is a Lancer Stargazer (*Kathetosoma albigutta*). Someone told me that stargazers are considered the holiest fish because they are gazing up at the sky towards the heavens and the gods.

close-up view of a cowfish grasped between gloved fingers in front of a sorting table — The bold colors and intricate pattern of the Honeycomb Cowfish (*Acanthostracion polygonius*) were jaw-dropping.
Image Credit: NOAA Fisheries Biologist Joey Dunphy

even closer view of the face of a cowfish showing the protrusions above the fish's eyes — The protruding “horns” like cattle above their eyes are the reason behind the common name “cowfish.”
Image Credit: NOAA Fisheries Biologist Joey Dunphy

five crabs piled on a fish measuring board next to an empty blue glove — This photo doesn’t do justice to the gorgeous shimmering pearly legs of the Iridescent Swimming Crab (*Achelous gibbesii*).

a gloved hand holds up a slipper lobster for a photo — This is one of the most unique crustaceans I’ve ever seen–a Slipper Lobster! Of the family Scyllaridae, these are not true lobsters.

Personal Log

I could not have asked for a better day than the one we had at the southernmost stations. Not only on the science front—we caught dozens of unexpected specimens—but personally as well. The atmosphere of the ship was phenomenal. The weather and sea conditions also cooperated nicely.

Mentally and physically taking a step back (quite literally as I took the photos below), I was filled with awe at the scope of the entire mission. There are forty or so people onboard and dozens more back on land coordinating with the ship. Even more scientists will be awaiting the data and samples we’re collecting. Thousands of individuals over the more than sixty years have been part of these operations.

five science team members in orange overalls crowd together on the side deck of NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow - only one is looking at the camera — Night watch couldn’t contain their joy! While only featuring a few of us, this was the closest we got to a team photo… It can be hard to remember to snap group pics when we’re elbows deep in flopping fish.

crewmembers in orange overalls, wearing blue gloves, hold up fish on the side deck of the ship — James Hilton (left) looks at some especially fun fish from the southernmost tow. Daniel DiMichele (middle) holds a Cowfish (Ostraciidae family) and Hannah Palladino holds a Porcupinefish (*Diodon*).

I don’t like to get too sappy or sentimental, but I was especially overcome with gratitude thinking about the fact that I get to be one of those individuals. We all have different academic and career backgrounds, but we’re all on this shared journey in the middle of the ocean. The human element of it all doesn’t necessarily show up in the final government reports, but it certainly is carried in the memories of everyone onboard.

Did you know…

That flying fish, of the Exocoetidae family, can leap out of the water at speeds of more than 35 miles an hour?

a preserved flying fish pinned with fins spreads on styrofoam — This particular fish actually flew its way onto the deck of the ship before being preserved, pinned, and photographed.

a preserved flying fish in a tank where it will be photographed. beyond the tank, Melina works to hang up a gray curtain to create a solid background. — I was able to help out the team with capturing images of the specimen. Here I am switching out the colored backgrounds. Each color helps different features of the fish stand out clearly.
Image Credit: Kate Bemis

July 15, 2013August 11, 2021

Sarah Boehm: Home Again, July 10, 2013

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Sarah Boehm
Aboard NOAA Ship Oregon II
June 23 – July 7, 2013

Mission: Summer Groundfish Survey
Geographic area of cruise: Gulf of Mexico
Date: July 10, 2013

Personal Log

The Oregon II pulled into port Sunday morning after a successful 2 week leg of the summer groundfish survey. The first thing I wanted to do when we got to land was to go for a walk. It did feel great to stretch my legs and move more than 170 feet at a time. Being on land again felt funny, as if the ground was moving under me. I thought this “dock rock” would pass quickly, but even two days later I had moments of feeling unsteady. On Monday I made my way back home to Massachusetts, arriving after 12 hours of planes and cars to a delightfully cool evening (although I hear it had been very hot while I was gone.)

I still have some photos and videos I wanted to share, so I thought I’d put together one more blog post with some amazing and fun creatures we saw.

We saw sharks swimming near the boat a few times, but this video shows the most dramatic time. This group of at least 8 sharks attacked the net as it brought up a bunch of fish, ripping holes in the net and spilling the fish. They then feasted on all that easy food floating in the water.

puffers — Adult puffer fish on the left from a groundfish trawl and a baby puffer from a plankton tow on the right

jelly nets — Icicles? Nope. Those are jellies that got caught in the net.

A very small flying fish with its “wings” extended.

One of my favorite fish is the flying fish. These fish have very long pectoral fins on the side of their bodies that act like wings. They can’t really fly, but they can soar an impressive distance through the air. We sometimes caught them in the Neuston net as it skimmed the top of the water. They are great fun to watch as groups of them will take to the air to get out of the way of the boat. Even more fun was watching dolphins hunting the flying fish! I was unsuccessful at getting a video, but you can watch them in this BBC clip.

Another cool animal we found were hermit crabs. The ones we caught were bigger than any I had found at a beach. The shell they live in was made by a gastropod (snail). As the hermit crab grows it has to find a bigger shell to move into.

hermit crab without its shell — We had to take the hermit crab out of its shell to weigh it. The head and claws have a hard shell, but the back part is soft and squishy.

hermit and anemones — This hermit crab has sea anemones living on its shell.

Look closely at the spots of color on this video of a squid. You can see how the color and patterns are changing.

A few more cool critters we found:

This stargazer looks like a dragon, but fits in the palm of your hand. It buries itself in the mud and then springs out to grab prey.

We found many mantis shrimp. It gets its name because those front legs are similar to those of the praying mantis. Those legs are incredibly fast and strong to kill its prey.

I knew there were many oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico, but I was surprised by just how many we passed. There are almost 4,000 active rigs in the waters from Texas to Alabama. While we went through this area there were always a few visible. They reminded me of walkers, the long legged vehicles from the Star Wars movies, with their boxy shapes perched above the water. By comparison, the waters near Florida were deserted because offshore oil drilling is not allowed and there were few other ships.

evening rig — Work on an oil rig also goes on 24 hours a day.

It was fabulous spending this time out on the groundfish survey with the scientists and crew of the Oregon II. Now I have a greater understanding of the Gulf ecosystem and science in action. I truly appreciate the time people on board spent to teach me new things and answer all my questions. I also have enjoyed all my students’ comments and questions. Keep them coming!

storm approaching — A storm approaches as we pull in to Pascagoula.

September 25, 2012August 11, 2021

Kaitlin Baird: Did You Know? September 25, 2012

NOAA Teacher at Sea
Kaitlin Baird
Aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow
September 4 – 20, 2012

Mission: Autumn Bottom Trawl Survey with NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center
Geographical Area: Back in port! Newport Rhode Island
Date: September 21st
.

Location Data:
Latitude: 41’53.04
Longitude: 71’31.77

Weather Data:
Air Temperature: 13.8 (approx.57°F)
Wind Speed: 10.01 kts
Wind Direction: North
Surface Water Temperature: 19.51 °C (approx. 67°F)
Weather conditions: overcast

Science and Technology Log:

I thought I would end my trip on the Henry B. Bigelow with some fun facts!

Did you know?

The Fisheries Scientific Computer System (FSCS) is able to prompt the data recorders with all actions needing to be performed for a particular species. It is coded with unique barcodes for every sample taken. Back in the laboratory all scientists receiving samples can receive all the information taken about the given organism by scanning this unique barcode!

barcoding for species caught on cruise for further analysis — Barcoding for species caught on cruise for further analysis

Did you know?
Science crew operating on the back deck are required to wear an Overboard Recovery Communications Apparatus (ORCA). This system if it is activated sends a signal by way of radio frequency to a receiver on the ship’s bridge. This system responds immediately to the ship receiver and has a direction finder to help locate the man overboard.

Me getting ready to head to the back deck with my positioning system around my neck — Me getting ready to head to the back deck with my ORCA around my neck

Personal Log:

It would take me hours to go through all of the amazing creatures we caught and surveyed on this trip, so I thought I would write some fast facts about some of my favorites! Enjoy!

Did you know?

The male spoon arm octopus has a modified arm that passes spermatophores into the oviducts of the female. Pretty neat stuff!

Did you know?
Stargazers, like this one, have an electric organ and are one of few marine bony fish species that are able to produce electricity. This is known as Bioelectrogenesis. They also hide beneath the sand with just their eyes sticking out and ambush their prey!

Did you know?
This fish, the Atlantic midshipman, has bioluminescent bacteria that inhabit these jewel–like photophores that emit light! It also interestingly enough uses this function in fairly shallow waters!

midshipman photophores — Midshipman photophores

Did you know?
Sea spiders like this one have no respiratory organs. Since they are so small gasses diffuse in and out of their bodies, how cool is that!

Did you know?
The flaming box crab, Calappa flammea, uses its scissor-like claws that act as a can opener. It has a special modified appendage to open hermit crabs like a can opener!

Did you know?
A female Atlantic angel shark like this one can have up to 13 pups!

Did you know?
Seahorses suck up their food through their long snout, and like the flounders I talked about at the beginning of the cruise, their eyes also move independently of each other!!

Did you know?
Horseshoe crabs, like this one, have blue blood. Unlike the blood of mammals, they don’t have hemoglobin to carry oxygen, instead they have henocyanin. Because the henocyanin has copper in it, their blood is blue!

Last but NOT least, Did you know?
According to the Guiness Book of World Records the American Lobster has been known to reach lengths over 3 ft (0.91 m) and weigh as much as 44 lb (20 kg) or more. This makes it the heaviest marine crustacean in the world! This one was pretty large!!

A big farewell to everyone on the Henry B. Bigelow! Thanks so much, i had a great time and learned a lot! Thanks for reading!