Geographic Area of Cruise: Northeastern Coast of U.S.
Date: June 1, 2018
Weather From Bridge
Latitude: 41° 25.4′ N Longitude: 068° 16.3′ W Sea Wave Height: 1-2 ft Wind Speed: 16 kts Wind Direction: SE Visibility: Hz Air Temperature: 12.5°C Sky: OVC
Science and Technology Log
After completing a southern route past Long Island, New Jersey and Delaware, the HenryB. Bigelow headed north to the Gulf of Maine (GOM). The first sampling stations in GOM were located on the continental shelf close to the slope. After sampling in the Northeast Channel of the GOM, stations will be dispersed throughout the Gulf of Maine. Phytoplankton is continuously imaged through the Imaging Flow Cyto Bot and collection is going well. Below is a recent image taken. Can you find Thallasonemia or Ceratium?
At various stations instead of towing bongo nets with a CTD attached, a CTD, Rosette, is deployed with niskin bottles. CTD contain sensors that measure Conductivity (salinity), Temperature and Depth. The data gathered provides profiles of chemical and physical parameters of the ocean.
The great feature of the rosette is its ability to collect water using Niskin bottles as hydrographic instruments. Opened bottles are lowered into the ocean and at the desired depth a bottle is closed and brought to the surface without mixing with other water so pure samples can be taken at different depths. Back on board, water is taken from the Niskin bottles and nutrient, chlorophyll and carbon dioxide tests are run on the samples.
Georges Bank is in the southern part of the Gulf of Maine. The bank separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean. It is a huge shoal that is 100 meters higher than the surrounding ocean floor and is a very productive area of the continental shelf. The mingling of the Labrador current from the north and the Gulf stream on the eastern edge plus sunlight in shallow waters, creates an ideal environment for phytoplankton and zooplankton. Once a bountiful fishery, it is presently recovering from over fishing. Federal Fishery regulations aim to ensure recovery of the area and future sustainability. The data samples collected will give a good idea of the recovery of this area. The pink line below shows the route taken by our ship in the southern Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.
When we were near the Northeast Channel in the Gulf of Maine, Latitude 41° 53.2′ N and Longitude 65°47.0′ W, I deployed a satellite-tracked Drifter Buoy decorated with our school name May River Sharks. The drifter buoy will send GPS and temperature data to a NOAA website and students will be able to track its path. This area was chosen to deploy because the Labrador current from the north meets with the Gulf Stream and hopefully the buoy will get caught up in one of the currents. It will be fun for students to track the buoy path in the fall. Wonder where it will go???
So far this trip the weather has been great. Seas have been calm and temperatures good. I have fallen into a nice routine each day. My shift concludes at midnight; I go to bed till 9:00AM; work out; shower and get ready for next 12 hour shift. I eat lunch and dinner each day and a midnight snack. The days are long but never boring. The crew aboard the Henry B Bigelow is awesome. Internet is sporadic but I was able to face-time with my daughter. Technology is a big part of this whole operation. All the programs collecting temperature, salinity and phytoplankton rely on computer programs to run. Second to the chef, the IT person is invaluable. They are trouble shooting problems all day to make sure the collection of data is working. During the longer steams from station to station, I have the opportunity to talk to crew and other scientists. Each person is excited about science. I have never been involved in real science research and I find each day to be fascinating. There is so much time and effort put into collecting the samples. This cruise will collect samples from over 100 stations that will be analyzed and supply much data to give a good picture of the state of our Northeast coastline waters and fisheries.
Today was the last day of school for the year for May River High School. Graduation is Tuesday and my thoughts will be with everyone. Congratulations to all my students, especially the seniors.
NOAA Teacher at Sea Dieuwertje “DJ” Kast Aboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow May 19 – June 3, 2015
Mission: Ecosystem Monitoring Survey
Geographical area of cruise: East Coast Date: May 22, 2015, Day 4 of Voyage
Interview with Jessica Lueders-Dumont
Who are you as a scientist?
Jessica Lueders-Dumont is a graduate student at Princeton University and has two primary components of her PhD — nitrogen biogeochemistry and historical ecology of the Gulf of Maine.
What research are you doing?
Her two projects are, respectively,
A) Nitrogen cycling in the North Atlantic (specifically focused on the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank but interested in gradients along the entire eastern seaboard)
B) Changes in trophic level of Atlantic cod in the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank over the history of fishing in the region. The surprising way in which these two seemingly disparate projects are related is that part A effectively sets the baseline for understanding part B!
She is co-advised by Danny Sigman and Bess Ward. Danny’s research group focuses on investigating climate change through deep time, primarily by assessing changes in the global nitrogen cycle which are inextricably tied to the strength of the biological pump (i.e. biological-mediated carbon export and storage in the ocean). Bess’s lab focuses on the functional diversity of marine phytoplankton and bacteria and the contributions of these groups to various nitrogen cycling processes in the modern ocean, specifically as pertains to oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). She is also advised by a Olaf Jensen, a fisheries scientist at Rutgers University.
In both of these biogeochemistry labs, nitrogen isotopes (referred to as d15N, the ratio of the heavy 15N nuclide to the lighter 14N nuclide in a sample compared to that of a known standard) are used to track nitrogen cycling processes. The d15N of a water mass is a result of the relative proportions of different nitrogen cycling processes — nitrogen fixation, nitrogen assimilation, the rate of supply, the extent of nutrient utilization, etc. These can either be constrained directly via 15N tracer studies or can be inferred from “natural abundance” nitrogen isotopic composition, the latter of which will be used as a tool for this project.
On this cruise she has 3 sample types — phytoplankton, zooplankton, and seawater nitrate — and two overarching questions that these samples will address: How variable is “baseline d15N” along the entire eastern seaboard, and does this isotopic signal propagate to higher trophic levels? Each sample type gives us a different “timescale” of N cycling on the U.S. continental shelf. She will be filtering phytoplankton from various depths onto filters, she will be collecting seawater for subsequent analysis in the lab, and she will be collecting zooplankton samples — all of which will be analyzed for nitrogen isotopic composition (d15N).
Biogeochemists look at everything on an integrated scale. We like to look at the box model, which looks at the surface ocean and the deep ocean and the things that exchange between the two.
The surface layer of the ocean: euphotic zone (approximately 0-150 m-but this range depends on depth and location and is essentially the sunlit layer); nutrients are scarce here.
When the top zone animals die they sink below the euphotic zone and into the aphotic zone (150 m-4000m), and the bacteria break down the organic matter into inorganic matter (nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4) and silicate (Si(OH)3.). In terms of climate, an important nutrient that gets cycled is carbon dioxide.We look at the nitrate, phosphate, and silicate as limiting factors for biological activity for carbon dioxide, we are essentially calculating these three nutrients to see how much carbon dioxide is being removed from the atmosphere and “pumped” into the deep sea. This is called the biological pump. Additionally, the particulate matter that falls to the deep sea is called Marine Snow, which is tiny organic matter from the euphotic zone that fuels the deep sea environments; it is orders of magnitude less at the bottom compared to the top.
Did you know that the “Deep sea is really acidic, holds a lot of CO2 and is the biggest reservoir of C02 in the world?” – From Jessica Lueders- Demont, graduate student at Princeton.
One of the most important limiting factors for phytoplankton is nitrogen, which is not readily available in many parts of the global ocean. “A limiting nutrient is a chemical necessary for plant growth, but available in quantities smaller than needed for algae and other primary producers to increase their abundance. Organisms can grow and reproduce only when they have sufficient nutrients. For algae, the carbon source is CO2and this, at least in the surface water, has a constant value and is not limiting their growth. The limiting nutrients are minerals (such as Fe+2), nitrogen, and phosphorus compounds” (Patricia Sharpley 2010).
Conversely, phosphorus is the limiting factor on land. The most common nitrogen is molecular nitrogen or N2, which has a strong bond to break and biologically it is very expensive to fix from the atmosphere.
Biological, chemical, and physical oceanography all work together in this biogeochemistry world and are needed to have a productive ocean. For example, we need the physical oceanography to upwell them to the surface so that the life in the euphotic zone can use them.
Activities on the ship that I am assisting Jessica with:
Zooplankton collected using mini bongos with a 165 micron mesh and then further filtered at meshes: 1000, 500, and ends with 250 microns, this takes out all of the big plankton that she is not studying and leaves only her own in her size range which is 165-200 microns.
She is collecting zooplankton water samples because it puts the phytoplankton that she is focusing on into perspective.
Aspirator pump sucks out all of the water so that the zooplankton are left on a glass fiber filter (GFFs) on the filtration rack.
Video of this happening:
May 21, 14:00 hours: Phytoplankton filtering with Jessica.
In addition to the small bottles Jessica needs, we filled 4 L bottles with water at the 6 different depths (100, 50, 30, 20, 10, 3 m) as well.
We then brought all the 4 L jugs into the chemistry lab to process them. The setup includes water draining through the tubing coming from the 4 L jugs into the filters with the GFFs in it. Each 4 L jug is filtered by 2 of these filter setups preferably at an equal rate. The deepest depth 100 m was finished the quickest because it had the least amount of phytoplankton that would block the GFF and then a second jug was collected to try and increase the concentration of phytoplankton on the GFF.
There are 2 filters for each depth, and since she has 12 filtration bottles total, then she would be collecting data from 6 depths. She collects 2 filters so that she has replicates for each depth.
Here they are all laid out to show the differences in phytoplankton concentration.
She will fold the GFF in half in aluminum foil and store it at -80C until back in the lab at Princeton. There, the GFF’s are combusted in an elemental analyzer and the resulting gases run through a mass spectrometer looking for concentrations of N2 and CO2. The 30 m GFF was the most concentrated and that was because of a chlorophyll maximum at this depth.
Chlorophyll maximum layers are common features of vertically stratified water columns. There is a subsurface maximum or layer of chlorophyll concentration. These are found throughout oceans, lakes, and estuaries around the world at varying depths, thicknesses, intensities, composition, and time of year.
My section stands watch from midnight to noon–twelve hours on, twelve hours off. Today I stood my first watch, acting as one of three “recorder” on the fish sorting line. A recorder’s role is to assist his assigned “cutter” by entering requested measurement data (e.g., length, weight, etc.) of individual fish into a computer database. The cutter processes fish by identifying the species, then performing any number of actions (i.e., cuts, as in, with a knife) in order to retrieve information about particular fish for later use by scientists. Such data will consist of measuring, weighing, and sexing the fish, as well as checking the contents of its stomach. Other particular data may be gathered, such as collecting otoliths (ear bones) from the head of the fish.
After getting underway, the captain called a series of drills, one of which was abandon ship. During this exercise, I reported to the aft deck of the ship, donned a “Gumby” survival suit, which is bright orange/red, keeps you warm while in the water, and helps you to stay afloat. Following that, we had a collision drill. In a disaster scenario, everyone has a muster station, so that we can be counted, and then help control the situation, if need be.
Today was my first of about a dozen watches I will stand. It went smoothly, but there was considerable down time. The first stations (the areas in which the nets are lowered and trawling begins) were about 25 nautical miles from one another, so it took a couple of hours to steam from one station to the next. During this time, I was able to relax, grab a bite, or hang out with other members of my watch. Personal Log The food aboard ship is very good, and there is plenty of it. Between mealtimes, the cook makes sure that plenty of drinks and snacks are available, so there is no reason to go hungry aboard the Henry B. Bigelow. The ship has a huge library of DVDs with many new movies. We can also watch TV thanks to a satellite connection (DirectTV). The only things I am not allowed to do are 1) re-enter my stateroom after going on watch, as there is always an off-watch shipmate trying to catch some shuteye, and 2) make a surprise appearance on the bridge, which is where the NOAA officers navigate and steer the ship. That’s for safety, and I am sure they would welcome me, as long as I called ahead first. I am tired, but feeling pretty good. I boarded the ship wearing an anti-motion sickness patch, fearing that, after twenty years of not being at sea, I might be susceptible to seasickness. The medicine made me feel awful, so I took it off, and now feel much better! I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy the rocking of a ship. It’s an especially good way to fall asleep–gently rocking…
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 6/26/2013 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Personal Log: Well I’m back in my home state of Arizona. It is really hot, the forecast is for it to be above 110º, and I miss the cool breezes of the Atlantic Ocean. I am happy to be back in Arizona, but I will miss all the people, the marine creatures and the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean. I will remember this experience for the rest of my life and look forward to sharing this exciting adventure with my students, friends and family.
On the last two days onboard we finished up our EcoMon Survey and had time to add 23 more Bongo Stations. These were completed in two areas with the first just east of Maryland and the second off the coast of North Carolina. As we headed east of North Carolina we went into the Gulf Stream and the water temperature started to increase. At these stations our samples contained more larval fish than previously. We even brought up some deep-sea fish in two of these samples. One was a species of Gonostoma and the second a Hatchet fish. Both were fairly small and black with iridescent colors and had large mouths with many teeth.
Our drifter buoy, WMO # 44932, has been showing some movement since being deployed (to track movement, put GTS buoy for data set and WMO # for platform ID). Currently it is at latitude/ longitude: 38.73ºN, 73.61ºW. It does appear to be moving inland, but hopefully it will catch the current and start moving further into the Atlantic. We will be tracking it at Howard Gray over the next year.
Last day on the Gordon Gunter, Margaret, the chief steward, prepared a special meal for all of us. The spread included: Alaskan crab legs, roast duck with plum sauce, NY loin strip Oscar, grilled salmon, asparagus, red potatoes, Italian rolls, cream of potato and bacon soup (which I had at lunch, delicious) and cranberry cheesecake. I choose the crab, duck, asparagus, potatoes, and cheesecake – heavenly!!! I probably shouldn’t have had the cheesecake as well, but it was just delicious! Margaret always had so many great choices it was really hard to make up your mind.
Our last night on the Gordon Gunter was amazing. We had another unbelievable sunset with fantastic colors. A friend of mine from Arizona said, “It makes our Arizona sunsets look very bland and I think they are some of the best I’ve seen.” Then a group of Bottlenose dolphins visited the bow of the ship, so it was truly a remarkable night I will always remember.
Question of the day? : Why do you think the deep-sea fish have such large mouths?
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 6/21/2013 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Weather Data from the Bridge: Time: 21.00 (9 pm) Latitude/longitude: 3734.171ºN, 7507.538ºW
Barrometer: 1023.73 mb
Speed: 9.6 knots
Science and Technology Log:
This week we launched a Global Drifter Buoy (GDB) from the stern of the Gordon Gunter. So what is a GDB? Basically it is a satellite tracked surface drifter buoy. The drifter consists of a surface buoy, about the size of a beach ball, a drogue, which acts like a sea anchor and is attached underwater to the buoy by a 15 meter long tether.
Drifter tracking: The drifter has a transmitter that sends data to passing satellites which provides the latitude/longitude of the drifter’s location. The location is determined from 16-20 satellite fixes per day. The surface buoy contains 4 to 5 battery packs that each have 7-9 alkaline D-cell batteries, a transmitter, a thermistor to measure sea surface temperature, and some even have other instruments to measure barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, salinity, and/or ocean color. It also has a submergence sensor to verify the drogue’s presence. Since the drogue is centered 15 meters underwater it is able to measure mixed layer currents in the upper ocean. The drifter has a battery life of about 400 days before ending transmission.
Students at the Howard Gray School in Scottsdale, Arizona designed stickers that were used to decorate the buoy. The stickers have messages about the school, Arizona and NOAA so that if the buoy is ever retrieved this will provide information on who launched it. In the upcoming year students at Howard Gray will be tracking the buoy from the satellite-based system Argos that is used to collect and process the drifter data. You can follow our drifter here, by putting in the data set for the GTS buoy with a Platform ID of 44932 and select June 19, 2013 as the initial date of the deployment.
Why are drifter buoys deployed?
In 1982 the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) determined that worldwide drifter buoys (“drifters”) would be extremely important for oceanographic and climate research. Since then drifters have been placed throughout the world’s oceans to obtain information on ocean dynamics, climate variations and meteorological conditions.
1. Maintain a 5×5 worldwide degree array (every 5 degrees of the latitude/longitude of world’s oceans) of the 1250 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys to maintain an accurate and globally set of on-site observations that include: mixed layer currents, sea surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, winds and salinity.
2. Provide a data processing system of this data for scientific use.
EcoMon survey: We are continuing to take plankton samples and this week we started taking two different Bongo samples at the same station. Bongo mesh size (size of the holes in the net) was changed several years ago to a smaller mesh size of .33 mm. However, they need comparison samples for the previous nets that were used and had a mesh size of about .5 mm. They had switched to the smaller net size because they felt that they were losing a large part of the plankton sample (basically plankton were able to escape through the larger holes). We are actually able to see this visually in the amount of samples that we obtain from the different sized mesh.
It’s hard to believe that my Teacher at Sea days are coming to a close. I have learned so much about life at sea, the ocean ecosystem, the importance of plankton, data collection, and the science behind it all. I will miss the people, the ocean and beautiful sunsets and the ship, but I’m ready to get back to Arizona to share my adventure with my students, friends and family. I want to thank all the people that helped me during this trip including: the scientists and NOAA personnel, the NOAA Corps and ship personnel, the bird observers and all others on the trip.
Did you know? Drifters have even been placed in many remote locations that are infrequently visited or difficult to get to through air deployment. They are invaluable tools in tracking and predicting the intensity of hurricanes, as well.
Question of the day? What information would you like to see recorded by a Global Drifter Buoy and why?
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 6/19/2013 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Weather Data from the Bridge: Latitude/longitude: 3853.256 N, 7356.669W
Barometer: 1014.67 mb
Speed: 9.7 knots
Science and Technology Log:
Even before the plankton samples are brought onboard, scientists start recording many types of data when the equipment is launched. The bongos are fitted with an electronic CTD (conductivity, temperature and density) and as they are lowered into the ocean the temperature, density and salinity (salt content) are recorded on a computer. This helps scientists with habitat modeling and determining the causes for changes in the zooplankton communities. Each bongo net also has a flow-through meter which records how much water is moving through the net during the launch and can is used to estimate the number of plankton found in one cubic meter of water.
The plankton collected from the two bongo nets are separated into two main samples that will be tested for zooplankton and icthyoplankton (fish larvae and eggs). These get stored in a glass jars with either ethanol or formalin to preserve them. The formalin samples are sent to a lab in Poland for counting and identification. Formalin is good for preserving the shape of the organism, makes for easy identification, and is not flammable, so it can be sent abroad. However, formalin destroys the genetics (DNA) of the organisms, which is why ethanol is used with some of the samples and these are tested at the NOAA lab in Narragansett, Rhode Island.
When the samples are returned from Poland, the icthyoplankton samples are used by scientists to determine changes in the abundance of the different fish species. Whereas, the zooplankton samples are often used in studies on climate change. Scientists have found from current and historic research (over a span of about 40 years) that there are changes in the distribution of different species and increases in temperature of the ocean water.
At the Rosette stations we take nutrient samples from the different water depths. They are testing for nitrates, phosphates and silicates. Nutrient samples are an important indicator of zooplankton productivity. These nutrients get used up quickly near the surface by phytoplankton during the process of photosynthesis (remember phytoplankton are at the base of the food chain and are producers). As the nutrients pass through the food chain (zooplankton eating phytoplankton and then on up the chain) they are returned to the deeper areas by the oxidation of the sinking organic matter. Therefore, as you go deeper into the ocean these nutrients tend to build up. The Rosettes also have a CTD attached to record conductivity, temperature and density at the different depths.
Another test that is conducted on the Rosettes is for the amount of dissolved inorganic carbon. This test is an indicator of the amount of carbon dioxide that the ocean uptakes from outside sources (such as cars, factories or other man-made sources). Scientists want to know how atmospheric carbon is affecting ocean chemistry and marine ecosystems and changing the PH (acids and bases) of the ocean water. One thing they are interested in is how this may be affecting the formation of calcium in marine organisms such as clams, oysters, and coral.
New word: oxidation – the chemical combination of a substance with oxygen.
This week we headed back south and went through the Cape Cod canal outside of Plymouth, Massachusetts. I had to get up a little earlier to see it, but it was well worth it. The area is beautiful and there were many small boats and people enjoying the great weather.
We also did a small boat transfer to bring five new people onboard, while three others left at the same time. It was hard to say goodbye, but it will be nice to get to know all the new faces.
So now that we are heading south the weather is warming up. I have been told that we may start seeing Loggerhead turtles as the waters warm up – that would be so cool. We had a visit by another group of Common Dolphins the other day. They were swimming along the side of the ship and then went up to the bow. They are just so fun to watch and photograph.
We have been seeing a lot of balloons (mylar and rubber) on the ocean surface. These are released into the air by people, often on cruise ships, and then land on the surface. Sea turtles, dolphins, whales and sea birds often mistake these for jelly fish and eat them. They can choke on the balloons or get tangled in the string, frequently leading to death. Today, we actually saw more balloons than sea birds!!! A good rule is to never release balloons into the air no matter where you live!
Did you know? A humpback whale will eat about 5000 pounds of krill in a day. While a blue whale eats about 8000 pounds of krill daily.
Question of the day? If 1000 krill = 2 pounds, then together how many krill does a humpback and blue whale consume on a daily basis.
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 6/15/2013 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Weather Data from the Bridge: Latitude/longitude: 4234.645N, 6946.914W
Temperature: 15.4ºC, 60ºF
Barometer: 1011.48 mb
Speed: 9.4 knots
Science and Technology Log:
Plankton is everywhere throughout the ocean, so how are the stations chosen and mapped?
Scientists first decide on a specific region or strata that they want to sample. Then within this strata a specific number of stations is determined for sampling. NOAA has developed a computer program that then randomly selects stations in the strata. After these stations are generated, scientists play “connect the dots” to find the best route to get to all the stations. Once the route is generated adjustments are made based on time, weather and the team’s needs. These are plotted on a map and sent to the ship to see if further adjustments will need to be made.
When the ship receives the map from the science party, they plot all the stations and make a track line to determine the shortest navigable route that they can take. Frequently the map that is originally provided has to be adjusted due to weather, navigation issues (if there is a shoal, or low area, the route may have to be changed), or ship problems. Once they come up with a plan, this has to be re-evaluated on a daily basis. For example during our survey we left four days later than planned, so many of the stations had to be taken out. Furthermore a large storm was coming in, so the route was changed again to avoid this weather. The Operation’s Officer onboard (Marc Weekley on the Gordon Gunter) speaks with the science party on a daily basis to keep the plan up to date and maintain a safe route throughout the survey.
Ship Technology: The Gordon Gunter and all other NOAA vessels use many types of equipment to navigate the ship. They have an electronic Gyro Compass which is constantly spinning to point to True North (not magnetic north). This is accurate to a 10th of a degree and allows for other navigation systems on the ship to know with great accuracy what direction the ship is pointing. It also is used to steer the ship in auto pilot. When needed they can switch to manual control and hand steer the ship. They also have a magnetic compass onboard, if all electronics were to go out on the ship. Also on the bridge are two radars, which provides position of all boats in the area and is used for collision avoidance. Underway, the Captain requires the ship to stay at least 1 nautical mile from other vessels unless he gives commands otherwise.
Once a station is reached the ship has to position itself so it will not go over the wire that is attached to the survey equipment. Taking into consideration all of the elements, which includes the wind speed, current weather conditions and the speed of the current, they usually try to position the boat so that the wind is on its port side. In this way the wind is on the same side as the gear and it will not hit the propellors or the hull. The ship’s sonars determine the depth of the ocean floor and the scientists use this information to lower their equipment to a distance just above this depth.
Bow – front of the ship
Stern – back of the ship
Port – left of bow
Starboard – right of bow
Brrr… it’s cold! To avoid the big storm we headed north to the Bay of Fundy that is located between Maine and Nova Scotia. Seas were fairly calm, but was it cold at 9º C (48ºF), but with the wind chill it was probably closer to 5.5ºC (42ºF)! We are now heading south so it is starting to warm up, but luckily it won’t be as hot as Arizona!
Trying to take photos of animals in the ocean is very difficult. You have to be in the right place, at the right time, and be ready. Today we saw several sightings of whales, but they were in the distance and only lasted a second. During this trip, there was also a sighting of a shark attacking a Loggerhead turtle, but by the time I got to the bridge we had passed it by. Lately we have seen a great variety of sea birds including: shearwaters, puffins, sea gulls, and about twenty fiver other types. Even though it can be a little frustrating at times, it is still very calming to look out over the ocean and the sunsets are always amazing!
I can’t believe that there is only one week left for the survey. Time has gone so fast and I have learned so much. Tomorrow we are doing a boat exchange and some people are leaving while others will come onboard. I will miss those people that are leaving the ship, but look forward to meeting new people that will join our team.
Did you know? The ratio of different salts (ions) in the ocean water are the about same in all of the world’s oceans.
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 6/13/13 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Weather Data from the Bridge: Time: 8:25 am
Latitude/ Longitude: 4200.0122N, 6758.0338W
Speed: 9.1 knots
Science and Technology Log:
Why study plankton? Plankton are at the bottom of the food chain. Remember they are free floating organisms that drift with the currents. That means that they provide food for many other animals and those animals are then eaten by larger animals and so on. Therefore, plankton are important in the fact that if something happens to them, then the whole food chain is affected.
So researchers are interested in learning all about the different types of plankton, their distribution and abundance in the ocean. They want to answer questions such as: Have these factors changed over time? Are we finding different kinds of plankton in different locations? Has the amount of plankton changed? How do the changes in the abundance and species of plankton affect higher trophic (feeding) levels?
Types of Plankton:
Phytoplankton – The plants of the sea. They carry out photosynthesis, so they are found in the water column where light is able to reach. This can vary depending on how clear the water is. If water is very clear, they can be found at deeper levels because the light can penetrate farther. These are the primary producers of the ocean, providing food for the first order consumers – mainly some types of zooplankton.
Zooplankton – Animal-like plankton. These vary immensely by size, type, and location. They are classified by their taxonomy, size, and how long they stay planktonic (some only are planktonic in a larval stage where others are for their entire life) . These plankton are consumers with some eating the phytoplankton and others eating other zooplankton. These are extremely important as larger consumers eat them and then even larger organisms eat these.
Icthyoplankton – Fish larvae or eggs. These float and drift in the water and, therefore, are considered planktonic. Since these are only planktonic for part of their life, they are called meroplankton. Organisms that are planktonic their entire life are called holoplankton.
Plankton – free floating organisms that drift with the current.
Trophic level – position an organism occupies in the food chain.
Taxonomy – how scientists classify organisms.
Holoplankton – organisms that are planktonic their entire lives.
Meroplankton – organisms that are planktonic for only part of their lives.
I interviewed our lead scientist onboard the Gordon Gunter who studies plankton:
Name: Chris Melrose
What is your Position? Research Oceanographer
What do you do? Principal investigator on the Northeast Fisheries’ Ship of Opportunity project. We collect data from merchant vessels that are crossing areas that we are interested in. I also work on the Ecosystem Monitoring Surveys where my main area of interest is primary production and phytoplankton. They are the base of the food web and tell you a lot about the functioning of a marine ecosystem. Much of my work was in coastal regions where there were concerns about eutrophication, the enhanced primary production due to inputs of nutrients from pollution.
Why is your work so important? We are studying the planet we all live on and we are in a period of environmental change. Long term monitoring programs, like this one, allow us to compare data from the present with the past to see how things have changed and also helps us to make predictions about what will happen in the future.
Why did you decide to become a marine scientist and work with NOAA and ocean science? I grew up on the island of Martha’s Vineyard and always had an interest in the ocean. It was a hobby, but now it’s a career.
What do you enjoy most? I like science and being able to be out in the field – it is more of an adventure than just being in a lab.
What part of your job is most unexpected? When you are out in the ocean, there are always surprises – nature, weather or difficulties with ships, so you always have to be ready to adapt.
How long have you worked for NOAA and as a marine scientist? From 1998 to 2004 I was with NOAA as a graduate student, from 2004 to 2010 as a contract employee and in 2011 I became a full-time employee.
What is your favorite type of plankton? Diatoms because they have so many different shapes and geometric designs.
What is your favorite marine animal? Octopus as they are clever and it is amazing how they can change their color and shape.
If a student is interested in pursuing a career in marine science, what would you suggest to them? Science and math are very important and you would need to attend graduate school.
What type of education do you need? At least a master’s degree to become a research scientist.
I am now getting use to my shift, noon to midnight. At each station we put out the Bongo nets or Rosettes (more often the Bongos) and then we have to wash them down and strain out the plankton in a sieve to be saved later for the research. It gets a little harder and colder towards the end of the shift, but it has been very interesting seeing all the variety of plankton we are finding and how it changes from station to station.
Yesterday was very foggy and a little more rocky. It was very hard to see anything, but still beautiful to look at the ocean around us. Today it is clearer, but still somewhat rocky. Sightings have been few, but we were able to catch some whales in the distance by seeing them “blow” – spirt out water through their blow holes. A Storm is on the forecast and we have had to change our route. We will not be going as far east as planned and will head north to avoid the main barrage of the storm.
The ocean is such an amazing place, with all its life and vastness. It makes you realize just how small you are and how big the world really is!
Did you know? Many types of whales feed exclusively on euphausid (or krill), a shrimp like zooplankton.
Question of the Day: What is your favorite type of plankton?
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 6/10/13 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Weather Data from the Bridge: Time: 21:30 (9:30 pm)
Longitude/latitude: 40.50289N, 68.76736W
Barrometer 1017.35 mb
Science and Technology Log:
After several ship issues, we were able to finally head out from Newport, RI on June 9th after 4 extra days in dock. We have started the survey and are using two main types of equipment that we will deploy at the various stations: CTD/Bongo Nets and CTD Rosette Stations. We were originally scheduled to visit about 160 stations, but due to the unforeseen ship issues, these may have to be scaled back. Some of the stations will just be the Bongo and others only the Rosette, but some will include both sets of equipment.
A bongo net is a two net system that basically, looks like a bongo drum. It is used to bring up various types of plankton while a CTD is mounted above it on the tow wire to test for temperature, conductivity and depth during the tow. The two nets may have different sizes of mesh so that it will only filter the various types of plankton based on the size of the holes. The small mesh is able to capture the smaller phytoplankton, but the larger zooplankton (animals) can dart out of the way and avoid being captured. The larger mesh is able to catch the zooplankton but allows the phytoplankton to go through the openings. There are regular bongo nets and also baby bongo nets that may be launched at the same time to catch different types of plankton.
The Rosette CTD equipment is a series of 10 cylinders that can capture water from different depths to test for nutrient levels and dissolved inorganic carbon, which provides a measure of acidity in the ocean. These are fired remotely via an electronic trigger that is programed by a computer program where each cylinder can be fired seperately to get 10 samples from different depths. It also has several sensors on it to measure oxygen, light and chlorophyll levels, as well as temperature and salinity (salt) from the surface to the bottom of the water column.
Our first station was about 3 1/2 hours east of Newport, RI and it was a Bongo Station. I am on the noon to midnight shift each day. So on our first day, during my watch, we made four Bongo stops and two CTD Rosettes. Today we completed more of the Bongos on my watch. We are bringing up a variety of zooplankton like copepods, ctenophores, krill, and some fish larvae. We have also seen quite a bit of phytoplankton on the surface of the water.
Being on a ship, I have to get used to the swaying and moving about. It is constantly rocking, so it can be a little challenging to walk around. I have been told that I will get used to this and it is actually great when you want to go to sleep! Luckily I have not had any sea sickness yet and I hope that continues! We completed several safety drills that included a fire drill and abandon ship drill where we had to put on our survival suits – now I look like a New England Lobster!
Today was an amazing day – was able to see Right Whales, Blue Sharks and Common Dolphins – with the dolphins surfing off the ship’s bow! The Northern Right Whale is one of the most endangered species on the planet with only 300 left in the wild. One of the reasons there are so few left is that swim on the surface and were excessively hunted and there feeding areas were within the Boston shipping lanes, so they were frequently hit by ships. Recently these shipping lanes have been moved to help protect these animals. So I feel very privileged to have been able to see one!
Did you know? Plankton are the basis for the ocean food web. They are plentiful, small, and free floating (they do not swim). The word plankton comes from the Greek word “planktos” which means drifting. “Plankton” from the TV show SpongeBob is actually a Copepod – a type of zooplankton.
Question of the day: Why do you think it is important that the scientists study plankton?
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 6/5/2013 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Weather Data from the Bridge:
Time: 1800 (6 pm)
Latitude/ Longitude: 41 degrees 32 N, 71 degrees 19 W
Temperature: 19.5 C or 67 F.
Science and Technology Log:
I am currently onboard the Gordon Gunter, however we have been delayed a day due to an issue with the Automatic Steering Gear. A part was to come in today, but the wrong part was shipped (twice) so we have to remain in port for another day. We are currently at the Naval Station in Newport, Rhode Island and as soon as the part arrives, we will head up to the Gulf of Maine to start our Ecosystem Monitoring Survey. During the survey we will deploy our equipment and gather data at about 120 fixed stations and 25 random ones from the Gulf of Maine down to Norfolk, Virginia. At each station a Bongo Net (phytoplankton) and/or CTD Rosette (salinity, temperature, and density) equipment will be deployed which I will discuss in my upcoming blogs.
The Gordon Gunter: The NOAA ship Gordon Gunter was originally built in 1989 as the U.S. Naval Ship Relentless. When first built it was designed to be used for ocean surveillance mainly hunting submarines. In 1993 it was transferred to NOAA and became the NOAA ship Gordon Gunter in 1998. Because it was built for hunting submarines, it is a very quiet ship. It runs off of four diesel generators that power all the ship’s systems, which includes the ship’s two electrical propulsion motors and bow thruster.
The Gordon Gunter is 224 feet long with five levels above the water line. It can go at a top speed of 10 knots (about 11.5 miles per hour). This does not sound very fast, but it is a good speed for completing scientific surveys (and hopefully avoiding getting seasick). Actually most of the trawling nets (like for phytoplankton) are dispatched at 3 knots (about 3.45 miles per hour). The ship also has V-Sat (very small aperture transmission) satellite to provide connection to the internet and phone communications.
The ship seems to have all the comforts of home! There is the bridge (ship navigation), observation deck, state rooms (sleeping quarters – with a total of 35 bunks), a gym, movie room, TV room, mess hall, store, laundry area, dry lab,and wet lab. The “dry lab” is essentially the computer lab and this is where data from the survey will be entered into the computer. The “wet lab” is the location of where the ocean samples will be processed.
Today we took a tour of the ship and learned about some of the important safety drills that are required onboard. The three main drills are: Fire and Collision, Man Overboard and Abandon Ship. Each one has it’s own set of alarms that we need to be aware of. The day we depart (hopefully tomorrow) we will be doing one or more of these drills to make sure we are ready!
Besides the scientists onboard, there is a NOAA crew that pilots and runs the ship. The Gordon Gunter is involved in many scientific voyages along the Atlantic Coast from as far north as Nova Scotia to down south along the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. It’s home port is the Pascagoula Laboratory in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Each of these expeditions has a different scientific crew, but the ship personnel usually remains the same. This crew is essential to the smooth running of the ship and includes: Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, Operations Officer, Navigation Officer, Safety Officer, Junior Officer, Engineering personnel, Deck personnel, Stewards (meal preparation), and Electronics personnel.
I am getting to learn my way around the ship and am all moved into my stateroom. I was really surprised at how large it is! I have a roommate – Kat, a graduate student, for the first leg of the trip and then Sarah, an intern, for our second leg. We will make a stop in Woods Hole, Massachusetts on June 16th to drop a few people off and welcome aboard some new ones. So far I have met several marine and bird scientists, a college volunteer, graduate student, and college intern. The science and NOAA crew are all very friendly and welcoming, but it is hard to sit here in port and am really looking forward to heading out to sea and learning all the science that I can share with my students.
Did you know? NOAA has its beginnings in as far back as 1807, when the Survey of the Coast was started as the nation’s first scientific agency.
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter
May 20 – 31, 2013
Mission: Right Whale Survey, Great South Channel Geographical Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Date: May 29, 2013
Weather Data from the Bridge:
Air temperature: 12.8 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit)
Surface water temperature: 11.8 degrees Celsius (53 degrees Fahrenheit)
Wind speed: 21 knots (25 miles per hour)
Relative humidity: 100%
Barometric pressure: 1023.5
Science and Technology Log
We finally had a right whale sighting today! It was a juvenile and was quite close to the ship. It was exciting to see it frolicking.
Allison Henry, chief scientist, recently told me that over 70% of the right whales they see have entanglement scars. The scars are due to entanglement in fishing lines.
Sometimes teams of scientists with special training attempt to disentangle a whale. It can be dangerous work. The video below shows a team working to remove fishing lines from a whale in 2011. The scientists first need to attach the small boat to the whale with lines so they can stay with it while it swims until it exhausts itself. Only when the whale is tired, can the team work to cut away the entanglement.
Watch this video of a whale disentanglement.
The other hazard is that whales tend to rest and feed near the surface of the water in the shipping lanes, and can be hit by ships.
During the day, from 7am-7pm, the scientists take turns on watch. This means we watch for whales using “big eyes” which are giant binoculars. We spend 30 minutes on left watch, 30 minutes in the center, and 30 minutes on the right watch. At the center station we record sightings and update the environment using a computer program designed for this purpose.
I visited the Wheel House on the ship today. This is also called the bridge, and is the control center of the ship (similar to the cockpit of an airplane). The wheel house has many controls that the crew needs to know how to use, and it takes years of training to be able to command a ship. I spoke with Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Taylor and Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Michael Levine about the workings of the Gunter.
This is the wheel or helm of the ship. The Gunter is one of the last NOAA ships with this type of helm. The newer ships have a helm that looks more similar to that which you find in a race car. Although the helm is still used to steer the ship at times, especially when docking, the steering is left to the auto pilot the majority of the time.
I know some of you were concerned about how the officers could see to steer the boat in the fog. The ship has an ARPA radar system that shows where other boats in the area are in relation to our ship. The radar also shows the course our ship is taking and alerts the crew to anything that may be in the path of the ship.
The throttles control the speed of the ship. The maximum speed of ship is 10 knots which is about 12 miles per hour. The ship uses diesel fuel and it takes about 1,200 gallons of fuel to run the ship for a 24 hour period. At night they will sometimes shut down one engine which makes the ship go slower, but which saves about 400 gallons or $1,600 a day. This is one reason why we anchored for 3 days during the bad weather. The weather made surveying whales impossible so it didn’t make sense to run the ship during that time. The cost of running the Gunter is $11,000/day on average. This includes everything to do with sailing including salaries, food, etc.
I know that some of my first graders have been asking about where I sleep and eat on the ship. Below are pictures of my stateroom and the galley of the ship. Two very important places!
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter
May 20 – 31, 2013
Mission: Right Whale Survey, Great South Channel Geographical Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Date: May 26, 2013
Weather Data from the Bridge:
Air temperature: 15.5 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit)
Surface water temperature: 12.01 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit);
Wind speed: 10 knots (12 miles per hour);
Relative humidity: 85%;
Barometric pressure: 1005.5
Science and Technology Log
Here we are on Sunday afternoon and we’ve been anchored off Provincetown since Thursday evening to wait out bad weather and unworkable conditions. When the fog cleared, the view of Provincetown was quite pretty from the ship, but I have seen enough of it, and am ready for some adventure . Luckily, we set sail this evening and will begin our watch for right whales again tomorrow morning. While Monday looks to be quite windy, Tuesday shows promise as a good day for whale sightings. All the scientists aboard are anxious to get back to work!
During our down time I was able to interview two people aboard with very different jobs – Peter Duley, one of the NOAA scientists, and Margaret Coyle, the ship steward.
Peter has worked for NOAA for 10 years, and has also worked for The National Science Foundation. He has literally been to the ends of the earth doing research. He did his under graduate work at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine . Upon graduation Peter did field work in Belize banding birds. While his first love was birds, he became interested in marine mammals and has done research work studying harbor porpoises in the Gulf of Maine, pilot whales in the mid Atlantic to the Gulf of Maine, bowhead whales in Alaska, right whales along the East Coast, and even spent time in Antarctica studying leopard seals. He now spends his summers on right whale survey cruises, and his winters doing aerial surveys of right whales.
While interviewing Peter I was struck by the passion and excitement he has for his work. It is obvious that he loves what he does and is very dedicated to saving the “giants of the sea”. All of the whales Peter studies are endangered and it is imperative that scientists have a handle on the populations of these endangered whales so they can determine if the number of whales is rising or falling over a period of time, and what factors are influencing their survival. These scientists are so familiar with some of the right whales that they can identify the whales that have already been cataloged when they see them. They are cataloging all the whales using a number system that includes the year the whale was first seen, and another number that matches their mother if she is a whale that has previously been cataloged.
Peter’s favorite marine mammal is the leopard seal. He told me a story about the most dangerous situation he has been in while doing field work. He was in Antarctica in a small inflatable boat called a Zodiac and a leopard seal swam right up to the boat. He and his colleagues were excited and started taking pictures when the seal jumped out of the water and came down with its mouth on the side of the boat. The seal put a large hole in the boat. Fortunately, the boat had several different air compartments so the entire boat didn’t deflate in the frigid Antarctic waters, but Peter and his colleagues got back to shore as quickly as possible. My next question was, “What was your best research experience?” Peter said smiling, “The time the leopard seal put a hole in the boat!”
The other person I interviewed is Margaret Coyne, the ship steward. She probably is one of the most important people on the ship because she keeps us all fed! Not only does she make three meals a day for everyone on board, we actually eat like we are at a 4 star resort. There is always an amazing variety of delicious food at every meal.
Margaret and her 2nd cook Tyrone Baker, work 12 hour days from 5:30-6:30 with an hour break during the day. The galley is always buzzing with crew and scientists enjoying meals, snacks, leftovers, or anxiously awaiting for the homemade soup of the day to be brought out. There are always plenty of choices for all types of eaters – Margaret makes vegetarian options for each meal. She also makes her own yogurt, soy milk, fresh salad, ice cream, and a delicious dessert daily.
I will be happy when we start moving again and get back to the mission of surveying right whales. It has been difficult to be stationary for such a long time, but luckily, the scientists and crew are all so friendly that there is always someone to talk to. It is really interesting to learn about other people’s lives, and what brought them to where they are today. Hopefully I will remember this experience because of all the amazing whales I will get to see, but if not, I know I will carry fond memories of all the people I met.
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Aboard NOAA Ship Gordon Gunter
May 20 – 31, 2013
Mission: Right Whale Survey, Great South Channel Geographical Area of Cruise: North Atlantic Date: May 24, 2013
Weather Data from the Bridge: Air temperature 15.5 degrees celsius (60 degrees fahrenheit)
Surface water temperature 12.01 degrees celsius (54 degrees fahrenheit)
Wind speed 10 knots (12 miles per hour)
Relative humidity 85%
Barometric pressure 1005.5
Science and Technology Log
We are on the fifth day of our cruise and the weather is being very uncooperative! It has been foggy everyday which makes sighting whales very difficult. Before we started the cruise (it sounds strange to call it a cruise. It seems more like a mission), an aerial survey team did a fly over and spotted some right whales in the area we’ve been combing, but we have been unable to find them. Now we have set anchor off Provincetown, Cape Cod to sit out some bad weather that has moved in. We will stay here in this protected area until Sunday. This morning the wind was blowing at 54 knots or 60 miles per hour. Did you know that a knot is about 1.2 miles per hour? We set anchor last night and the wind was so strong it dragged the ship and anchor 300 yards!
While this is disappointing for me and for all aboard, I am amazed at the positive attitude and optimism shown by the scientists here. They take it all in stride, and are used to things not turning out as they had planned. I guess that’s the nature of field work. They are all extremely dedicated and passionate about their research.
You can track the course of the Gordon Gunter by going to the NOAA ship tracker website: http://shiptracker.noaa.gov/shiptracker.html . The ship is always in pursuit of whales so the track will sometimes look like a zigzag with lines crossing back and forth over each other. You can keep checking back to see our progress once we set sail again.
Although I have not seen many marine mammals, I have seen some sea birds that are new to me. The first is the gannet. The gannet is known for its diving ability. It can plunge into the ocean head first and go down 30 ft. It is a sea-bird so it never rests on land other than when it goes to its breeding colony.
Next, I saw a greater shearwater. This bird is also a sea-bird which means it doesn’t go to land unless it is breeding. They congregate on Nightingale Island to breed. Nightingale Island is located between the tips of Africa and South America. They have a very long flight during breeding season!
I also saw a Northern Fulmar. They are also sea birds and they nest in Scotland. These birds look much like sea gulls.
Today is day 5 of our cruise. While it is disappointing that the weather has not cooperated, it is such a learning experience to be on a ship like this one. I am learning so much everyday about what it’s like to be a scientist in the field. Besides being patient and optimistic, scientists need to be careful and precise in recording their field work. It is a good lesson for me and for you (my first graders) to always work carefully, and give close attention to detail in your work because that is what being a scientist is all about. Start practicing doing your best and most careful work now so you will be ready to be scientists when you grow up.
At this point I can see Provincetown from the ship, but for 2 days there was no land in sight. I really got a sense of just how big the ocean is. When we’re not sailing there is not much to do on the ship. I am fortunate that there are many new people to befriend, books to read and listen to, and delicious food at every meal. I also enjoy all your comments so keep them coming!
Did You Know?
Did you know that some of the scientists on this cruise have dedicated their entire working lives to surveying and cataloging right whales? They migrate with the whales down south in the winter, and come back up north in the spring.
Did you know that the sea depth is measured in fathoms? 1 fathom equals 6 feet
“Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink”
What do think that means? Why can’t they drink the water? Hint: The poem is written about sailors who are shipwrecked in a big storm out at sea
New Vocabulary: Draw a ship and label all the parts below Bow- front of the ship
Stern- rear of the ship
Starboard- right side of the ship
Port- left side of the ship
Aft- toward the back of the ship
Forward- toward the front of the ship
Mission:Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Date: 5/21/13 Geographical area of cruise: The continental shelf from north of Cape Hatteras, NC, including Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, to the Nova Scotia Shelf
Hi my name is Sue Cullumber and I am a science teacher at the Howard Gray School in Scottsdale, Arizona. Our school provides 1:1 instruction to students with special needs in grades 5-12 and I have been teaching there for over 22 years! In less than two weeks I will be heading out to the Atlantic coast as a NOAA Teacher at Sea. I am so excited to have this opportunity to work with the scientists aboard the NOAA ship Gordon Gunter.
I applied to the NOAA Teacher at Sea program for the following reasons:
First, I feel that directly experiencing “Science” is the best way for students to learn and make them excited about learning. To be able to work directly with NOAA scientists and bring this experience back to my classroom gives my students such an amazing opportunity to actually see how science is used in the “real world”.
Secondly, I love to learn myself, experience new things and bring these experiences back to my students. Over the past several years I have had the opportunity to participate in several teacher fellowships. I went to the Galapagos Islands with the Toyota International Teacher Program and worked with teachers from the Galapagos and U.S. on global environmental education. From this experience we built an outdoor habitat at Howard Gray that now houses four tortoises. Students have learned about their own fragile desert environment, animal behavior and scientific observations through access to our habitat and had the opportunity to share this with a school in the Galapagos. I worked with Earthwatch scientists on climate change in Nova Scotia and my students Skyped directly with the scientists to learn about the field research as it was happening. Last summer I went to Japan for the Japan-US Teacher Exchange Program for Education for Sustainable Development. My students participated in a peace project by folding 1000 origami cranes that we sent to Hiroshima High School to be placed in the Hiroshima Peace Park by their students. We also held a Peace and Friendship Festival for the community at Howard Gray.
This year we had a group of Japanese teachers visit our school from this program and students taught them about many of the sustainable activities that we are working on at school. Each has brought new ideas and amazing activities for my students to experience in the classroom and about the world.
Lastly, Arizona is a very special place with a wide variety of geographical environments from the Sonoran Desert (home of the Saguaro) to a Ponderosa Pine Forest in Flagstaff and of course the Grand Canyon! However, we do not have an ocean and many of my students have never been to an ocean, so I can’t wait to share this amazing, vast and extremely important part of our planet with them.
So now I have the chance of a lifetime to sail aboard the NOAA ship Gordon Gunter on an Ecosystem Monitoring Survey. We will be heading out from Newport, RI on June 5th and head up the east coast to the Gulf of Maine and then head back down to Norfolk, Virginia. Scientists have been visiting this same region since 1977 from as far south as Cape Hatteras, NC to the an area up north in the Bay of Fundy (Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia). They complete six surveys a year to see if the distributions and abundance of organisms have changed over time. I feel very honored to be part of this research in 2013!
One of the activities I will be part of is launching a drifter buoy. So students are busy decorating stickers that I will be able to put on the buoy when I head out to sea. We will be able to track ocean currents, temperature and GPS location at Howard Gray over the next year from this buoy. Students will be studying the water currents and weather patterns and I plan to hold a contest at school to see who can determine where the buoy will be the following month from this information. While out at sea my students will be tracking the location of the Gordon Gunter through theNOAA Ship Tracker and placing my current location on a map that one of my students completed for my trip.
Outside of school, I love to spend most of my free time outdoors – usually hiking or exploring our beautiful state and always with my camera! Photography is what I often call “my full-time hobby”. Most of my photos are of our desert environment, so I look forward to all amazing things I will see in the ocean and be able to share with my husband and son, students and friends! One of my passions is to use my photography to provide an understanding about the natural world, so I am really looking forward to sharing this fantastic adventure with everyone through my blog and photos!
NOAA Teacher at Sea Alexandra Keenan (Almost) Onboard NOAA Ship Henry B. Bigelow June 18 – June 29
Mission: Cetacean biology Geographical Area of Cruise: Gulf of Maine Date: June 16, 2012
Saludos! My name is Alexandra Keenan, and I teach Astronomy and Physics at Rio Grande City High School. Rio Grande City is a rural town located at the arid edge of the Rio Grande Valley. Because of our unique position on the Texas-Mexico border, our community is characterized by a rich melding of language and culture. Life in a border town is not always easy, but my talented and dedicated colleagues at RGC High School passionately advocate for our students, and our outstanding students gracefully rise to and surmount the many challenges presented to them.
I applied to the NOAA Teacher at Sea program because making careers in science seem real and attainable to students is a priority in my classroom. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, provides a wonderful opportunity for teachers to have an interdisciplinary research experience aboard one of their research or survey ships. I believe that through this extraordinary opportunity, I can make our units in scientific inquiry and sound come alive while increasing students’ interest in and enthusiasm for protecting our ocean planet. I will also be able to provide my students firsthand knowledge on careers at NOAA. I hope to show my students that there is a big, beautiful world out there worth protecting and that they too can have an adventure.
The adventure begins on June 18th when the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow departs from Newport, RI. I’ll be on the vessel as a member of the scientific research party. We will be monitoring populations of the school-bus-sized North Atlantic right whale by:
using photo-identification techniques
obtaining biopsies from live whales (wow!)
recovering specials buoys that have been monitoring the whales’ acoustic behavior (the sounds they make)
Why would we do all of this? Because North Atlantic Right Whales are among the most endangered whales in the world. Historically, they were heavily hunted during the whaling era. Now, they are endangered by shipping vessels and commercial fishing equipment. The data we gather and analyze will help governing bodies make management decisions to protect these majestic animals.
The next time you hear from me, it’ll be from the waters of the Gulf of Maine!
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Onboard NOAA Ship Delaware II August 13 – 30, 2007
Mission: Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Geographical Area: North Atlantic Ocean Date: August 27, 2007
Weather Data from the Bridge
Air temp: 15.6
Water temp: 15.1
Wind direction: 003
Wind speed: 12 kts
Sea wave height: 2-3 ft.
Science and Technology Log
What a gift. After what seems like many days of fog, it is a perfect day in the Gulf of Maine. I witnessed it at about 1:30 a.m. from the bridge where I went to photograph a full moon from the “darker” end of the ship. The deck where we work (stern) is well lit all night, so there is light pollution. The reflection of the moon on the water is hard to reproduce in a photo, but worthy of the attempt. The air has also cleared, replaced with dry, crisp Canadian air, and as a bonus, the seas are calm. After a good six hour sleep I head to the deck for what I think is the best morning yet. Clear skies with visibility that seems infinite, deep blue water with barely 1 ft. waves, and a gentle breeze mark the morning hours. The air feels so clean, almost brand new.
Shearwaters are gliding onto the top of the water and dunking their head in for a quick taste. It is the first time I’ve see herring gulls at sea in at least a week. There are large mats of yellowish sargassum floating in the water. There have been humpback whales spotted but I haven’t seen them yet. It is still quite deep here, about 200 meters. The plankton samples contain a lot of Calanus which is almost a salmon color and appears like small grains of rice in the sieve. It is a tiny crustacean, and food for so many large organisms…a favorite of young cod. I was late for breakfast but had some freshly cut honeydew melon, toast and cheese. Some warm coffee cake was soon put out. I’m so lucky to have this great experience. I spotted a grey triangular shaped dorsal fin in the water. It was quite wide at the base and a lighter grey near the top. It appeared twice then disappeared. Claire on the bridge confirmed sighting, a Mola Mola, a large sunfish.
Today is such a spectacular weather day. The Chief Steward pulled out the barbecue grill and charcoals were lit late in the afternoon. He added some hickory wood and grilled steaks and tuna. What a feast! We took samples in the Gulf of Maine today and tonight. They were a salmon pink color due to the calanus but contained a mix of zooplankton including amphipods, glass shrimp, and a few large, clear jellyfish. I preserved a jar from the baby bongo net for my students. Because I work into Tuesday morning, I wanted to include a special event on 7/28 at about 4:50 a.m. There was a lunar eclipse going on one side of the ship and a gorgeous sunrise on the other. Photos of both are below, as well as the moon rise the evening of 8/27, above.
A Shipboard Community
Nineteen people living aboard a ship, working twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for seventeen days. A very unique community. Thirteen of them are there to support the scientific research of four science staff and to maintain the ship for its use as a scientific research vessel. The four-man deck crew maintains the ship and runs the heavy equipment for the scientists. The four-person NOAA Corps staff navigate, drive and manage the ship. They re-adjust courses when conditions force a change, deal with fog and rough seas, lots of other boats that want to be in the same place we do, and make sure everyone has their needs met. The two-person kitchen staff feeds this team of nineteen as they work on twenty-four hour shifts. Good food is so important on a ship. The Four-person engineering team seems to stay behind the scenes (below deck!) and keep all systems running like clock-work. Last, but certainly not least is the electronic technician, a genius with anything that has wires. He told me the favorite part of his job is problem-solving, and quite frankly, that is what is required of him each day. From email to satellite TV reception to the electronics in the winch, he is constantly fixing new problems or finding ways to make things work better. Each person has a different background and reason for being here.
The age range of the members of this community begins at 23 and goes to the upper 50’s. The key to a good working ship is respect, consideration, and cooperation between people. There are many personal stresses on everyone, from lack of personal space, lack of sleep, seasickness, little contact with family, and inability to “go home”. In addition, each person needs to think of the needs of others so as not to disturb them or make their jobs any harder than they already are. This may seem like a utopian ideal. I suspect it is achieved on many vessels, though I can only speak for the DELAWARE II. What a great team to work with. Thank you for your support.
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Onboard NOAA Ship Delaware II August 13 – 30, 2007
Mission: Ecosystem Monitoring Survey Geographical Area: North Atlantic Ocean Date: August 25, 2007
Weather Data from the Bridge
Latitude: 4130 Longitude: 6650
Air temp: 17.8
Water temp: 16.7
Wind direction: 220
Wind speed: 16 kts.
Sea wave height: 2 ft.
Visibility: 4 nm
Science and Technology Log
Woke to another foggy day, though the air temperature is warm (18.6 at 1:30 p.m.). When a humid air mass hits the cooler Gulf of Maine water, fog results. At about 1 p.m. we got a call from the bridge saying we just crossed into Canada – could we see the line in the water? (everyone has a sense of humor here). Yesterday we decorated the surface drifter buoy that will send location, air and water temperature data to a satellite. Our school logos and websites are written on the buoy as well as the message “leave in the water”. NOAA will post this data on the Internet for anyone to track. Today we will deploy the buoy. Our school communities can watch this for over 400 days! Deployment went well, but the cloth drogue (holey sock) came apart and seemed to disappear below the buoy. We wore inflatable life vests and were tethered to the boat when we tossed the buoy off the ship.
Shortly after this, we took a plankton sample and as the net was coming up, I spotted some pilot whales about 40 ft. off the starboard side of the ship. There were six together, then another group appeared off the stern. They seem to stay very close together. Length was approximately 12-16 feet. They seemed to enjoy riding the stern waves. They were very cute, as the photo below shows.
This cruise is called an Ecosystems Monitoring Cruise. They happen four times per year, during January, May, August and November. Additional data to support this data set is collected on Fish Survey Cruises that occur in March, April, September and October. As I said in an earlier log entry, its mission is to assess changing biological and physical properties which influence the sustainable productivity of the living marine resources of the mid-Atlantic Bight, southern New England, Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank portions of the northeast continental shelf ecosystem.
The plankton that is collected and analyzed must be collected in the same exact manner during each cruise in order to compare it from season to season and year to year. The constant materials used are identical 61 cm diameter Bongo Nets with mesh size of 335 microns. The net is towed at a constant speed of 1.5-2 knots, 5 meters from the bottom or to a maximum depth of 200 meters. The rate of release of the nets into the water is constant as is the rate of return. There is always a 45 kg weight at the end of the wire that the nets are clipped to. The angle of the wire with the water is maintained at 45 degrees. Keeping these parameters constant allows scientists to compare the net catches because the only variable is what is very enthusiastic and dedicated. Even when I offered to take over the hosing of nets at the end of his shift, his response was, “I live for this!” NOAA is fortunate to have so many dedicated scientists and employees who work at sea. This is definitely not like any job I’ve experienced. The challenges of life at sea make it not something everyone can do. Betsy Broughton, the other scientist aboard is also high energy when it comes to this work. She clearly loves every minute and enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. I have learned much from both of them.
A flowmeter in each net measures how much water passes into each net and its data is part of the equation when amount of plankton per amount of water is calculated. Jerry Prezioso has been involved with this project since the 1970’s and is very enthusiastic and dedicated.Even when I offered to take over the hosing of nets at the end of his shift, his response was, “I live for this!” NOAA is fortunate to have so many dedicated scientists and employees who work at sea. This is definitely not like any job I’ve experienced. The challenges of life at sea make it not something everyone can do. Betsy Broughton, the other scientist aboard is also high energy when it comes to this work. She clearly loves every minute and enjoys sharing her knowledge with others. I have learned much from both of them.
NOAA Teacher at Sea
Karen Meyers & Alexa Carey
Onboard NOAA Ship Albatross IV August 15 – September 1, 2006
Mission: Ecosystem Monitoring Geographical Area: Northeast U.S. Date: August 29, 2006
Weather Data from Bridge
Visibility: <1 nautical mile
Wind direction: o
Wind speed: 20-25 kts
Sea wave height: 2-3’
Swell wave height: 4-6’
Seawater temperature: 14 C
Sea Level Pressure: 1015.2 mb
Cloud cover: 8/8
The rain has stopped but it’s a very foggy day here in the Gulf of Maine – not unusual for this area, according to the officers. I visited the bridge early this morning before dawn and Acting XO Jason Appler mentioned the “cabin fever” that can result from sailing through fog for days on end. We were hoping to see the beautiful coast of Maine but we may pass without ever catching a glimpse if this fog keeps up.
On the second station of our watch, in addition to the bongos, we used another plankton net which extends from a rectangular frame. It’s called a neuston net and it’s towed right at the surface, partly in and partly out of the water. The object of this tow is to catch lobster larvae which, according to Jerry, are often found clinging to seaweed drifting at the surface. We’re doing this sampling for a student who is considering studying the distribution of lobster larvae for a thesis.
Jerry reminded me of two terms I learned at some point in the past but had forgotten. Meroplankton are animals that are residents of the plankton for only part of their lives, e.g., larvae of fish, crustaceans, and other animals. Holoplankton is made up of jellyfish, copepods, chaetognaths, ctenophores, salps, larvaceans, and other animals that spend their entire lives in the plankton.
Jerry has a copy of the book The Open Sea by Sir Alister Hardy, a classic work of biological oceanography. As only one example of his many marine expeditions, Hardy served as Chief Zoologist on the R.R.S. Discovery when it voyaged to Antarctica in the 1920’s. The first half of the book is devoted to plankton and the second half to fish and fisheries. Both parts contain a number of his beautiful watercolors of the animals discussed, painted from freshly caught specimens and all the more remarkable for the fact that they were done on a rocking ship!
Personal Log – Karen Meyers
The seas got pretty bouncy this evening. I had been feeling pretty cocky about my “sea legs” but was getting a little uneasy. However, I did cope without any problems. I don’t really understand seasickness and I get the feeling no one else does either. I wonder how often and for how long one has to be at sea before their sea legs become permanent.
Personal Log – Alexa Carey
It’s like riding a bucking bronco out here on the ocean. Walking, by itself, is forcing me to improve my coordination. I love it. I’m only worried about how I’ll be on land…last time I was swaying back and forth for a few hours. I think Karen got quite a kick out of that.
We’re still taking pictures for the contest. It’s difficult being creative, especially because we’re limited on what we have for resources. We’ve got one picture that I hope turns out well. One of Tracy’s good friends sent her the picture of the Brady Bunch. I’ve been trying to work the picture so that our shift’s faces are in place of the original cast. The only one that truly looks in place is Wes, he actually looks natural! We’re having such a great time!
We all climbed into our survival suits again and took pictures on the stairs. Believe me when I say that sitting on the stairs in those “Gumby” suits, is a very difficult task. Wes was holding all of us up. Tracy had a hold of the side and I was propped up in between them. Alicea was very ready to jump forward in case we were to all start the journey downstairs a bit too quickly. I’m still having an amazing time.