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Teacher at Sea Program 2004
While at sea, Herb provided real-time, interactive Internet lessons
to a test group of elementary students at B.F. Day School in Seattle,
Noon: 9/8/2004 Ahoy Maties, Today we pushed back from the University of Washington (UW) Oceanography Department dock this morning amidst the hustle and bustle of everyone trying to make things ship-shape. For the crew members this meant, disconnecting shore power (everyone had to shut off their computers) stowing the gang plank and making ready for transit in the locks to Puget Sound. For the researcher folk, this meant, working with the ships' carpenters to make desks/lab tables, lashing down their gear, unpacking lab supplies, assembling incubators (for growing phytoplankton cultures) and preparing drift buoys. Here are some impressions from leaving UW and heading towards the locks:
Breakfast was wonderful! The crew in the galley had a buffet that included: fresh fruit, hot cereal, scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, home-fries, juice, coffee, milk. (the works). Needless to say, I'm confident that I will be a happy camper in the dining department. I was delighted to notice that the trash we generate is separated to include a biodegradable category which I expect to follow in the time ahead. In a little while we have the ship safety briefing, so that's all for now. Herb P.S. After the safety meeting we got to see the Pilot (person who guided the ship into/out of Puget Sound) get aboard the jet powered pilot boat and head for Port Angeles. What other industries/jobs have people like boat pilots who help you navigate through tricky places? Noon: 9/9/2004 Location: N 47° 40.123 W 125° 01.701' (Off the Washington coast) Weather: partly cloudy Ship status: cruising to next station for sampling transect "LP" (LaPush) Ahoy Maties, We have divided up into "shifts." I work from midnight until noon. Last night we released our first drift buoys and took water samples at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The water was 257 meters deep! I learned how to setup the CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) water sampling rosette and release it over the side of the ship. While we were working, a storm petrel (a small dark bird with a curved bill) was disoriented by the bright work lights and needed to hang out in a dark box until we could turn the lights off. Here is a picture of me sampling nutrients from a Nisken bottle on the CTD rosette. The rest of the night/day was a flurry of activity as we took plankton net samples every hour and released two more drift buoys. By the time I finished my shift, I had learned to do the exacting sampling for nutrients (nobody could even be smoking nearby, which made some of the ship's crew a bit frustrated). I also learned how to filter 100 ml samples of seawater for chlorophyll content. Measuring chlorophyll content is an excellent indicator of biomass. We care about biomass because we're looking carefully at the food-chain/web involving the phytoplankton, Pseudo-nitzschia. At the end of my day was the emergency procedures/lifeboat/survival suit drill. Guess who was the person nominated to demonstrate putting on the survival suit. Well, it is time to "batten down the hatches," they say some weather is going to blow our way... See you in a few weeks, Herb Noon: 9/10/2004 Location: N 47 04.02' W 124 14.59' (Off the Washington coast, near Grays Harbor) Weather: partly cloudy, wind and waves building Ship status: Hove to, at station GH-01 deploying CTD and "Iron Fish." Ahoy Maties, Wow, I just finished my "watch" and it's only noon.. Of course I've been up since midnight. This reminds me of college life, but that's another story. The research work on this cruise never stops. In the lingo of oceanographers, the RV Atlantis is our "ship of opportunity." The scientists truly want to make the most of the opportunities available so we go 24 hours a day, rain or shine and nobody is happy if the ship is just sitting. Last night, seas were calm, the air was warm and I was really getting the hang of taking the nutrient and chlorophyll analysis samples. The moon and stars were out and we saw porpoises surfing in the ship's wake as we cruised a transect line heading towards Grays Harbor. Unfortunately for some folks, the calm weather made the right conditions for serious fog closer to shore and the captain had to start blowing the fog horn. Not many people can sleep through that. During the night, we had another water bird get attracted to the lights and become quite disoriented. I am including a picture of the little fellow so you can look in a field guide and tell us what kind of bird this was (hints: size is about 25 cm long and legs are colored grayish blue, upper side of wings totally dark). One of the instruments we launched is called the "Iron Fish." Ironically, it's totally made of plastic, as is all the hose going from the 'fish' to the "clean-room" (the clean-room even has the sticky floor mat to wipe your feet). Water gets pumped from the 'fish' into the clean-room where the folks can measure concentrations of iron and copper (or other trace metals). These two metals are like vitamins for the phytoplankton (like Pseudo-nitzschia). Here is a picture of Mark Wells and our "fishing rod" (crane boom) for the "Iron Fish." That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/11/2004 Location: N 47° 39.29' W 125° 03.50' (Off the Washington coast, near La Push) Weather: scattered clouds, wind and big waves (12-17 feet!) Ship status: Steaming along the LP transect line to the next station. Ahoy Maties, Well, here we are still taking CTD measurements day and night. Only some things are different. One thing is the wind has changed from the "normal" direction of blowing from the North to coming from the Southwest. Another major change involves the sea surface. The waves are running pretty big out here, something between 12 and 17 feet high. Good thing we all have boots! Here's a picture of the bow (of our 274' ship) going into a wave: Remember the "Iron Fish" (the all plastic sampling device that collects and pumps seawater into the very clean trace metal lab) from yesterday? Well, I talked with the Mark, the scientist in charge of this part of our investigations and the two of us worked out the following explanation/analogy (I know, some of you are groaning already). Imagine you are a creature that lives/works in an ecosystem where you and all your fellow neighbors have large (seemingly unending) piles of building blocks in your yard. Your goal in life is to simply build more than any of your neighbors (natural competition). You provide your workers with coffee so they are stimulated to build. Do you get the picture? Well, as you have probably figured out, the right amount of coffee is a critical factor in your biological building block success in this ecosystem. If you don't give the workers enough coffee, they act drowsy and don't build very much. Conversely, if you give them too much coffee the workers spend far too much time taking coffee breaks and using the portable toilets. Now comes the rest of the analogy. You and your neighbors are the phytoplankton, Pseudo-nitzschia. All those building blocks are "macro-nutrients," stuff in the sea water like nitrates, phosphates and silicates. The trace metals (chiefly iron and copper) act like the coffee. Iron and copper are in the enzymes which control the rate of the chemical reactions for building biomass (remember your goal to build/grow bigger than your neighbors.) Now, things become even more intricate. as we introduce the concept of stress. If there is not enough coffee, you get worried and stressed about the rate of building and switch to offering lattes instead of just plain coffee. The lattes represent the Domoic Acid which we see Pseudo-nitzschia produce when there is not enough iron or copper. That's all for now, happy building, Herb Noon: 9/12/2004 Location: N 48° 312.70' W 124° 53.09' (Off the Washington coast, near Cape Flattery) Weather: clear skies, slight breeze, seas running 3-6' Ship status: Hove to at station CF-2, 7.5 nautical miles West of Cape Flattey. Ahoy Maties, What a fun night/day (remember I'm working the midnight to noon shift) this has been. As the sun was just peaking above the foggy horizon, we were nearing a sampling station just off Ozette (the site of an old Makah Indian village, now part of the Olympic National Park). The slight breeze filled our noses with the distinctive woodsy smell that I associate with hiking/camping on these beaches. Soon afterwards a solitary brown pelican flew past displaying that distinctive laid back, pelican in flight, posture. This splendor was topped with humpback whales sounding nearby. It sure is nice to have good weather. This photo shows one part of the "main lab" shortly after midnight. As you can see, people are busy filtering/testing water samples. Ironically, some factions of the scientists are disappointed because they would prefer to have more prolonged winds/storm winds coming from the Southwest to study the conditions when the surface waters are pushed ashore. Hence, we're using the break in the storm conditions to get water samples for our incubators. We will then incubate the samples in controlled conditions (varying the nitrates, phosphates, silicates, iron and copper) to see which conditions lead to Pseudo-nitzschia being enhanced or distressed. Here are some photos showing water samples and various incubators around the "fan-tail" (stern deck). These samples are bungeed to a cylinder that moves in a circular path inside this incubator. This is another picture of the same incubator showing its size and the drive system for circulating the dark cylindrical tubes through the water. Oh, I got some mail with questions and I have the following answers: From Roger in Winchester, MA. Q: How's the food? A: It's awesome! We get lots of fresh fruit and veggies and rib sticking good entrees. However, the coffee is not so good, I've taken to drinking tea! The galley has a staff of three people to look after the other 44 folks on the ship. Look for future features on the website about shipboard life. I plan to do a photo essay about living at sea and the galley is high on the list of places to document. From Cecilia and Allie in Seattle, WA. Q: What do the scientists image with the scanning electron microscope? Are there any images you could show us, or download etc? A: What the SEM "sees"/shows is the silicate skeleton of the plankton. To see some SEM micrographs (pictures) check out some of these websites: http://www.mta.ca/dmf/psn or http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov (look for the HABs and Marine Biotoxins menu). From Idalina, Ian and Elizabeth at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. Q: How big is the ship? (And other questions about the ship). A: This version of the Atlantis is 274 feet long, I think it's huge. It definitely rocks in all senses of the word. The people who run the ship are from all over the country/world and have great storys to share, as do the scientists/grad. students. For more information about the RV Atlantis check out this website: http://www.atlantis.whoi.edu/ From Tony at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. Q: How is the weather out at sea? A: While this might seem like a simplistic kind of question, it touches on a very deep topic. Simple answer, it keeps changing. More complicated answer: when it storms, the winds typically blow from the Southwest and causes downwelling along the coast (possibly driving toxic Pseudo-nitzschia ashore!). These storms, not surprisingly include big waves, we had some of those two days ago and I got the cool photo featured in the postcard from day 4. In "normal"/non-storm conditions, the winds blow from the Northwest and there is upwelling along the coast and toxic Pseudo-nitzschia typically don't make it ashore. Wishing you all the best, Herb Noon: 9/13/2004 Location: N 48° 29.20' W 124° 43.62' (smack dab in the middle of the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca) Weather: heavy clouds, drizzle, seas running 8' or so. Ship status: starting the LA transect (11 stations that are 5 nautical miles apart.) Ahoy Maties, This day had a light work load as far as sampling goes. We did two station stations and then headed in to, Neah Bay WA for crew transfers (we cruised right past Cape Flattery, the Westernmost point in continental USA). The ship idled in position outside Neah Bay's harbor while "small boats" were lowered from their davits into the waves. It took about an hour for the "rigid hull inflatables" to return with two different scientists and their gear. It was raining at the time and they had quite a ride, here's a photo of the "small boat returning to the Atlantis. The other picture shows the ferry Kalakala moored in it's latest home, Neah Bay on this blustery Monday. Q&A Q: from Daniel at The Northwest School, in Seattle, WA, How do you know the Domoic Acid is not made by the clams themselves as a defense mechanism? A: Well for starters, every person that I asked (I'm up to 5 scientists now) has begun with the reply, "Gee, that's a REALLY good question!" (You must have a great science teacher!) Explanations then went something like this: No animal has been shown to make Domoic Acid (yet), it is only known to be made by one genera (type) of phytoplankton (Pseudo-nitzschia). Clams only test positive for Domoic Acid when in the presence of Pseudo-nitzschia. Yet, clams do not always test positive for Domoic Acid when in the presence of Pseudo-nitzschia. I also wanted to show some pictures of the plankton tow and follow-up lab work we do because this 'low tech' method of checking to see what's in the water is something you can do almost anywhere. Clockwise from the top left: Sheryl takes a sample using a 20 micron plankton net. Herb is looking at a drop of the captured sample using a light microscope (a really nice Zeiss microscope). Pointing my camera down the eyepiece you can see some critters! The big pointy ones are called Ceratium. Bye for now, Herb Noon: 9/14/2004 Location: N 48° 27.85' W 125° 04.82' (smack dab in the middle of the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but farther out to sea..) Weather: overcast, seas running 8' or so. Ship status: doing the LAB transect, hove to and pumping water with the iron fish for more incubation experiments. Ahoy Maties, Well this business of going around to all 107 stations in the survey area is becoming a familiar routine. In fact, people/scientists around me are starting to act a little goofy at times (much the way students might act as they become more comfortable with the routines at school). For example one scientist set up a hammock to hang out in between "running samples." Others have been playing ping-pong and there is a foosball table that has yet to be used. Of course there is at least one latex glove that has been inflated and batted around. Us land lubbers have finally managed to master walking while the deck moves in all directions. We look a little like ducks, taking short steps with our feet way apart, as we wobble down the passageways bumping off the walls. In two days we expect to have finished sampling the survey area. Then it's on to finding some exciting water (for these folks it means water that has lots of Psuedo-nitzschia just starting to bloom) and drifting around in it while. I think most of us welcome the change in pace. Q&A Q: from Alex at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. Have you seen any army ships or mines you've had to avoid? A: No, we've only seen other fishing boats and a few freighters. However, some charts show lots of unexploded bombs on the sea floor (the US military used this area to "practice.") Q: from Elizabeth at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. How do you predict red tide or HAB? A: The short answer is that these are not yet predictable. Scientists are still trying to figure out the cause and effect relationships between all the different factors involved in Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). In fact, they are still at the point of trying to figure out what the factors are. As one scientist described the process, "it's like you are blindfolded and trying to describe an elephant, right now we're on one foot, maybe up to a knee." That said, the Florida area has been able to use sea surface color as measured from a satellite to detect blooms of a dinoflagellate which kills fish and harms the human respiratory system. Q: from Christophe and Ben at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. What is the Atlantis like (on the inside?) A: Look for a new section on the website next week featuring "shipboard life." It's really quite nice and sort of like we're on a space ship with a whole lot of lab equipment aboard. The deck where I spend the most awake time looks a lot like rooms in your average building with doors, hallways, tile floors, fluorescent lights and such. Of course, everything is strapped down and the work tables have little lips around the edge to keep things from sliding off as the ship pitches and rolls. Q: from Jack and Sam in Fort Worth, TX How does the algae get in the shellfish? A: It's all about the algae (not so much like the cool green coating inside a fish tank, more like plankton, coming from the root "planktos" meaning wander in latin) wandering around in the water. The shellfish literally filter the water (check out the clam dissection image link found in the clam chowder activity) in large quantities and strain out all kinds of "stuff." Some of this "stuff" can include the phytoplankton, Psuedo-nitzschia. Here is a picture which one of the scientists (Brian) took from a recent net tow. You can see there are all kinds of "stuff" in there. The long thin straight thread like objects are chains of Pseudo-nitzschia cells which are stuck together at the ends. That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/15/2004 Location: N 48° 27.11' W 125° 48.23' (about 40 nautical miles west of Cape Flattery, WA) Weather: overcast, seas running 6' or so. Ship status: doing the LBC transect, about to do our 100th CTD cast. Ahoy Maties, OK, yesterday was about routines and getting a little too comfortable with how things have been going, well today had some nice variety! We have started seeing very cool birds called, shear waters. They look kind of like sea gulls but do not fly like sea gulls. Shear waters are the snow boarders of water birds. They seem to rip and shred the air currents the flow over the waves in graceful swooping arcs without flapping their wings at all. Their knife-like wing tips appear to slice the waves. Shortly after breakfast someone spotted porpoises surfing in/on the all the waves the ship makes as it cruises at 11 knots. They were close enough that we could hear their breathing! With any luck a video clip of these playful creatures will be available online by this time next week. Here what they look like riding one of the secondary bow waves. On the right is the working chart of the chief scientist, Barb Hickey. You can see that she has things well organized with different colors indicating the results of our survey at the different CTD stations. A tour of the engine room was definitely a highlight for me. This ship has six engines! Each (giant caterpillar diesel) engine drives a generator. Electricity from three smaller generators is used to power all the lights, refrigerators, winches, computers, the ice machine, and various pumps. The diesel-electric power combination is the same basic set-up used by railroad locomotives. Electricity from the three big generators is used to drive the two 3,000 horse power (!) electric motors which power the "Z-drive propulsion units." The "Z-drive" means that the propellers on this ship swivel like an outboard motor and instead of having a reverse gear, the helmsperson merely swivels the propellers so that they face forward. This ship can go from full speed ahead (about 15 knots) to a dead stop in less than one (274') boat length! Even wearing the ear plugs they provided us, the noise level in the engine room was incredibly loud. To see more information about the specifications of the RV Atlantis check out this website: http://www.atlantis.whoi.edu/atlantis.htm. Q&A Q: from Adam at B.F. Day School, Seattle, WA. How come there is nothing on the survival suit that protects your face? A: When the zipper was all the way up and the various flaps were secured around/in front of my chin/mouth/nose, only a small part of my face was showing. It would have been uncomfortably hot in there to have all that stuff done up for the picture (and you might not have been able to tell it was me in there). Atlantis crew member, Patrick pointed out that leaving part of the head/face uncovered allows you to: see, hear and respond to/with others. So, even though survival suit users might get some salt water in their eyes, having good use of your senses of sight and hearing are important safety concerns. Q: from Ian at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. Why is the ship named Atlantis? A: This ship is the third one in the fleet to have the name Atlantis. It is named after the very first ship in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) fleet. That was a square rig sailing ship that they continued to use until 1963 when the second Atlantis was commissioned. The current RV Atlantis was made in Mississippi in 1997 (ironically, the GE drive control system was obsolete at the time it was installed!). You might think it should be called the Atlantis III. However, the ship is actually owned by the Navy (the Office of Naval Research paid for it) and the US Navy does not use roman numerals in ship names. That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/16/2004 Location: N 48° 50.96' W 125° 14.98' (at the entrance of Barkley Sound) Weather: partly cloudy, light wind with seas running 2-3 feet Ship status: Entering Barkley Sound to test three CTD stations. Ahoy Maties, We have finished collecting samples from the 107 stations in our survey area! Thus we have our "snapshot" (that took 8 days) of the coastal waters in the stormy down-welling conditions. The physical oceanographer types are delighted to have all this new data to work with. The chemical and biological oceanographers now have their turn to find some "exciting/perfect water" (the large phytoplankton are dominated by Pseudo-nitzschia, a medium amount of macronutrients and low Domoic Acid toxicity) and follow it around while monitoring how it changes over a period of time. Of course they will be pumping water aboard and running incubation experiments for all of their waking hours. We follow a patch of water by throwing overboard a "drifter" which simply floats along sending messages to satellites saying 'this is my location.' During times of darkness a strobe light flashes so the helmsman can keep the drifter in sight. Here is what our drifters look like: It turns out that we need to practice our safety drill once a week. So, we got to put on our life jackets and carry survival suits to our "muster stations." My muster station is on the port side (because I have a top bunk people on the bottom bunk muster on the starboard side.) This safety drill was different from last week's because the use of an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) was demonstrated and I also got to see the crew practicing with a fire hose. Here are pictures of Tim, the communication electronics technician with the EPIRB and the some of the crew practicing with the fire hose off the port bow. In the second photo you might be able to just see a large log barge being towed by a tugboat. This lower photo shows the Canadian naval ship, HMS Winnipeg which went into Barkley Sound (on the South-central coast of Vancouver, Island) with us. Barkley Sound looks a lot like the coast of Maine and/or the San Juan Islands, with rocky coastlines and very few houses. Q&A Q: from John in Oslo, Norway! What is life onboard like? Have you seen any whales? A: Well, this isn't exactly a cruise ship with shuffle board courts and a promenade deck, but we do OK. The ping pong table usually has seawater samples on or under it and the working deck space on the fantail (stern) is OK for walking around on if you are careful not to trip on cables, hoses, the tracks for Alvin's cradle and tie-down straps. We do have to take care of our own laundry and make our beds (or not). Last night at 2:30 AM I had to wait for one of the three clothes dryers to be available! I guess someone waited until they accumulated a whole bunch of dirty laundry before visiting our "Laundromat..." Look for a photo-gallery feature next week showing more about life aboard the RV Atlantis. About the whales, yes, we have seen quite a few humpback whales moving southward. The area off Cape Flattery is famous for whale watching and we were not disappointed. Unfortunately, my whale pictures don't actually have whales that you can see in them. They were either too far away or I wasn't in the right place at the right time. However, this cruise is only half over and there are likely to be some fine opportunities for whale watching in the time ahead. That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/17/2004 Location: N 48° 32.98 W 125° 15.66' (In the middle of the Juan de Fuca Eddy) Weather: partly cloudy, light wind with seas running 2-3 feet Ship status: Floating around following drifter #3818. Ahoy Maties, We're literally following a buoy that is just drifting along. At night it is easy to see because it has a strobe which blinks in Morse code. (Look for a Morse code activity in the learning links/curricula section.) However, during the day the drifter looks very small as it bobs in waves with sunlight reflecting off them. The folks on the bridge have found the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) information sent by drifter to be very helpful with locating the drifter if it does get out of sight. Here is a picture showing how small the drifter looks like during the daylight hours. The right hand picture shows how easy it is to get distracted and lose sight of the drifter. The black dot in the water in front of the cruise ship is a humpback whale! The scientists are pretty excited to see the changes that have taken place since we started following this patch of water. We don't have the data on how the nutrients have changed yet. The Pseudo-nitzschia population is definitely growing and the level of toxicity has gone up. These definitely are indicators that we are sitting right in the midst of a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB). Q&A Q: from an un-named (you will see why) Northwest School student. "were are you?" A: Dear Alias, I will assume that you really mean 'Where are you?' and proceed from there. Identifying one's location on a ball/globe/sphere/oblate spheroid like out planet earth certainly has its challenges. It wasn't until about 300 years ago that the concept of latitude and longitude was developed and even then, measuring longitude was a real problem. If you want to pursue an even longer explanation, check out the learning links "Plotting Herb's Path" activity and/or read any of several books about Longitude. For a short answer, see the heading at the top of each postcard. The most up to date answer can be found at: http://www.atlantis.whoi.edu/get_tracks Q: From Gena at Sacred Heart School, Bellevue(?), WA. Could you see yourself doing this for a living? A: Absolutely not. Let me explain/qualify that though. It's really hard being away from my family and home for three weeks. I simply can't imagine doing anything like this on a regular basis. I truly look at this as a one shot deal, the opportunity of a lifetime (unless I was offered a dive in Alvin or unless my family could come along). Q: From Susan at B.F. Day School, Fremont, WA. What has happened on the boat that you weren't expecting? A: Wow, this question has had me thinking for quite a while. There are many levels at which I could respond, but time is limited. Simply put, everyday has wonderful surprises. I'll summarize with a metaphor that actually is quite literal (I hear some of your groaning already). It was suggested that I work the midnight to noon watch/shift and inwardly I groaned a little thinking that it would be a drag. Of course I didn't decline because I knew that it was important for me to be as helpful and supportive as possible (so I "was delighted" to shift over to work hours I hadn't even through about since college.) However, I now get to see the sunrise over the Olympic Mountains (when we can see that far) every morning. Every day literally looks different and wonderful out here and there are only good days and great days. Q: From Lesley at The New School/Parson's School of Design, New York, NY. I'm wondering how you are all feeling physically, how life and hard work on the ship is affecting your body and spirits and how working a night shift adds to the mix? A: Well, the previous question's answer certainly comes to mind here. To that I would add I feel great, sea sickness has pretty much gone away for all of us. Not only are the seas are much calmer, we're drifting instead of crashing around from station to station and people have definitely acclimated. This might be a good time to put in a plug for the upcoming "Sea Sickness" feature in the Curricula/Hot Shots part of the website. It should be in place next week (or so). I would say my body is reacting very positively to the large quantities of "comfort food" that is available. I sleep when dinner is served so I rationalize that I'm only eating two meals a day (after all, the bowl of raisin bran and/or the leftovers I microwave at 11:30 PM are really just a token pre-breakfast snack. Some of you will not be surprised that I'm eating things like barbequed pork ribs or macaroni & cheese topped with chili at 3:00 AM!) I'd say my spirits are pretty high. Q: From Room 306 at B.F. Day School, Fremont (Seattle,) WA. BF DAY SAYS HELLO TO ALL YOUR CREW! Are your postcards always true, like how high the waves are? A: The postcards are definitely and sincerely true. I take that part of my job as a science teacher very seriously. For example, I could not have made up the photo of the bow crashing into that wave shown in the 9/11/04 postcard. I also would not kid you about how good the food is on this ship and/or how important food is to me (just ask Adam.) Q: From Carrie at B.F. Day School, Fremont (Seattle,) WA. Do you have a chef? What are the meals like? Are many folks getting seasick? A: No we do not have a chef. Instead we have what I would call three chefs. However, in nautical speak they are the cook, steward and mess attendant. Their attention to detail is quite remarkable. For example the fresh fruit salad typically includes; blue berries, two kinds of melon, grapes, kiwi, fresh pineapple and strawberries. All this is topped with finely grated fresh cocoanut. The same kind of detail goes into everything else. Simply put the meals continue to be very impressive. Q: From Room 305 at B.F. Day School, Fremont (Seattle,) WA. We want to know if anyone has fallen overboard and have you found any toxins in any of the birds or plankton? What kind of birds have crashed on your ship at night? A: No one has fallen overboard (but we know what to do if someone does.) We have not been looking for toxins in birds. However, back in the early 1960's an unusual event in Monterrey, CA where birds were landing in the town, stagger around in an uncoordinated way all over streets, cars and sidewalks, with no fear of humans, is now thought to be an example of birds showing classic symptoms of Domoic Acid poisoning. Perhaps it's coincidence that Alfred Hitchcock lived 45 minutes north of Monterrey (in Capitola) and one year later produced a movie about crazy bird behavior. But I digress from the question about plankton. We have found toxin in plankton! In fact, the very water we're drifting with has had the toxin level increase and the toxin level inside the phytoplankton (particulate Domoic Acid) has gone up too. The scientists are definitely excited about this. Back to birds, one kind of bird we've had aboard is called a Storm Petrel. I am still waiting for somebody to tell me what kind of bird is shown on the postcard from 9/10/04. Maybe that will be you! That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/18/2004 Location: N 48° 39.70' W 125° 31.30' (19 nautical miles South of Barkley Sound) Weather: partly cloudy, light breeze, seas are 6' rolling swells Ship status: Continued drifting/monitoring the Pseudo-nitzschia bloom at drifter #3818. Ahoy Maties, Our pace in the lab has slowed considerably. We are now doing CTD "casts" only every three hours (instead of every 45 minutes or so while surveying the transect lines). The scientists have decided that tomorrow we will finish monitoring this one bloom site and move on to follow a different drifter. It is also the weekend, so I don't have any new questions to answer. Many people have asked about the food and I continue to look for ways to share the dining experience with you. The left hand photo shows my breakfast tray a few days ago. On the right are the condiments we have at each table. Below the condiments is a folded piece of rubbery shelf liner which gets unfolded when we're in heavy seas/big waves (this keeps everything from sliding off the table.) This next picture shows our lunch menu. These items were all freshly made from scratch, even the naan bread! Even though I have a fairly severe allergy to crustaceans (which means I couldn't eat the soup) the variety of entrees keeps things like food allergies from being any kind of issue. The bottom line here is that the galley crew, Chris, Larry and Linda are very talented and dedicated. They do a great job keeping us very happy. Q&A A few days ago someone asked if these postcards are always true and up until now I have done my best to keep everything factually accurate. If I send something that's not OK, I feel obligated to ask the webmasters to edit out my mistakes. This happened with my 9/13 postcard when is wrote "species of Pseudo-nitzschia" and really should have said "Genera of Pseudo-nitzschia." (I also need to fix a spelling mistake in yesterday's postcard.) Today's question comes with a factuality disclaimer. We don't have comics or newspapers. Hence, today's Q & A section "pushes the envelope" of what might actually be true. As I do not speak Norwegian, I definitely needed some help with this question from Norway. My friend Kevin, (who is a friend of the King of France) tells me that Michael's question says: "Have you ever met Donald Trump? He seems a little tense." Answer: Michael, you have made some good observations about human nature. While I have not met Mr. Trump, I agree with your assessment of his behavior. See you later, Herb Noon: 9/19/2004 Location: N 48° 39.75' W 125° 50.91' (11 nautical miles from where we were yesterday) Weather: clear skies, calm seas with 3-4' rolling swells, simply gorgeous! Ship status: Continued drifting/monitoring the Pseudo-nitzschia bloom at drifter #3818. Ahoy Maties, Today I will start with the Q & A because the question introduces what I want to write about later on. Q: From, Cheryl at The Northwest School, WA. What do the phytoplanton feed on? A: Initially, the folks around here really liked this question because the answer seems short and simple, nothing. The prefix phyto- means photosynthetic. Phytoplankton "feed" just like plants, they have chloroplasts and need/use sunlight and carbon dioxide to make their own food. Thus they are said to be autotrophic. That's the simple answer to the question. However, there are lots and lots of phytoplankton species (about 7,000!) and apparently we really only know the ecological habits of a very few (around 50) of those species. Some phytoplankton are heterotrophic, meaning they need to eat others to get their food (think predators.) Some phytoplankton are mixotrophic(!) meaning they have chloroplasts for making their own food but they also round out their diet by eating other critters. Here is a picture of the mixotrophic phytoplankton, Ceratium-furca. It is magnified about 100x. Ceratium-furca typically are 30-50 microns wide and 70-100+, microns long. A micron is the same thing as 1/1000th of a millimeter. Things are going very smoothly these days. We have been in the Juan de Fuca eddy for several days now. Vera, one of the scientists tells me that the Makah Indians referred to this region of the sea as a prairie. The thriving ecosystem provided much of their food. The ship's engineers found one example of this abundance when a high temperature warning led them to discover a clogged strainer basket for the cooling water intake system. The strainer was thoroughly plugged with krill! See the left hand photo below. The seas are calm, the plankton bloom continues to grow, the top meter of water even looks a bit green and soupy. The scientists are pretty excited about seeing a dinoflagellate (plankton with a few hair-like arms/whips) called Chattonella. Chatonella is a tear drop shaped single celled organism that typically has about 30 chloroplasts inside. It has two flagella (the hair-like arms/whips) and is thought to be a mixotroph. This creature has never before been seen on our West coast. However, it is prevalent around Japan and is known to cause fish kills there. This photo (below right) of a Chatonella shows the 30-50 micron sized cell with two faint curly flagella, magnification is about 100x. The scientists have done enough experiments to begin looking at their data and see what conclusions can be made. However, they mostly find themselves developing more hypotheses to test or coming up with more questions to answer. Even though we have all kinds of incredible scientific instruments, and close to one computer per person, much of the data analysis is simply a matter of graphing the relationships between two variables and or plotting information on maps. These typical math skills are tools that are getting used all the time out here. Here is a picture of Barb, the Chief Scientist discussing a colorful graph with Amy and Julian. Note that Barb's desk has lots of graphs on it and the chart/map showing our survey area. See you later, Herb Noon: 9/20/2004 Location: N 48° 22.83' W 124° 34.97' (just outside the harbor at Neah Bay, WA) Weather: Sunny, light breeze, seas are 3' rolling swells Ship status: Holding position just outside Neah Bay for crew transfer by small boat. Ahoy Maties, My shift ended today with us holding a position just outside the harbor at Neah Bay. Charlie, one of the scientists, needed to go to his other job (teaching/being a college professor at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario.) As he left us he was facing a five hour car ride to the airport where he would board a plane for another five-plus hours of flying. His travel schedule would get him home just in time to be "ready" for a class/lecture-room filled with 800+ expectant college students. These pictures show Neah Bay in better weather than our last visit (9/13/04) and Charlie in the hard shell inflatable. Charlie (white hard hat) is just starting his "commute" that will include big ships, small boats, cars, planes and probably a train too. The last crew transfer included the bringing aboard recent copies of "Star" and "Us" magazines. It was amazing to see (most of) the people in the main lab glom onto what was happening in the celebrity world; it was kind of like a feeding frenzy. This crew transfer literally involved a feeding frenzy as a one and a half pound jar of Frederick & Nelson's chocolate truffle candies was quickly consumed. You could say that we are a little "out of touch." Something else has the scientist folk acting differently these days. Behavior has gone from frantically collecting and analyzing samples to spending lots of time staring at spreadsheets on computer screens and muttering about data and graphs. Games of ping pong and foosball, taking a walk around the ship, calling on the cell phones if there is coverage, checking/sending e-mail and planning elaborate practical jokes punctuate our work. We are definitely in a different phase of "doing research." Q&A Q: From Room 206 with Adam at B.F. Day School, Seattle, WA. Have you seen any blue whales? Have you seen any evidence of Pseudo-nitzschia or Domoic Acid? Have you made any friends? Can you listen to any of the Mariner games? A: No blue whales, only humpbacks and porpoises. Someone else saw an orca though. We've seen so much of Pseudo-nitzschia and Domoic Acid that it's almost no longer exciting! Everyone is very friendly. Both the ship's crew and the science folk get along really well. So, yes, I have definitely made friends and it will be hard to say good bye to them at the end of the cruise. We don't listen to the Mariners out here as FM/AM radio doesn't consistently travel this far. How are the M's doing? Am I really missing that much? Q: From Room 300 at B.F. Day School, Seattle, WA. Is your job fun? Have you seen any dolphins or sharks? Have you fished off the boat? A: Yes! This "job" is totally a blast! I get to work with heavy equipment like cranes and winches, poke my nose in everyone's business, ask prying questions and take pictures of everything, eat a lot and have fun writing about what I feel and see. I wonder if reporters feel the same way. We have seen dolphins but not sharks. Hopefully you can see dolphins in the video clips section of the website. There are a few fishing rods around the boat, and I did cast once but didn't catch anything. Q: From Kat Brand at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. How's the food? A: It continues to boggle my mind how good the food is. The three wonderful folks in the galley maintain very high standards for quality and diversity even though they haven't been able to go shopping for two and a half weeks. That said, we have had more (very good) beans and pasta lately. I understand they freeze the milk to make it last longer. Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining here! Q: From Laura and Annie at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA and Malinda in Ticonderoga, NY. Have you had a good view of the stars or has it been too cloudy? What happened to the little bird that you pictured (9/10 postcard) in the box? What birds have you seen? A: The weather has been quite clear lately and the stars definitely are out in a very big way. However, one thing that I am not used to is the stars appear to move as my frame of reference (the boat) rolls and pitches. Seeing the big dipper move all over the northern horizon definitely takes some getting used to. Thanks to, Brian at National Marine Fisheries Service, "the bird in the box," (shown in the 9/10 postcard) has been identified as a Cassins Auklet. When birds get confused by the boats deck lighting, Dave, the Shipboard Science Services Group (SSSG) person, makes a habit of looking after them. The Auklet was released at sunrise where upon it flew (happily) off into the dawn. We have seen lots of gulls and terns, a few brown pelicans, cormorants near shore, petrels and auklets. Here is another diving bird that was having a great time feeding on bait fish that were attracted to the lights. It's about 20-30 cm in size and was observed to dive completely underwater and swim using its wings the way a penguin or puffin does. The dark eye-stripe and heavy bill appear to be quite distinctive but I can't find it in the bird books I have available here. Perhaps YOU can help identify this bird. Please let me know what you find out. That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/21/2004 Location: N 48° 32.87' W 126° 01.69' (about 52 nautical miles west of Cape Flattery) Weather: Sunny, light breeze, seas are 1-2' rolling swells, very calm Ship status: Still following the water mass at drifter #3818. Ahoy Maties, Today was very low key. I used the time to sort and edit photos that have been accumulating. It's easy for one's attention to wander with all the distractions that are available with people's behavior in the lab. Then there is always the possibility that something exciting is happening outside like seeing whales or some new birds. I saw my first albatross of the trip today. Their incredibly long (to 180 cm!) thin wings are quite distinctive. Unfortunately, I have no photo of these majestic birds (yet.) It has been decided that following this drifter will stop soon and we'll head South to resample the KB transect/survey line off Kalaloch Beach. These decisions are made by Barb, the Chief Scientist, in consultation with the other Principal Investigators (PIs.) Barb has a hard job trying to balance the desires of all the scientists with what she sees as the "big picture" of the entire research project. It will be nice to see that part of the coast again and may be even catch a smell of the seashore. Meanwhile, I continue to see more and more spreadsheets and very cool- looking ways of graphing/representing the data we have been gathering. Q & A Q: From Sarah in Room 206, B.F. Day School, Fremont (Seattle,) WA. Do you have your own room? A: No, only the chief scientist and the captain have their own separate cabins. I share a cabin with someone who lives/works on the ship. His name is Dave, and he is part of the Shipboard Science Services Group (SSSG.) Dave's job includes trying to keep all the scientists happy and making sure all the ship's scientific equipment works the way it is supposed to. For example, he directs the operation of putting in and taking out the CTD, and he checked all our computers for viruses and bugs before they could be connected to the computer network on board. Dave put my digital camera back together and got it running after I dropped it, too. One reason I feel lucky to have Dave as a roommate is that he has lots of furnishings like the bean bag chair, a big TV and several guitars. That is Dave in the picture, wearing his life jacket for the safety drill we had last week. I'll also put in a picture of our cabin. You can see Adam, who helped me load my gear, and the bean bag chair. Q: From Shawn in Room 206, B.F. Day School, Fremont (Seattle,) WA. Have you seen any sharks? A: No sharks, but I keep looking. Sharks are very cool; watching them swim reminds me of sleek sports cars moving along a winding country road. Q: From Rachel in Room 206, B.F. Day School, Fremont (Seattle,) WA. Have you SCUBA dived any? A: While I started SCUBA diving when I just your age, in second grade, we haven't done any diving on this trip. Q: From Ellis in Room 206, B.F. Day School, Fremont (Seattle,) WA. Have you seen any bald eagles? A: Bald eagles tend to live and fly much closer to shore and lately we've been pretty far from shore. However, tomorrow we head towards the beach at Kalaloch, WA so maybe we'll see some then. I'll be sure and let you know. Q: From Cheryl at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. Do the scientists have any theories about the appearance of Chattonella (as mentioned in 9/19 postcard) here? A: When I ask scientists about the recently observed Chattonella, more questions were raised than answers given (no surprise there.) It certainly could have come here in ship ballast water. We really don't know how long it has been here; it could have been here all along and just not seen. We do know that Chattonella has been observed off Japan and in the Mediterranean Sea; its habitat includes brackish coastal waters that are high in nutrients. That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/22/2004 Location: N 47° 31.81' W 124° 38.52' (about 12 nautical miles west of Kalaloch Beach, WA) Weather: Overcast, showers, breezy, seas choppy with 3-4 foot waves Ship status: Preparing to pull in the "iron fish" and resample the KB transect line. Ahoy Maties, We're in sight of land, and it feels kind of like coming back to a familiar neighborhood. Today, we relocated to the Southern part of our survey area. While we were in transit, the ship's crew was able to locate a drifter we were looking for at night even though the drifter didn't have a strobe light! This is something akin to looking for a needle in a haystack and finding it. We continue to take samples but not at the feverish feeling pace of the earlier stages of the survey. The scientists continue to huddle over their laptops crunching numbers in spreadsheets, hoping to identify conclusive relationships. Here, graduate student Lisa gloats over the triumphant results from her incubation experiment. The lab techs have kicked into higher gear and have been running batches of samples through the wide variety of analyzers we have on board. Here is a shot of Julian mixing up the reagents used in the auto analyzer for measuring macronutrients (phosphorous, silica and nitrates.) You can see that the lab bench is quite cluttered with "tools of the trade" including, but not limited to many music CD's. I have counted something like eight different sound systems in the labs and rooms around the ship so far. Having good music truly is a big part of creating a positive work environment. Q & A This is a follow-up to the question Cheryl (at The Northwest School) asked yesterday. Cheryl asked about any theories regarding the origins of the up to now very rarely, possibly never before, seen along the US West coast, Chattonella we've been observing. I am learning how important it is to not make absolute sweeping generalizations, like saying it has "never before been seen on the West coast." Jim, one of the biological oceanographers aboard, contacted his friend and fellow scientist, Rita who is an authority on marine phytoplankton. Rita suggested that Chattonella might have been some of the unidentified raphidophytes or one of the unidentified chloromonads mentioned in papers about BC waters and regions near Barkley Sound, from the 1970's and 1990's. Rita cautioned that we not to be too quick to "point the finger" at ballast water (or fish farming.) Her guess was that the Chattonella have been here all along in small numbers as part of the "hidden flora." Such organisms are seemingly not seen until something encourages them to "bloom." Thanks Rita, it's very nice to have input from the experts! Q: From Mr. C at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. Wouldn't there be some contamination of the waters from the ship, especially when you're drifting around in the same area for a while? Where do you dump the "dumpable" trash? Doesn't that affect the sampling? What about other ships in the area, are they dumping/contaminating? A: This topic of chemical "signatures" of ships passing through the water apparently has been the subject of significant naval research. Seawater for cooling ships engines and other machinery gets released back into the ocean after it has dissolved and carried away all kinds of materials from the pumps, pipes, valves and heat exchangers. The anti-fouling paint is designed to slowly come off the hull thus inhibiting the growth of marine organisms on vessels. As I understand it, the reports about these chemical paths which ships leave in their wake remains "unavailable" at this time. I think we would have to be traveling directly behind another ship in order to pick up any of their contaminants. However, the short answer to all your questions (except second one) is simply, yes. Contamination from the ship is a major concern, so we take (sometimes drastic) measures to control that. For example, the "iron fish" is placed in the water far enough away from the ship (9/10 postcard shows the partially extended crane boom holding the Teflon iron fish hose) so it doesn't pick up "contaminants" from the ship. The "dumpable" trash (sewage and other biodegradables) are held/stockpiled during, and well before, sampling. The good news is that the water dilutes things very quickly and the wind mixes things quite well. Also, our "drifting" following a drifter is perhaps a misnomer. We have to move around a good deal in order to stay near one of the drifters because the ship reacts to wind and water currents differently than a drifter does. Here is a picture of a sample of water being taken in the trace metals lab. You can see we're inside a "clean-room" that is a plastic bubble with specially filtered air inside. The water samples do not touch any metals (or they could pick up contaminants) so everything(!) the water touches is made of plastic. Now that's clean living, Herb Noon: 9/23/2004 Location: N 48° 33.93' W 126° 05.08' (western part of the Juan de Fuca Eddy, about 40 nautical miles from any land.) Weather: clear skies, slight breeze, low rolling 1-2' swells Ship status: Hove to, using small boat to disentangle drifter #3818 from kelp. Ahoy Maties, Today started with a 1000m CTD cast. The conditions in the water at this depth are quite impressive. The instruments on the CTD indicated a temperature of 3.66° C and a pressure of 1,466 psi. We did an "experiment" to see the effect of the pressure on Styrofoam cups and sample tube holders. Here are some photos. In the right hand picture, you can see the difference in size between the sample tube holders before and after the squishing. After the deep CTD, cast we returned to the drifter (#3818) which has been tracking the plankton bloom we've been documenting. The bloom was still flourishing, but the drifter had become bogged down in some kelp. So, we had some small boat activity where Amy and Mark got to unsnarl the drifter, take some surface water samples and get some photos of the ship. The "pea soup" coloration of the water surface was largely attributed to the plankton, Pseudo-nitzschia and Chattonella. Q & A Q: From Davin, in Ticonderoga, NY. Have you thrown up (fed the fish) yet? A: No I haven't. In fact, I'm hoping my body has become acclimatized to the ship pitching and rolling. Or maybe the seas have just been quite calm lately. By the way, if you haven't checked out the "Learning Link" on seasickness, it might pique your interest. Q: From John, in Ticonderoga, NY. What have you found out about the algae/critters? A: Well, we're "doing science" out here and I expect you know that "doing science" involves writing lab reports. The short answer is, the lab report(s) haven't been written. On a historic note, the first real big oceanographic expedition (check out the HMS Challenger) took place in the 1870's. It took 4 years to cruise all around the globe and then the "lab report" took something like 25 years to complete, (talk about a big homework assignment!) Just yesterday I learned that I need to be careful about what I say here because it is not polite for me to use this website to publish/present their preliminary results. We can expect the reports/results of this cruise to be officially published/presented in the next couple of years. However, I can say that we have had a chance to follow the development of a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) very closely. We have seen lots of Pseudo-nitzschia out here and they are producing quantities of Domoic Acid. Ironically this might happen all the time, and we just don't know it because the toxins don't make it to shore and don't get into the food chain/web we directly participate in. Q: Who takes care of you when you are sick? A: There is a ship's hospital, but I haven't been there. I'll have to check it out. Q: From Jeff at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. How much of an effect do plankton have on the carbon cycle? A: Well, the short answer is, a big effect. A longer answer would include the difference between phytoplankton and zooplankton and just what is the carbon cycle. Questions about the intricacies of the very complicated carbon cycle have been fueling a lot of NSF research lately. I'll try and provide the big picture, but in a brief form, because your question could easily encompass several college courses. There are two basic types of plankton, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phytoplankton photosynthesize; that is, they convert dissolved carbon into particulate carbon. (They also produce about half of the oxygen in the atmosphere.) It is like the terrestrial/land-based plants, grass and trees converting atmospheric carbon into simple sugar/carbohydrates. Higher zooplankton productivity results in more carbon in particulate form (the kind of carbon that other, nonphotosynthesizing critters, even you and me, can/need to consume.) The zooplankton are the animals that consume the phytoplankton; they are the primary consumers. People typically get involved further along the food chain/web. This is a good time to point out why we measure the amount of chlorophyll at a minimum of 0, 5, and 10 meters at each CTD station. The quantity of chlorophyll in the water provides an indication of the biomass that can be associated with a given "patch" of water. The carbon does not just remain in the plankton near the water surface. It travels around to different parts of the planet and the atmosphere too. Carbon can cross from being in the ocean to being part of the atmosphere (where it has huge effects on global temperatures.) Even with all the trees, coal, pollution, and other "storage places" for carbon, the ocean remains the biggest "sink" for stashing the global supply of carbon. In the travels of a carbon atom visiting different places in the carbon cycle/"conveyor belt," plankton essentially play the role of the customs and immigration officers, helping the carbon change residences, as it crosses the border between ocean and air. See you around the carbon cycle, Herb Noon: 9/24/2004 Location: N 48° 28.96' W 126° 03.63' (western part of the Juan de Fuca Eddy, about 3 nautical miles from this time yesterday.) Weather: slightly overcast, slight breeze, low rolling 1-2' swells Ship status: Following our favorite drifter #3818. Ahoy Maties, After what feels like a really long time following this drifter around, it looks like the plankton bloom is starting to fade. However we're still hanging around this "neighborhood" looking to see what happens to the levels of Domoic Acid. This gives me a good chance to follow up on some of your questions. Q & A Q: from Laura of "Rat City(?)" What do they do with all the sewage and garbage that everyone generates on the ship? A: This is a loaded question(!) which can be answered in several different ways. It's easy to cop out and reply "the ship strictly follows industry standards and US Coast Guard mandates." Here is my interpretation of what that means. First the sewage story. We have grey water, black water and oily water. The grey water comes from sinks and showers. The black water comes from the toilets. Piping from all these fixtures goes to "interface boxes" which are part of a vacuum system (like most big airplanes have these days) for moving the sewage into the sewage tank. Sewage gets treated in the Marine Sanitary Device (MSD.) Treatment includes; going through a macerator (grinder) and strainer screens, it also gets mixed with chlorine and aerated with salt water. The size of the sewage tank and how much water the crew uses determines how often the tank requires pumping. If there is a full crew aboard, the tank needs to be pumped about once every 24 hours. Ozone is used to help control vent odors from the sewage tank. Any water that accumulates in the bilge (bottom of the ship) goes through the Oily Water Separator (OWS) before joining the sewage water for pumping overboard. The OWS automatically samples and controls the concentration of water discharged to make sure it is less than 15 ppm (parts per million) of oil to water. Garbage is sorted into two kinds of trash, biodegradable and plastics. The biodegradable materials are crushed and can't legally be thrown overboard until the ship is at least 3 miles off shore. The first mate however, has his own code for this and insists that crew members wait until the ship is 25 miles off shore before discharging biodegradable materials. The plastics are burned in the ship's incinerator. This, Norwegian made, state of the art device, achieves significantly higher temperatures (700-1200°F, hot enough to melt glass) and a "cleaner burn" than a back-yard "burn-barrel." The white machine in the photo to the right is the ship's incinerator. Some items are brought back for disposal in port. These items would include; nonbiodegradables which won't burn, items too large to incinerate, aerosol cans, hazardous materials like batteries and fluorescent bulbs. Scientists are responsible for taking care of their own chemical wastes and the like. The photo below shows the "cages" for holding the ship's trash and the staging area for disposing of it. By now you're probably thinking to yourself (or out loud) this sounds pretty gross and it seems like there is a whole lot of pollution going on. You might even say; why don't they recycle stuff like we do on land or how could you throw that stuff in the ocean? Not surprisingly there are no easy answers. Space on any ship is at a premium and when you really think about it, there really is no "away" to throw stuff on land either. For example, when we send trash to a land-fill it doesn't go away. It goes to be part of a giant hole which is lined like a swimming pool or become part of a mountain of trash somewhere. All this trash simply sits and probably will eventually contaminate the ground water. In Seattle, our trash gets put on train cars and goes to be buried in the high desert of Oregon! It took me quite a while to adjust to the concept of biodegradable trash and sewage being part of the nutrient stream in the world/ocean. Perhaps my views will change but right now I think of the ocean as being able to do a better job of recycling the biodegradable products than many of the energy and water intensive processes we use on land. Granted, the results take longer (but use a lot less energy) in the ocean. Wouldn't you expect a paper bag or cardboard box will provide valuable cellulose for decomposers on land just as well as for decomposers in the ocean? Thanks for asking about this hot topic, Herb Noon: 9/25/2004 Location: N 48° 40.35' W 124° 59.44' (Two miles from the beaches of Vancouver Island.) Weather: clear, slight breeze, low rolling 1-2' swells Ship status: Hove to, starting CTD cast at station LB-01, deploying the "Iron Fish." Ahoy Maties, Wow, this section of Vancouver Island's coast looks really beautiful. Check it out! Using binoculars, we could see a huge waterfall (probably from the outlet of Tsusiat Lake) which ended right at the beach. We are starting the survey of a transect line that goes through the middle of the Juan de Fuca Eddy and then after checking on some drifters it will be time to start heading home! The plankton bloom has pretty much used up the available macronutrients (nitrates, phosphates and silicates) in this patch of water and we're seeing a decline in the population of Psuedo-nitzschia and Chattonella. Typically what happens to the diatoms (like Psuedo-nitzschia) at this stage of a bloom is that a sticky substance develops on their surface which causes them to clump together and sink. These sinking aggregates of diatoms were aptly described by the noted biologist, Rachel Carson as "marine snow." Thus large quantities of biomass (including carbon, as discussed in the 9/23 postcard question about the carbon cycle) are exported from surface waters to the ocean floor. Q & A Q: From Rosemary at The Northwest School, Seattle, WA. How did you hear about the research vessel? What inspired you to go? A: I have always been fascinated with the ocean and the submersible Alvin, which happens to be aboard as I write this! Alvin's previous mother-ships were Lulu (a large catamaran) and another motor vessel named Atlantis. So, I first heard about this particular Atlantis back in 1997 when it was built for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI.) Regarding your second question, most of my life I was convinced oceanography was in my future. This was reinforced as I learned to SCUBA dive at the age of seven and had my own underwater camera at the age of ten (so my family could help make an identification guide for Caribbean reef fish.) In college I studied a good deal of oceanography before deciding to become a teacher. All along the way, I have always hoped to do some kind of work with Alvin. So, when the opportunity to participate in this cruise came my way I was very excited about going (even if we aren't using Alvin, I get to look at it every day.) I also need to say that my family was/is very supportive and encouraging of my following this dream. Thanks for asking about this inspiring topic, Herb Noon: 9/26/2004 Location: N 47° 38.57' W 125° 04.19' (65 nautical miles Southwest of Cape Flattery, WA.) Weather: slightly overcast, breezey, low rolling 2-4' swells with light chop Ship status: Cruising at 12 knots headed towards drifter known as DB. Ahoy Maties, The pressure is on! It is starting to feel like that uneasy time (right before class?) when you suddenly realize the deadline for some big project is upon you and there is a whole lot of work still left to do. There simply is not enough time to collect all the data that all the scientists need/want for their projects. This is when our Chief Scientist's skills and capabilities with prioritizing and seeing/understanding the bigger picture really come into play. Barb has to make some tough decisions about what will, and what won't, be done in the remaining time on this cruise. It must be hard to please all the scientists all the time. So, we're collecting the more expensive drifters (with position, temperature and conductivity measuring capabilities) and replacing them with more expendable drifters (position and temperature measuring only). We are also still doing CTD stations with the goal of filling as many gaps in the data collection as possible. This photo shows Jim about to toss a drifter overboard at sunrise. Q & A Q: From Sprague, in Toulouse, France. Comment les personnes sur le bateau empechent-elles la maladie de la mer? A: While I could not find anyone who would admit to being a true French speaker, two different Canadians gave me two different translations for this question. One suggested the question asked how many folks aboard were sea sick the other thought it was asking something about mermaids. I'll try and address both topics. As this is the penultimate day of the cruise and the weather/seas have been very calm, nobody is feeling seasick. We haven't seen any mermaids either, although yesterday I caught sight of two orcas. Q: From John in Ticonderoga, NY. Who takes care of you if you're sick? A: This ship has a "tiny" hospital! It has five beds, but considering the ship has fifty people on board that's actually a lot of hospital beds for a community this size. Here is a picture of three of them. George, the First Mate is in charge of taking care of sick people, he's at his desk in the other picture. If someone gets sick on a ship, it's vital to keep the illness from spreading to the whole crew so hygiene is important. It's no surprise there are signs in all the heads (bathrooms) telling us to "Wash Hands Often" as a preventative measure. Most of the medical issues George gets to work with are cuts, scrapes, bruises with the occasional cold/flu or seasickness. Ironically much of George's time in the hospital is spent taking care of paperwork and keeping the stores of medicines up to date. He's a busy person because he has a lot of other responsibilities as the First Mate too. That's all for now, Herb Noon: 9/27/2004 Location: N 48° 10.52' W 125° 00.76' (11 nautical miles west of Ozette, WA.) Weather: Fog is finally thinning, 1-2' of chop over 3-4' swells Ship status: Cruising at 9 knots headed to the next station in "Canyon Transect." Ahoy Maties, The Nth hour crunch continues. The scientists are feeling "sandwiched" between gathering the last few samples for rounding out their data grids and packing up so things are ready to go when we dock at the University of Washington. Some people have started freezing their samples for later analysis in their labs located around the country. Here are some pictures of our samples in the walk in freezer. Our final survey transect line is a zig-zag course that follows the deepest water as we go into and through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We're literally cruising just above a canyon that is 200 meters deep and taking CTD casts every half hour to forty five minutes. The shape of the canyon includes sharp turns which might cause the deep/cold/nutrient-laden waters to "slosh" upwards with the action of the tides moving through the Strait/canyon. This is a likely topic for future study. Q & A Although this really wasn't a question, I wanted to let you know the thoughts of Brian, at NMFS. "I have not seen a reply to the new mystery bird (in the 9/20 postcard.) So this is what I came up with. It looks like a common Murre. Also called Guilliemots in some books. Although the coloration is a bit different than the books I have, the experts here at NOAA speculate that the bird in the photo is either immature or molting into winter phase." Thanks Brian, your efforts (and those of the other experts at NOAA) with the bird ID's are much appreciated. Here's a picture of what I think is another Murre (despite the radically different coloration from the Murre in the 9/20 postcard. Two of these slowly swam right in front of the ship one day and I had the pleasure of being on the bow watching them. I also have developed an appreciation for anyone who can take great pictures of birds. It's hard! Wishing you all the best and looking forward to being a landlubber, Herb Noon: 9/28/2004 Location: N 47° 57.45' W 122° 35.39' (University of Washington Oceanography Building Dock, WA.) Weather: Hazy but clearing, slight chop in Portage Bay. Ship status: Deploying gangplank at UW dock, connecting to shore facilities. Ahoy Maties, We've been doing the "commute" home for a while now. We finished our last CTD cast (#213) just before 1:00 AM. Of course the last minute packing of lab equipment continues (see photo at right.) Around 3:00 AM we picked up the Pilot in Port Angles and continued Eastward into Puget Sound. Recall from the first postcard (9/8/04) that the Pilot is like a guide who helps ships navigate in confined waters and tricky channels. Around 9:15 AM we approached the Hiram Chittenden locks and were greeted by my 8th grade students and the family members of some of the scientists. My own family played hooky in order to welcome us back to "terra de firma." It was wonderful to see everyone! After the locks we made three of Seattle's four draw bridges open up. In Lake Union the captain had to blow the ship's horn to tell some kayakers to "please move out of the way." Once the gang plank was secure we began unloading all the gear. We must have looked like a bunch of ants hustling around an ant colony. There was a constant stream of people carrying containers of equipment to awaiting cars and trucks. Yours in landlubberness, Herb
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The
as well as to students at the Northwest School. He reported on
specific aspects of the cruise, such as how the work of an individual
scientist fits into the overall objectives of the cruise. Upon
returning to shore Herb created curricula, offered workshops for
teachers, developed a photo journal of Pacific Northwest algae,
provided teaching materials for the Pacific Science Center and
the Seattle Aquarium, and submitted articles for educational journals.