Floats

Crew members at the rail, with Gough Island in the background. Each day here at Gough Island, once the helicopter operations are concluded or canceled due to weather, an announcement comes over the ship's PA system. "For the information of all hands, fishing is now permitted. Fishing is permitted." Within minutes, the forward deck is lined on both sides by crew members tossing hooked, baited, and weighted line overboard. So far I've seen them bring up three different species of fish, the fivefinger (which is brown with stripes like a bass), jacopever (bright orange), and bluefish (also called barrelfish or butterfish). Crew member with a hefty bluefish. During helicopter ops (more on that in a post later this week), the deck is cleared of any non-essential personnel as cargo is brought up from the hold and loaded in this area.  I don't otherwise see too much of the crew, which is definitely a different experience for me. They eat in a different dining hall, and ha

Trying to keep active on a ship that is only 450 feet from end to end is a challenge. Even when we're busy with science, there's lots of sitting and inactivity. Right now the ship is just off the coast of Gough Island, and will be for at least a week while helicopter and fueling operations take place. The small science party took two days to ourselves, each staying in our respective rooms watching movies and reading books, seeing each other only at meal times. But now we're a bit restless. Chief Scientist Tahlia Henry has been at sea often enough to know that we'll need distractions in order to stay in good spirits during this down time. Movie nights are being organized, as well as game nights and other events to get us out of our staterooms. "Feel like the toes are buds ready to blossom in spring," is (no joke) the narration of this moment. Before they left for the island, some of the women in the Gough science party were doing yoga sessions using the project

The aftermath of a wave over the back deck. The float was thankfully still in its plastic bag. The tape holding the cardboard box closed dissolves after a few minutes in the water, releasing the float into the ocean (or wherever it is at the time). We've spent this week in the famous Roaring Forties, named for the westerly winds that are prevalent in this part of the world and often keep the seas high. We left Gough Island (40.3 degrees South) and headed south on what is called 'the buoy run." The weather service onboard the ship deployed drifters that will track currents and weather conditions, and the oceanography team deployed a total of four floats. This included two for the SOCCOM program, floats named Titans and Zora. The Roaring Forties were true to their name and kept us all rocking and rolling. It's easy enough to adapt when you're walking through a hallway - every once in awhile, a perpendicular step on the wall may be necessary. "Keep one for the sh

The ship's bosun and his mates stand ready to lower Pixel off the stern of the ship. Yesterday we deployed another float, our second of the six planned for this cruise. Adopted by Stanford Online High School in California, the float is named Pixel, after the school's mascot. Pixel was deployed at 06:00 local time, which right now is the same as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time, also referred to as Zulu time). We crossed the zero (also called prime) meridian a few days ago and are now in the West longitudes instead of East. It was still dark out, so not quite as photogenic of an operation as the one from last week, but it went smoothly and that's the important part. We deployed Pixel during our transit between the islands of Tristan de Cunha and Gough, and it should provide some interesting data. The South Atlantic Subtropical Front crosses through this passage, separating two very different water masses from each other. Oceanographers are able to tell the origin of water throughout

Agulhas II off the coast, with the volcano rising in the center, and St. Mary's School (for kids age 3-16) on the right. The weather was nice today as the ship approached the island of Tristan de Cunha. Passengers were offloaded by helicopter, and then there was time for us scientists to take a trip over as well, being ferried back and forth by the ship's small boat. Tristan is the most remote inhabited island on the planet, 1,500 miles from South Africa and 2,100 miles from Brazil. There's only 260 residents, many of whom are descendant from the same 15 settlers. Even the dogs we saw seem to be from the same family. There's no hotels, but we were able to get our passports stamped and send postcards (which will come back to South Africa on our ship in a few weeks). I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry , it's fascinating. It was quite a treat to get to step on land and see such a unique place. My roommate  Caitlin , a scientist studying microplastics, and I walked

Weather balloon and instrument package, with me for scale. Weather and a few other delays dictated that we put off deploying the next two SOCCOM floats until the return trip. So I've had a few days with nothing much to do, but I'm trying to keep busy by chatting with the other science groups and learning about their projects.  There's members of the South African Weather Service onboard, some of who will stay on the ship while others get off and work from the islands. Every night, a weather balloon is deployed from the ship - and tonight I went to observe and take pictures. The balloon is filled with helium on the ship, but on land they're usually filled with hydrogen. A package is attached that measures temperature, dew point (from which humidity can be calculated), and wind speed and direction using a GPS. Last night's balloon went to 21 kilometers before popping. I didn't stay long enough to see how high tonight's went, but I did check out the real-time d

Agulhas II will offload scientists and gear at Tristan, Nightingale, and Gough Islands. A number of science talks were given today in the ship's auditorium. It turns out that there's multiple field projects on Tristan, Nightingale, and Gough Islands that are being staffed by people on the ship. I'll try to add some figures from the talks, and pictures of the scientists at work if possible. Antje Steinfurth is on her fourth trip to Tristan Island to study the Northern Rockhopper penguin population, called pinnamins by the locals. 85% of the population breeds on Gough and Tristan Islands. The two islands are 380 kilometers apart (236 miles), but there's a front that crosses through the ocean there that creates a very different environment around each, including a temperature gradient that influences the dominant food source for penguins. I'll see this for myself in the next few days, and we're specifically deploying one of the SOCCOM floats right along that oceano

Marine Mustang makes it safely into the ocean. We deployed our first float on Saturday! Its nicknamed Marine Mustang after being adopted by J.C. Parks Elementary School in Indian Head, Maryland. Deployment went smoothly. Though I usually describe my role in all this as “I chuck floats off the ship and then run analyses to calibrate the sensors,” there is absolutely no ‘chucking’ allowed! Lovingly, gently, carefully it is lowered into the ocean. The sensors and housing may be engineered to withstand freezing temperatures and crushing depths, but a fall could prove fatal.  The ship's bosun and his mates did a great job. It's a little less photogenic this time around since each float is packed up in a cardboard box. This prevents any banging of sensors against the ship during deployment. Tape that holds the box together dissolves after a few minutes, releasing the float. I've heard that this one has checked in, and even gone on its first dive to 2000 meters and reported back w

The floats take in a lovely Table Moutain view. There's always a loading period before a research cruise where the ship is in port and the science party rushes around getting everything prepared. I've been in Cape Town for a few days now and it's been very busy! I will be analyzing seawater samples for nutrient and dissolved oxygen concentrations onboard, so I have a lot of gear to set up. Thankfully since there's only a few scientists on this cruise, I have plenty of lab space. After making sure all my shipments arrived safe and got onboard, I started unpacking. The lab didn't have power or water the first day, so there was only so much I could do. By the afternoon of day two, that was up and running so I could test each machine and start making reagents. I had to make a trip to a hardware store to get supplies for securing everything on the lab benches (tables) so it won't fly around if/when we hit some weather. Today (day three) I realized that the power conv