And the research goes on

This morning began with Dr. Seibel and his team of scientific research divers (who are also his graduate students) heading out on the boat’s Zodiak for a morning SCUBA dive. They came back with many delicate gelatinous zooplankton, such as ctenophores and salps, which are best collected by hand. His team continues to deploy tucker trawls and tries to dip net any squid that venture into the well-lit surface waters surrounding the research vessel during any down time during the night. There are many experiments in progress throughout the boat, as water sampling continues and scientists scoop up important organisms from the MOCNESS tows and tucker trawls. Our research vessel, the R/V Seward Johnson provides us with the opportunity to send these nets to incredible depths and catch glimpses of a sometimes bizarre and alien world. In these dark depths of the ocean, gelatinous zooplankton and transparent squid abound. Parasitic amphipods (a type of crustacean), which inspired the movie The Alien (true story!) can be brought up in the tucker trawls and invisible fish larvae and crustaceans are frequently seen in plankton net samples. It’ll be a series of long days and short nights for the scientists here at our first “long” station, but the effort and the research that becomes of it will be all worth it.