The End

Well, it has been a tremendous journey. Our ship arrived safely to port on Saturday in Panama and everyone, including the ship's crew, was very excited to hit dry land again. On Sunday, the scientists began flying home, while a few stayed behind to spend time in and around Panama. The ship soon began its week-long return trip through the Panama Canal to its home port in Fort Pierce, Florida. The work continues as the ship must be unloaded and its cargo - rich now with scientific data - returned to the scientists at their home research labs and institutions. It will take many months and years to examine the specimens and data obtained from the research cruise. All the hard work at sea has enabled scientists to return with a wealth of scientific information which they can now examine at their own pace in their research labs. Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to: etpcruise@yahoo.com.

Happy Birthday Ruth!

On Wednesday, November 14th, we celebrated Ruth Coffey’s birthday. And how do you celebrate a birthday at sea? With cake, of course! Ruth was treated with a chocolate multi-layer cake from the galley complete with “magic” candles. The crew surprised Ruth with a photo of our current home, the R/V Seward Johnson and a Seward Johnson t-shirt while she watched one of her favorite flicks, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in the lounge. While you should be sure to celebrate again with Ruth when she gets home, don’t feel too bad for her for being away at sea on her special day – she said that this was the most fun she ever had on her birthday! Happy Birthday Ruth!

Bottlenose dolphins bow riding

Common dolphins

What a day!

We continue to steam on towards our port of Panama. Most scientists have begun to pack up their equipment and laboratory supplies, while others are completing experiments that began while we were on station at the Costa Rican Dome. Because the waters of the Dome are so productive, wildlife viewing has been fantastic even as we transit out of our research station. In a matter of hours, dozens of turtles had been sighted, and manta rays were seen leaping throughout the day. We had a very special treat yesterday when not one, but two different pods of dolphins joined us for some bow riding, and amazed us with their acrobatic leaping and porpoising around the boat. Bottlenose dolphins were the first to arrive and were so close during bow riding that we could hear their underwater clicks and whistles! The Common dolphins arrived later and could be seen leaping so high in the air that they easily leaped twice their height out of the water. Tuna could also be seen jumping alongside them. Several of the Common dolphins came up to the boat to bow ride as well, providing excellent and exciting views of these beautiful creatures. It is a very exciting time as we travel through this incredible place, all the while knowing that much of our research and hard work aboard the ship has ended and we are finally heading home.

Operation Shrinking Cups

It’s been a long few days here at our final station. The research has continued around the clock and sleep is again at a minimum. We are all trying to finish up our deployments and experiments before beginning our transit back to Panama on Tuesday. Some of the sampling systems have already decided that it's time for a vacation, keeping the ship’s senior technician busy with repairs. In the midst of all this activity, we launched Operation Shrinking Cups, decorating Styrofoam cups and sending them down with our deep cast CTD this morning. The cups returned a fraction of their original size; a stunning example of the immense pressures exerted onto objects at 1500 meters. Tonight Dr. Brad Seibel and his crew resumed their nightly tradition of squid jigging, shining bright lights onto the waters surrounding the ship. The light attracts and highlights small organisms, which attracts larger predators, which move in toward the surface to feed. Tonight we had company as four bottlenose dolphins joined in on the hunt. They provided us with an excellent exhibition of their speed and maneuverability. The research continues now with SCUBA divers in the water and a midnight running of the MOCNESS. It’s never a dull moment on the R/V Seward Johnson here at the Costa Rican Dome.

Sea turtle rescue at sea!

Tonight we had a dramatic example of how floating marine debris, in particular, lost fishing gear can harm and kill marine life. Upon setting out to deploy our Tucker trawl, the ship’s crew spotted a large fishing net floating in the water with two sea turtles ensnarled in the gear and floating helplessly with it. The boat moved alongside the turtles to assist and upon further inspection found that one of the turtles was dead while the other was alive, but wrapped heavily in fishing line across its neck and front flippers. The fishing gear wrapped so tightly around the turtle’s front right flipper that it was completely severed from its body. One of the crew members immediately used a knife to free the line from the live turtle. The dead turtle was brought on board for inspection and the fishing gear removed from the water for proper discharge on land. The two turtles appear to be Olive Ridleys, which are quite abundant in this area (off the Pacific coast of Mexico and Costa Rica) and are believed to be the most abundant sea turtle in the world. Nonetheless, the loss and maiming of these beautiful animals struck a blow to all onboard. Floating fishing gear kills countless birds, mammals and sea turtles every year, in addition to fish and other marine life. This destructive act is termed “ghost fishing”, for its continual capture of marine life, which can carry on for years after the gear has been lost or abandoned. Sea turtles around the world have suffered dramatic population losses from their entanglement in lost and active fishing gear. For more information on sea turtles and what you can do to help, visit The Blue Ocean Institute’s website at http://www.blueocean.org/ or the Riverhead Foundation’s (New York state’s marine mammal and sea turtle stranding program) at http://www.riverheadfoundation.org/.

Zooplankton of the ETP (photos courtesy of Rebecca Williams)

From top to bottom: Chaetognath with Euchaeta copepod in gut; Pyrosome (a type of tunicate); Lucicutia hulsemmannae (copepod)

The Costa Rican Dome

We made it to our last long station - the Costa Rican Dome - located at 9°and 90°W. This station lies inside a highly productive upwelling system, receiving its name from the doming of the isobars (lines of constant pressure) that result from the upwelling of cold, nutrient water towards the surface. These nutrients support abundant phytoplankton growth (also known as primary productivity) which in turn supports higher-than-usual abundances of zooplankton and higher trophic levels, including dolphins and whales. So it was no surprise when our ship encountered a couple of whales just an hour before reaching the station last night, welcoming us to our last stop. We are all excited to reach our final station and to be in such a highly productive region. The flurry of activities began immediately last night with CTD casts, Tucker trawl and SIPPER deployment, continuing into the morning with the launching of the MOCNESS, and continued deployment of the CTD and SIPPER. So the race for sleep is on, but it is always exciting to reach a long station and resume research, especially in such a special place.

SIPPER image of the scyphozoan Pelagia

SIPPER image of the squid Leachia

SIPPER image of Salpa maxima - check out the parasitic amphipods!

Dawn Outram during calmer seas

Rockin' and a rollin'

The ship ran into some rough seas last night, which resulted in the cancellation of the night’s activities and a decision to move forward to our other stations. The waves were pounding onto the deck as the scientists tried to maneuver the CTD back from the sea onto the deck. Dr. Stuart Wakeham and his CTD team were splashed repeatedly by the angry seas in a scene similar to those on ‘Deadliest Catch’ (only with warmer water)! Inside, chairs and unsecured items went flying or toppling over. This made matters worse on deck since it was already dark and the scientists deploying equipment would not be able to see the large waves before they strike – a dangerous position to be in, and hence the reason sampling for the night was scrubbed. Other students working inside confined laboratories were fighting bruises and seasickness as the rough seas tossed their samples and themselves about as the boat continued to rock throughout the night. We arrived briefly at an intermediate station today to run a quick CTD cast and now continue on to our next short station, which will be reached tonight during the smaller hours of the morning. The seas have finally calmed a bit making sampling, working, and sleeping easier on all of us.

Dr. Karen Wishner restitching a MOCNESS net

Short Station

We are presently at our third short station located at approximately 10° N latitude and 96° W longitude. Dr. Stuart Wakeham and Heidi continue pumping water at depth during the CTD casts while the boat remains motionless (a necessity for pumping and collecting water). After the CTD is brought back up later this evening, the SIPPER, MOCNESS and Bongo nets – all of which require the ship to be in motion – will be deployed. In the meantime, scientists continue to catch up on sleep, enter data, and make any necessary repairs to their equipment. Sleep at station is a bit of a commodity, and many of the staterooms are unfortunately not immune to the loud noises of the winches and tuggers that operate the cables during equipment deployment. The crew continues to take good care of us feeding us three ‘squares’ a day and regularly provide fresh baked cookies at snack time (around 3:30) and an assortment of desserts after dinner. Last night was steak night (a Saturday tradition) followed by an ice cream bar! Fortunately for all of us, there is also a gym onboard with weights, a stationery bike and a treadmill to burn off the munchies and keep us from feeling guilty in devouring them!

Some fun photos of the USF and URI scientists (courtesy of Leann)

update from Heidi (Wakeham lab)

So Stuart and I worked all night and successfully got all 4 of our pumps to work! And we just recently left station 1 and are steaming to our next stop. I have samples to filter during the transit but it will be a nice break for roughly 24 hours. We’ll have to stock up on sleep for the next station.

I have written a lot about our interest in particulate organic matter and the in situ pumping system that Stuart and I are using. We are also interested in matching the particulate organic matter with the microbiology of the water column. By microbiology I mean the different types and amount of bacteria and archaea that live in the ocean. The types of bacteria and archaea change as you move down the water column. For example, there are populations that like to live in the light and high oxygen concentration of the surface and others who live in the low oxygen in the dark subsurface waters. So we collect water samples with the CTD at different depths for DNA analysis and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) microscopy.

For DNA analysis we collect 20 L of water and filter it with a pump to capture the microbes. Then when we are back on land at our lab we can extract the DNA off the filter and see which types of microbes lived in the water we filtered. For FISH samples we collect 200 mL of water and filter them with a hand pump so that the cells are gently collected and not broken. Then, back at the lab we take the filter through a short process that adds dyes to the microbes. Next, you look at the filter under a microscope the bacteria will glow in one color and the archaea will glow in a different color. This makes it easy to count the different types of microbes. For an example, see micrograph image at bottom right (of photo cluster above) and click on to enlarge.

Transit time

We finally left our first long station last night after a final MOCNESS tow sampling the lower portion of the oxycline. There is rest to come for some of us as we make our way towards several intermediate (short) stations, but the work continues for many others. The past 3 nights have been excellent for star gazing and with no manmade lights for hundreds of miles around, the Milky Way shown clear across the night’s sky. Transit time means catching up on a good night’s sleep, entering data, cleaning up, and preparing for the next station. But it also provides time to catch a movie in the lounge, continue dart tournaments which began earlier in our transit days (have you ever tried throwing a dart in rough seas?), and keep watch for dolphins as they ride the bow waves created by the moving ship. Check out Dr. Brad Seibel and his Ph D. student Amy Maas jamming on their guitars during some down time. They're really good!

Dr. Brad Seibel and his team of divers heading out for a morning SCUBA dive

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the eastern tropical Pacific! In honor of the holiday, several scientists and crew dressed up in costume, including our very own Leann Birden and Rebecca Williams with their loyal intern, Dr. Stuart Wakeham as Team Zissou. There were also pirates and witches to be found on the prowl for some of the gremlins that have been hiding out in our equipment the past few days. At night, the chip’s stewards announced the winners to a costume contest, with the recipients receiving an R/V Seward Johnson t-shirt. And our very own SIPPER was equipped with a witch (OK, it was a pez dispenser) to ward off any spirits in the depths as it was deployed this Hallow’s Eve. So maybe no trick or treating here at sea, but we made the most of it, and had plenty of candy to prove it!