Day 7 - Senior Cruise 2013
Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet Kind Of Like “Deadliest Catch” Pouring Drenching Rain
1/03/2014
Watch 1 – Kiely Shutt
After staying up to put in the trial run / 1st multi-net station with Christina and her crew until late in the evening, I was not thrilled to wake up for watch at 0600. That was until I saw the sunrise, which made everything worth it. Audrey and Madi had already started to deploy the CTD for a sound velocity profile that must be done before bathymetric surveys. Audrey had multiple hours to perform her survey of the Muli Guyot seamount and essentially took over the given watch.
Even though Audrey was doing most of the science during the day there were still many operations being done and the zooplankton capture by multi-net (one of the coolest pieces of oceanographic equipment ever!) was taking place from 2000-0500. I signed up to be a part of the 2000-0100 leg of the watch (an all girls watch! Also known as ‘The View’ or Team Tyra), an experience I will not soon forget.
A storm kicked up ferociously during the first few stations we were in charge of during the multi-net. Describing the entire situation as ‘soaking wet’ would not do it justice. Instead, I decided to write a haiku that may convey the picture in a more realistic fashion.
Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet
Kind Of Like “Deadliest Catch”
Pouring Drenching Rain
When our lives weren’t flashing before our eyes during the deployment and recovery of the multi-net we enjoyed conversation about literally everything. Even though we spent those 5 hours practically developing ‘trenchfoot’, I think we all deemed it a really fun experience overall. Shoutout to Nicollette, Brianna, Tianna, Lauren, Elise & Christina for a wild and crazy night on the Tommy Thompson.
Watch 2 – Paul Russell
As the cruise draws to a close, spirits among the science party remain high. Today (Friday, January 3 2014) saw a departure from what had been the relatively consistent series of open ocean stations that had occupied for the first four days of the week. This change was brought about by our arrival at Muli Guyot, a large seamount to the north east of Samoa. While the volcano doesn’t reach above the waves, it does come to within 60m of the surface, a drastic rise from the abyssal plains we had been sailing over, which lay over 5km under the water. Our goal at Muli Guyot was twofold: to obtain detailed hydrographic data of the seafloor, and to collect plankton from a variety of depths around the seamount. As I wasn’t directly involved with either of these operations, I will leave the detailed descriptions of them to the watch leaders who were present during the data collection. However, I can say that both operations proceeded fairly well, with a few minor hiccups. These missteps paled in comparison to the troubles that some members of the science party were experiencing.
The plan for several of us was that after we were finished at Muli Guyot, we were to proceed to American Samoa in order to collect box cores, water samples, near shore sediment samples, and coral abundance data, as well as conducting experiments on wildlife responses to artificial noise. Unfortunately, we were informed late last night that we were not permitted to conduct operations within 12 miles of the coast of American Samoa. This put a major crinkle into our plans, as it threatened to result in several people home without having been able to collect any data what so ever. Thankfully, we were able to modify plans, with the people who were going to doing coral and fish experiments now going to conduct snorkel surveys off of Western Samoa, where we were able to get permission to operate. The rest of us have managed to get what data we need by other methods. And so it appears that what would have been a major disaster was mostly avoided.
Watch 3 – Elise Baldwin
Events:
We did not have any over the side operations during this watch but Audrey (assisted by Madi) continued to conduct a bathymetric survey of the seamount Muli Guyot.
During the bathymetric survey Audrey found that the top of Muli Guyot was as shallow as 55m below sea level. This is about 50m shallower than was previously thought and sparked a lot of interest about what was living in that environment. A Van-Veen grab taken on the top of Muli Guyot brought up mostly halimeda, a coralline algae. Muli Guyot is a very interesting place that could have been the entire subject of our cruise.
At this point of the cruise the schedule has been changing a lot trying to fit everyone’s project into our remaining days.
During our night at Muli Guyot we did five multi net casts. I was in the watch that deployed and recovered the first three, during which it rained for two out of the three casts. It was also very windy, which made it one of the more eventful evenings on the cruise so far.
Notable bits:
During the night watch a flying fish flew onto the deck while we were washing nets for sample collection. I managed to get the fish back in the water (still alive) after a couple tries!
Wet Wet Wet Wet Wet Kind Of Like “Deadliest Catch” Pouring Drenching Rain
