Down to the Sea in Ships

Ahoy Mates! 

Sit back, relax and let me spin a yarn fer ya. It’s about sixteen sailors that set out to sea on the mighty research vessel Weatherbird II and her crew from an FIO port abroad (USF St Petersburg) for a twelve-hour tour. 

Safety Brief on Weatherbird II

The sun was high, skies a blue, and nary a cloud in sight to darken our day. We’d caught the high tide and slipped past the shallows under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to the briny deep.

Sunshine Skyway Bridge

We were bound for waters alive with critters for collecting and salty waters to be sampled and tested in the name of marine science in support of sustaining the planet.

Watchful Eyes

Valiant and True Hearts

A test as tough as none other for those only true hearted and dedicated to the tasks at hand. And with the sweat of our brow and the strength of our backs we would achieve great success in collecting our treasures…a bounty from the sea, by sampling, and a trawling, and a dredging God’s creatures some of who hold the secrets of the other side.

Tested & True Sailors

Sampling

Trawling

Water Quality Testing

Water Quality Team One

So we checked our compass, the one that only shows our course to what we want most and it wasn’t long before we arrived in the arms of King Neptune and the land of the Mermaids. Being rocked in the cradle of the deep we set about our tasks one and all.

Mermaids!!!

Soon we were bringing aboard all the various marine specimens that presented themselves well in our nets. There were, fishes of many sorts, sponges of all colors sizes and shapes, alga and seaweeds, clams and oysters, crabs and snails, star fishes, even a sea horse, an octopus and the ferocious lion fish, a slipper lobster, several types of shrimp including the snapping ones, empty half shells and whole shells from bay scallops and clams. It was quite a cacophony of the finest creatures that occupied their lives upon the Eastern shelf of the Gulf of Mexico

Strawberry Tunicate

Black Tunicate

Stary Hard Coral

Changing the watch on the tide we stepped through our routine again making light work as all hands hove to and turned a sailors eye to the wind and weather as we headed back to port sharing the sunset with mother nature mooring under a half moon night sky.

Magnificent Sunset

And so we step off the ship, but to rest our heads and let memories of waves rock us gently to sleep in our bunks to rise and begin another day in the life of a good marine scientist.

Yo ho me heartys, yo ho…now show me that horizon!