Tuesday June 17th 2014
USF St. Pete week
Research cruise
This week at USFSP we are focusing on the open ocean ecosystem and went out on the research vessel The Weatherbird II to study the biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico and the Tampa Bay area. Only going out for a thirteen hour trip, we were able to get to our first site 18 miles offshore. Upon this 115 foot vessel we took all sorts of fun samples with the CTD, the Neuston plankton net, the Bongo plankton net, the Otter trawl and the Capetown dredge. We were separated into smaller groups to take control of our stations at each of the sites visited. We had just enough time to hit two sites, site one was the offshore site 18 miles out and site two was just around the Skyway bridge in Tampa Bay. For site one, I was assigned to the Otter trawl with a great group of Aaron, Destiny, and Breeze. This massive net drags just above the sea floor to catch any benthic fish and invert species. We pull it for a duration of 15 minutes and then recorded the species biodiversity and abundance. The whole crew worked really well together to identify all the species we pulled up in a quick fashion. We got a huge variety of species from the simple Porifera phylum to the advanced species from the Cephalopoda phylum. For the second site Cara, Noel, Danielle and I were assigned to the dredge which is a metal cage that drags along the sea floor collecting benthic invertebrates. The process is similar, we drag it for 15 minutes and then sort our samples and identify. Its hard to identify species you've never seen before under pressure but it was a great learning experience and will prove helpful in my future career as a field biologist. Thanks to the faculty here at USF St. Pete and to the crew of the Weatherbird II for a safe and fun trip.
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| The Otter trawl |
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| A great crew |
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| Our catch |
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| The Capetown dredge |
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