Ocean Notion!

Over the years I've spent quite a lot of time on boats, but never have I experienced something like I did yesterday! Shortly after 10:00 am we boarded the R/V Weatherbird for what likely turned out to be the single best experience of our FIO Field Studies in Marine Biology excursion. After a briefing from the crew, it was time to hurry up and wait because we had about a 3 hour cruise to our first sampling station. That put us at about 18 miles offshore. On the journey out, one thing that struck me was the amount of activity in the water all the way out. There were dolphins, flying fish, bait ball with larger fish and a lot of birds. We half jokingly mentioned our desires of spotting whales on the cruise but we did realize it was likely too shallow for any sightings; although we did learn from Dr. Judkins that there are, astonishingly, 26 species of marine mammals in the Gulf of Mexico!!

Isn't she beautiful!

Once we neared our first sampling station we recruited all hands on deck to carry out all of the tasks quickly, safely and effectively. We were arranged in groups of 3 or 4 and were assigned specific tasks to head, although we did observe all tasks and helped out when we could. The tasks included CTD, otter trawl, bongo nets, neuston net, dredge pull, and water quality/ chemistry tests. At station 1, my groups first task was CTD data collection. Crew member, Drew, taught us all we needed to know about this specific CTD. Upon first glance, the CTD on the Weatherbird looks entirely different than the previous ones we've been working with; but in fact the CTD meters are located on the bottom portion on the instrument and the top portion makes up the rosette consisting of Niskin bottles. The Niskin bottles are simply used for water sample collections. When the CTD is deployed, the Niskin bottles are open and by two simple pushes of a button all the way from the lab the bottles snap close. We took water samples from the bottom, mid-column and surface. While the CTD was deployed, we we're inside the lab checking out the real time data, we were able to communicate via radio with another crew member, Chris, who was working the winch and tell him our plans of action for the CTD.

Deploying the CTD.

Radioing to Chris, the winch operator.

Resetting the Niskin bottles.

Our next task was to head the dredge trawl operation. Since the dredge was heavy and cumbersome, the deploying stage was not necessarily hands on for us. Although we did have to collect specific data such as start time, bottom time, end time, starting latitude and longitude and ending latitude and longitude. Ten minutes later, the dredge was lifted and the work began. We forgot a shovel so we had to physically crawl in the dredge to pull out our catch until we had muscle man Aaron lift the dredge and dump the catch onto the deck. Some of the most notable species include a lovely octopus, sea stars, sea biscuits and sponges.

Retrieving the dredge. 

Raking out the catch.

Don't let it's adorable looks fool you, it's a biting machine...I can attest! 

Station 2 was very near shore and was actually in close proximity to the Skyway Bridge. Here, we conducted all of the same tests but the tasks were rotated between groups. At this station, my group conducted the bongo net and neuston net sampling. Both of these pulls are ideally meant to collect plankton; along with the plankton, we caught a surprising amount of Dana's Blue Crabs as well as a beautiful Lined Sea Horse.

Dana spraying down the nets as well as mine and Heather's shorts!

Over the span of the trip, this group has become very close. Even after spending almost every hour together for 5 weeks, we still have a ton of patience and compassion for each other. In the chaos of the trawl sorting and species identification we all worked together well and completed all of the other tasks to the best of our abilities. We each have our strong areas of knowledge and when brought together, we make a very strong team. It's really sad to look forward and realize our last day is quickly approaching. I have learned more on this trip than I ever could sitting in a classroom and I wouldn't trade
this experience for anything. I just want to thank my team and everyone that has made this trip possible because this really has been the experience of a lifetime.

Sorting our catch!

I like to call this a scientific sunset!