Loading up and headed to Gulfport, MS for DP07

The time has come!  Our first NOAA RESTORE cruise efforts are underway.  Strategically packing the van for the trip is the true test for the team.  All the nets, acoustic equipment, microscopes, field guides and supplies are loaded into a van under the watchful eye of April Cook, our amazing program manager at Nova Southeastern University.  Every year, it seems like a miracle that everything fits but it always does!  It takes approximately 12 hours to make the journey through Florida, Alabama, and into Mississippi.  Other team members drive cars/SUVs with their own gear and everyone arrives in Gulfport, MS tonight so we are ready bright and early tomorrow morning to load the gear onto the R/V Point Sur.  Tomorrow will be a day of setting up the dry lab, storing supplies, putting the MOC10 net together, and attaching the acoustics equipment to the vessel so we can leave at midnight.

We are excited to get underway and will update you in the next day or two!

(Photos:  Ashley Marranzino)