You might be wondering what like life is like on the ship.   The ship has many amenities that you would have at home.  Most of the state rooms house two people, although there is a room which is shared by four.  Pairs of state rooms share a common bathroom called the head.   The bathrooms include a toilet & shower.  In each stateroom there is a sink and the beds are arranged in bunks.   There is a little curtain that you can pull closed for privacy in case you want to sleep and your roommate is still awake.  (Most of the scientists are on the same schedule, however there are a few of them that are on a different time schedule.)  The scientists that collect data with the CTD device & acoustics sometimes have an opposite schedule so they are up when we are sleeping and they are sleeping while we are processing data.

My  Stateroom

            There is a dining space (called the mess) that also serves as a common area when meals are over. There is a television where we can watch satellite tv, read or do work on our computers.  (Right now as I am writing this everyone has finished eating dinner and they are watching Myth Busters.) There is a washing machine & dryer on board to do laundry so everyone did not have to pack clothes for two entire weeks.  The ship has a device on board so that it can make fresh water for everyone to use for washing, drinking and cooking.

The two common areas

Chef Alex preparing a meal

            Chef Alex prepares the meals at set times 6:00 am, 12 noon and 6:00 pm.  If we are working we will break for the meal.  If it is an off time some people will choose to skip eating to get some extra sleep.  I have enjoyed the food very much after I got my “sea legs.”  The first day and half I had trouble keeping things down and I was really wondering what I had gotten myself into with this trip and if I was going to survive ship life.)   All of the food waste that we create is dumped overboard and the recyclable and trash are stored until we reach land for disposal.

 Trash Storage

            Everything on board has to be adapted for boat life. When the chef is cooking he has special equipment to keep the pots from sliding off of the stove top.  Most doors have a hook that keeps them open so that it does not keep swinging open.  The shower and other areas have a bar on the wall if you need to grab it to hold on to something.  Several of the doorways are set up to be waterproof in case of emergency.  So that is a little run down on our home away from home!

Teacher At Sea,

Christia Hewlett

Here are some pictures of some of the organisms that we have found so far.  After 6 trawls we have cataloged 656 taxa (different types of fish.)  I don’t have numbers for the other organisms (shrimp, jellyfish, squid, or crabs) because some of them are totaled when they are brought back to the university labs, but we have collected 2,411 fish alone.  The majority of the fish are under 3 inches because most of the deep sea fish are not very large.  The largest fish that we collected so far was 36.8 centimeters.

Teacher At Sea,

Christia Hewlett

 I am including a couple pictures that I took as well as some taken by the expert photographer aboard the ship.

Here are 2 photos I took with the Genus and species label included.

Here are a three photos taken by Dante Fenolio.  In an upcoming blog I will give you a look into the photography area where they are photographing certain species.

Larval Linophrynid

Mentodus facilis

This is a Myctophum with a close up of the scales.

      By-catch is defined as the unwanted species of fish or marine creatures who are caught in a net by fisherman.  Some students ask about what was kept from the nets vs what was thrown back in the water.  On this trip there is no such thing as by-catch.  Everything that is caught will be used and analyzed to help paint the picture of what is going on in the different layers of the ocean. Above is an example of what might come from just 1 net in the trawl (which has 6 nets total).    This varies with depth and whether the trawl was done in the daytime or night.  

       Everything is kept for abundance and diversity measurements. However species are needed for a number of other projects - DNA, stable isotopes, parasites or hydrocarbons..  Before coming on the research trip scientists collaborated and identified the species needed for these projects and these specimens are processed immediately on board the ship after each trawl.   The rest of the animals are stored in formalin and will be analyzed back on land at different university labs.

 Here is a picture of the different tags that are placed in the specimen sample dishes.  Each sample is given a net number, an identification tag with the genus and species name.  The N tag tells what net the specimen came out of.  The processed samples receive a printed label with more specific details including latitude, longitude, date and trawl number.  This makes sure the correct information is stored with each specimen.   This is critical when you are dealing with tens of thousands of specimens.

 Here is a picture of how the scientist begin the identification process and sort organisms into broad groups.

Crustaceans!

Cephalopods

Fish ready to be identified.

Here are some more pictures after the specimens have been sorted and identified.  They are then processed and stored.  

                           Fish sorted and identified.                                                                           Classified crustaceans.

Teacher At Sea,

Christia Hewlett

      After each trawl the MOCNESS frame is reeled in and the nets are collected.  Scientists pulled in the nets by hand.  The nets stay on for the whole trip but at the bottom of each net there is a section called a cod end.  It is where the marine organisms collect.  This portion of the net is removable and after each trawl it is opened and poured into a collection jar with very cold sea water. The specimens are then stored in the refrigerator until the researchers are ready to look at a specific sample. It is very important for their data that they know what organisms came from what depths so we work on one net sample at a time.  Here are some pictures from yesterday’s trawl.

Bringing in the Nets

Nets Coming In

Pulling in the Nets

Emptying the Cod Ends

     Typically at each location, we will do a day and a night collection.  Sometimes based on acoustic data the scientists will target a specific depth of water.  Early this morning they were going to do one of those targeted trawls.  However there were some complications with the net and they discovered there was a seam on one of the nets that had come undone.   So last night before it went back in the water that net had to be changed out.  Three extra nets were brought along on the trip in case of any net damage. 

 Seam Tear on Net

Repairing the Net

Close Up of Net Attachment

   Keep posting comments & questions. I am trying to respond to them as quickly as possible.  We have had a few technical difficulties with the internet so be patient, I will get to them.  The scientists & I love getting your questions!  Tomorrow I will be posting some pictures of our finds!

Teacher At Sea,

Christia Hewlett