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Introducing one of our grad students- Daniella!
Post by Daniella Milanese
Hello, everyone!
My name is Daniella Milanese and I am a graduate student in Dr. Tamara Frank’s deep-sea biology lab at Nova Southeastern University. I am currently working on my master’s thesis on “Plastic Ingestion of Deep-sea Pelagic and Benthic Decapods of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge”. For my thesis, I’ve extracted plastic particles out of pelagic and benthic crustaceans before I find out if ingestion differs by region of the fracture zone.
Introducing one of our grad students- Daniella!
Blog by Daniella Milanese
Hello, everyone!
My name is Daniella Milanese and I am a graduate student in Dr. Tamara Frank’s deep-sea biology lab at Nova Southeastern University. I am currently working on my master’s thesis on “Plastic Ingestion of Deep-sea Pelagic and Benthic Decapods of the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge”. For my thesis, I’ve extracted plastic particles out of pelagic and benthic crustaceans before I find out if ingestion differs by region of the fracture zone.
Time to Get to Work
We left the dock on the R/V Point Sur at midnight and reached our first station in the Gulf of Mexico around 2 pm today. All supplies, microscopes and equipment got set up and stored away in the dry lab and we settled in for the welcome and safety meeting. The great news is that since we followed the LUMCON Covid-19 protocols including quarantine, and we are vaccinated, the team is ready work!
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)
