Day 1 R/V Point Sur

Yesterday was the first day of the deep-sea research adventure. It began early in the morning arriving at Moss Landing, California. We first meet the ship crew including the Captain, Jeff and the Marine Technician, Andrew. The Hawaii crew includes Dr. Drazen the Chief Scientist, John the Oceanographic Instrument/Data Specialist, Nicole and Jason who are both graduate students of oceanography and research assistants. (Oh, and me, Ms. Michelle Kay, 6th grade science teacher at Dole Middle School.) The California crew includes Donna, a graudate student at California State University of Monterey Bay, Mariah, and Shaara who are both graduate students of MLML (Moss Landing Marine Lab).



The first task on the agenda was locating all the supplies that were mailed from Hawaii to the marina. The heavier, bulkier items were shipped by boat in a container. The majority of the day was spent unloading the container and loading it onto the deck of the ship by a crane.



Our ship departure date is this Friday, April 3, 2009. The main objectives for this research cruise are to deploy the respirometer, deploy the camera, and to collect specimens through tows. The respirometer is a device that will measure the deep-sea fish metabolic rate. The design has four chambers. One chamber is used for the control. The other three chambers will have bait near the door to lure the fish. Once the fish bites the bait, it reels them inside the chamber. The line is cut to allow the fish to swim freely inside the chamber.

The camera will also be deployed to capture images of deep-sea fish. There are two different trawls that will be used during this cruise, the otter trawl and beam trawl. The otter trawl has a wider mouth that will allow more fish to be captured.

After completing the day’s agenda, we took a little walk around Monterey. I was extremely excited to see a sea otter in the ocean trying to eat an octopus.

=)

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“This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0727135. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).”