Day 6 R/V Point Sur Part 1

This morning started with the recovery of the camera. Again, an acoustic signal had to be sent down to release the anchor from the camera frame. After the camera floats raise it to the surface, it is brought to the ship by grappling. Grappling is when you throw a hook that is attached to a rope overboard to capture the object. You have to throw it beyond the object, and then reel it in. After the camera was back on board, it was taken apart and the camera photos were uploaded to the computer. I hope to get some photos from Dr. Drazen, so I can upload them onto the blog.





After the camera was safely back on board, it was time for the recovery of the respirometer. The same technique is used to recover the respirometer as the camera. First the signal is sent and then they grapple the line to bring it closer to the ship. The respirometer will be deployed again later today.



The first trawl was released after the recovery of the respirometer. This time, the trawl was set for 250 meters. The trawl captured many fish and also skate eggshells again. Some of the skate eggs still had baby skates inside. The video below shows 2 baby skates. You will notice the yellowish-orange sac on each of them. The size of the yolk sac shows the development stage of the baby skate. If the yolk sac is large, then that means the baby skate is in the early development stage. If the yolk sac is small, then that means the baby skate is about to leave the shell. The baby skate gets its nutrition from the yolk sac.









The second trawl was deployed for 500 meters. The trawl is recovered differently than the camera and respirometer.



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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).”