Day 1 R/V Point Sur (2nd Trip)

This morning started nice and early with the temperature only at 57 degrees. It was too cold outside for me! We arrived at the Point Sur at 8:00 am. The first goal of the day was to crane all the equipment and tools from the dock to the ship.







First, straps have to be put underneath the object that needs to be craned over. Then the straps are put on the hooks of the crane. This box weighed about 2,700 lbs.!!





Not only was the crane used to carry over the equipment for the research experiment, but the garbage bin also had to be craned over. The ship needs to have a large garbage bin. Being out to sea for 2 & 1/2 weeks is a long time and the trash will build up quickly.



The second goal was to check all the equipment to make sure they are working properly. Nicole and Jason worked on the chambers as John tested the brain of the respirometer. (Sorry that some of the pictures are hard to see. It was a foggy, dark, gloomy morning.)







We also had to make sure everything was tied down in the lab. This will prevent things from moving, falling over, and possibly hurting someone. Now, you remember when Dr. Drazen came to our class and spoke about the respirometer? The respirometer is a device that measures the metabolic rate of the fish. It lures the fish into the one of the four chambers with bait attached to the outside of the door. Once the fish bites on the bait, the fish trips the trigger and it is pulled into the chamber. This causes the front door to shut, locking the fish into the chamber.

When deep-sea fish are brought up to the surface are they alive or dead? Remember all the pictures you saw from the previous research cruise? All of those fish were brought up dead, except for an interesting one, the hagfish. Hagfish are agnathans, jawless fish. They also do not have true eyes; they can't see images. Hagfish have eye spots that can detect light. Currently, data shows that shallow dwelling hagfish have higher metabolic rate than deep-sea hagfish. Dr. Drazen has decided to run experiments to see if this also true of hagfish off of Monterey. John created a "lab" respirometer that will allow the hagfish stay inside the small lab respirometer and measure the metabolic rate of the hagfish.

This lab respirometer (a very miniature version of the true respirometer) will be able to maintain the same water temperature as the depth the hagfish were caught. This will allow the hagfish to be tested in its natural water temperature.



This is the water bath.



Of course we saw many sea lions again. Tomorrow morning we meet at the Point Sur at 7:30 and then set sail at 8:30.

:)

(Reminder: You can always enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.)





“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).”