Day 4 R/V Point Sur

Today was another early morning. It started with a beautiful sunrise. The first thing on the agenda was to recover the respirometer. The ship returned to the exact latitude and longitude coordinates of where it was dropped on Thursday. Dr. Drazen and John sent the acoustic signal to release the weights. The respirometer only went down 100m (600 ft.), so it surfaced in only a few minutes.



Unfortunately there weren't any fish inside the chambers. The first two respirometer deployments will only be sent down 100m. There will be another respirometer deployment later today to 100m. We hope there will be fish with the second deployment.







The camera will also be deployed today. It is attached to a frame with floats, a strobe light, and bait on an anchor with a scale bar. The floats are used to make the frame float to the surface. The camera needs a strobe light to take the picture. It's just like using the flash on your camera when you take a picture in a dark area. The same concept applies to why the strobe light is needed for the camera to take a picture.





Obviously the bait is needed to attract fish and other deep-sea creatures toward the camera. The anchor is used to weigh down the frame. The frame floats above the anchor that has gone down to the seafloor. This first camera deployment is 100 meters. The scale bar, that is also attached to the anchor, is needed to take measurements of the fish and other sea creatures that get their picture taken. The scale bar is like a ruler you use at school, but this scale bar is sectioned off by 2 1/2 inches while your ruler is sectioned off by 1 inch. The camera is usually deployed for 24 hours, but this deployment will only be about 12 hours.



There is a deployment everyday for the respirometer and camera. Once the respirometer was recovered, and the data collected, it was time for its second deployment. Again, it will only go down to 100 meters. There are about 2 trawls everyday. Today the trawl went out for its 3rd time and last time at 100 meters. Tomorrow the trawl will be deployed to 200 meters.

The trawl stays at its specified depth for about 15-20 minutes, and then it's pulled back up. After the trawl is back on deck, the fish are separated, measured, and sampled.

















Today wasn't a long day because we had to return to Moss Landing Port. A cable that is needed for the camera did not make it over to California with the other supplies. The cable was shipped to Moss Landing from Hawaii, and we had to return to pick it up. Once we got back to the dock, we had to visit the sea lions.





We will head back out to sea tomorrow morning at 5:00.

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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).”

Day 3 R/V Point Sur Part 3

Here is a short video on the skate dissection. Mariah Boyle, one of the graduate students from MLML, is doing her research on skates. Skates and rays are similar to each other, but skates lay eggs while rays give live birth. Rays usually are larger in size than skates.

*Remember to allow the video to buffer and completely download. It will make the video go smoothly.*




Here is another short video of the skate's heart.





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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).”

Day 3 R/V Point Sur Part 2

There were two trawls sent out today to 100 meters. The first trawl was released at 1:00pm. The objectives for the trawls are to collect fish, identify the fish, measure/weigh fish, and also take tissue samples such as the white muscle, red muscle, liver, heart and brain. The tissue samples will be kept frozen in liquid nitrogen and taken back to Hawaii for testing. Certain tissue samples will help Dr. Drazen to get more information on the fish’s metabolic rate, locomotion and enzyme levels.







The first and second trawls were both very successful. The net captured a variety of animals ranging from a tiny jellyfish to a medium size skate. Mariah and Shaara, the graduated students at MLML, are doing research on skates. I have taken a couple of short videos on the dissection of the skates that I hope to be able to upload to this blog site soon. Donna, Mariah, and Shaara all helped with identifying the different fish that were measured and dissected.















Tomorrow morning, the respirometer will be recovered and we hope it will come to the surface with fish inside the chambers. Also, the deep-sea camera will be deployed tomorrow. Unfortunately there was a missing cable and the camera was not able to be deployed today. John, the Technician/Research Assistant, was able to make a new cable and solder it together for the camera deployment tomorrow.



Today was a long day with many activities. I look forward to tomorrow morning’s recovery of the respirometer, and trawling for more deep-sea fish.

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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).”

Day 3 R/V Point Sur Part 1

Today started nice and early again. I think I see a pattern occurring. We arrived at the marina at 7 am. The cars were first unloaded, and we put all of our personal items in our rooms. Then our attention turned to the respirometer. We needed to finish preparing it for the morning’s deployment.



The heavy-duty springs needed to be attached to allow the trap to close and capture the fish. During the previous cruise on the Kilo Moana, I blogged about how the respirometer works. The respirometer measures the metabolic rate of the captured fish. The respirometer is deployed for about 24 hours. After about 24 hours, the ship returns to the same location where it was originally deployed. The latitude and longitude of the location is logged on a data sheet when the respirometer is deployed to allow the ship to return to the exact spot.



Once the ship is in the correct location, a signal is sent to the device that lets go of the weights. There are five 45 lbs. weights on the bottom of the respirometer to allow it to sink and stay at the bottom. The target depth for this deployment is 100 meters. It will only take a few minutes for the respirometer to surface after the weights are released. This is the second deployment of the four-chambered respirometer. After the respirometer is recovered and brought back on board, then the data from the electronic brain will be retrieved.





While preparing the respirometer for deployment, we tested the acoustic release signal to make sure it worked and the weights will be released.








If the weights do not release, then the respirometer will not be recovered. The respirometer was successfully deployed about 2 hours after we left the dock, around 11:00am.





Our safety debriefing was given to us by Paul, the Chief Mate. He discussed where to find our life jacket, immersion suit (Remember from the Kilo Moana blog, the Monster Inc. like suits? The immersion suit is used in case we have to go overboard. The suit will help prevent hypothermia.). Paul also showed us where the life rafts were located.





Today’s weather was supposed to be nice, but we had up to 45 knot-winds and swells ranging from 10-12 ft. It definitely got rough, but I’m happy to say that I never got sea sick. The weather made it a little difficult to deploy and retrieve the otter trawls. Remember that this trawl has the wide open mouth for more specimens to be brought back to the surface. The otter trawl has a net with two wooden doors attached at the top of both sides.





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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).”

Day 2 R/V Point Sur

Yesterday was another early rising morning. We arrived bright and early at the marina. As we approached the ship, we saw another sea otter swimming. This time the sea otter was eating a crab. I think sea otters are so adorable!!


Yesterday's tasks included organizing everything in the lab, preparing the respirometer for deployment, testing the respirometer, and tying everything down on the deck of the ship.


While testing the respirometer, it was discovered that two oxygen sensors were not sending data to the electronics brain. After a series of diagnostic tests, John realized that the oxygen sensors were not functioning properly. It took many months for John to put together all those sensors, but now there were only hours until we left for sea.


Dr. Drazen luckily had connections at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). We were able to borrow two oxygen sensors from MBARI and switch them for our faulty sensors. It took many hours in the freezing cold air to finally get the respirometer ready for deployment tomorrow. It was a team effort that left everyone’s fingers nice and numb.

It was a long day, but we got everything accomplished and ready for Friday's departure.

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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).”

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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Please don't forget that you can click on the images to make them larger.



“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).”