Month: August 2019 Page 1 of 2

Unlike most people flying into Dutch Harbor, I had no flight delays or troubles getting to such a remote place as the island of Unalaska. The two towns Dutch Harbor and Unalaska are only separated by a bridge, and the two names are used interchangeably when refering to the this island. There is not much here, besides a hotel and a couple of restaurants. Yet, the scenery of Dutch Harbor is mesmerizing. Bald eagles are a common sight, often perched up on street lights and telephone poles. Along the the Coast Guard dock is Ballyhoo hill, which has some of the best views in town. There is a multitude of WWII era bunkers scattered thoughout the hill which are a great place of refuge and shelter from the wind. At the top of Ballyhoo ridge, one can see the glaciers on nearby mountains and pods of whales in the harbor below. Upon my descend downhill I began to appriciate the remoteness of the area. Just a week ago I was in Miami, surrounded by concrete buildings and endless traffic. Now I’m in Dutch Harbor, surrounded by wildlife and endless nature. 

I had boarded the Healy the next day after my arrival, shortly after the ship had tied off at the dock. My first thought when I saw the ship was awe at just how massive it was in comparison to other ships I’ve been on. I was greeted by Coast Guard and STARC personnel. STARC stands for the Scientific Technician support in the ARCtic. They are a third party government contractor based out of Oregon State University and Scripps Institute of Oceanography. As one of the Coast Guard Chief’s put it “STARC is the estranged cousin onboard” they are not part of the crew, yet not really scientists either. Yet, they are an essential part of the mission, providing technical assitnace to the science party and running the onboard instuments for underway data collection. Unlike the science party, which changes with each cruise, the STARC technicians are a continues presence onboard the Healy. 

Currently there is only three of us, we are still waiting for the science party and our STARC supervisors. I’m the only MATE intern for this mission, which is fine. Part of leaving college and entering the work force is getting used to being the youngest team member. I’m looking forward to this cruise, the Arctic Ocean is awaits us.

Science has come to an end. It’s cold outside and it’s hard not to get choked up over the departure of the scientist. But wait! What’s this? SUMO NIGHT!?

Being on a ship for so long, the coast guard put together some morale funds to support events such as Ice-cream socials, trivia night and of course sumo night. It was great fun watching the gang get together in large sumo suits and pummel each other (in a safe fun-loving way). I didn’t partake in the fighting because of course I ripped my THIRD PAIR OF PANTS; lessons learned: always bring a sewing kit on board and invest in a hardy pair of Carhartts. I really enjoyed watching the scientist and the coast guards battle it out in sumo style, it was pretty hilarious and a perfect end to a long day.

Photo creds: (Flying Tackle by Victoria Uva)

Everyone seemed to be in the fun-loving spirit. Even Kristin and Dr. Cross got in on the fun… however, in a different way and at my expense. 

Let me tell you what went down: Daniel and I were watching the sumo fight in the flight hanger when the chief scientist and Dr. Cross walked in. Dr. Cross came over to me in a very calm matter and said “operations have been canceled for the remainder of the night”. I dint think much of it at first because Daniel and I would have been paged if there was an emergency and Dr. Pickart (chief scientist) was straight chillin in the back laughing at all his comrades in sumo suits. I continued to watch the sumo fight between a scientist and a coast guard member when my mentor walks up behind me and says “Operations has been canceled because we lost the CTD”.  WHAT!? I’m sure I turned as white as this page. Later, as I was on my way to the staging bay, they reassured me it was all a joke but I still had to check on it. Luckily it was still in the staging bay, not a scratch on her. Operations was really canceled but for moral reasons (very long day of mooring recovery). I’m glad they got a laugh out of it… but it was still so cruel :'(. 

The last week wasn’t all fun and games. Actually, it was still a lot of fun but the work kind. The Geo Mapp App pooped out as we were trying to give JAMESTEC a better view of the IsoBathy where a mooring was located (they wanted to see if they could move the mooring to a better location). Geo Map App was lying to us about the distance between the two point of interest (we knew it was lying because good ol’ trusty OpenCPN was telling us it was a much closer distance). I played around with Geo Map App a bit to try and identify where the issue was coming from. Turns out the scaling was way off and the Lat and Long was way weird. I relayed this to a STARC member who notified the company that provided the software. Long story short, a new Geo Map App software is being sent out with the 1902 MarTech’s.

I wrapped up all of my projects (SSW trans protocol, CTD Trans&Fluor protocol, Cold CTD protocol, and DGH-RM Young configuration document), and had a last night of trivia with the scientist. 

(August 23rd) Science wrapped up everything and left Healy by noon. After science left we got a weird power outage. Crazy enough, the mysterious frequency on the Hydrophone caught this power outage before it happened. We notified engineering and documented (screen shots and videos) the strange occurrence. Engineering now thinks that the hydrophone is connected to a dirty power source… the same dirty power source that is causing the power outage. We may not get to the bottom of the mysterious frequency on this cruise but we are starting to close in on the source. 

The next day we got Nome liberty! Ami, Kristin and I got to adventure around Nome a bit where we acquired some fresh fruit and paid a visit to the Iditarod finish line. Back at the Healy there are talks about the line crossing ceremony! I wasn’t allowed to hear any of the preparations as its TOP SECRET. Some of the polar bears (people who have already gone through the ceremony) like to throw around the quote; “the first rule of fight club is you can’t talk about fight club”. Anyone who has seen the movie or read the book Fight Club can get an idea of what this was like as a measly iceworm. 

ICE WORM NO MORE

(August 25) I can’t talk about the ceremony (because of the whole fight club thing) but I can say it was a lot of fun and I’m NO LONGER AN ICEWORM. I am now an Honorable Polar Bear! I have crossed the Arctic Circle and the Date Line so I’m walking out of this internship with two very cool certifications. 

(August 26) A page went out saying “WHALE CARCUS PORT BEAM” I wanted to add this in here because it was pretty gnarly and deserves some recognition. Im going to share the picture at the very end so heads up if you’re squeamish.

To conclude. This internship was an amazing opportunity and I will always be grateful for the knowledge gained and the memories made. I hope to sail on the Healy again soon!

**Que Donnie Warwick “That’s What Friends Are For”**

On the Left: Me chatting with the CTD about the good ol’ times. On the Right: Me giving the CTD a farewell hug. Photo Creds: (Kristin Beem)

The view from Healy right around the corner from Dutch Harbor. The tennis ball has been there THE WHOLE CRUISE

***The Whale Pictures start here***

I’m going to start with a personal note as I’m starting to see a trend. Today I ripped my other pair of pants. I went to the ship store to find a sewing kit but they didn’t have any. I then asked if they had pants… they didn’t. Luckily, one of the scientists over heard and let me borrow her pants for the rest of the trip. Thanks for listening… on to the cool stuff 🙂

At the start of the week, I helped one of the scientists get his instrument working by finding and assembling the right tubing needed to allow the correct pressurized flow though his instrument. 

Later on, was the first mooring retrieval with two mooring technicians from JAMSETEC (Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology). Mooring retrieval didn’t go as planned. To communicate with the mooring, we used an Edgetech. At first there were some communication issues but with some adjustments on the transmission value, we get a response. After communication was secured, we sent the release code and got conformation that the mooring had been released… but the mooring never surfaced! This is because the mooring had been sitting in this location for two years and most likely acquired biofouling around the release site preventing the physical release. Thankfully there was a secondary Japanese release which JAMESTEC used an over board transducer in hopes to communicate and activate the release. This process will be explained in more detail below.

It was a cold and cloudy day (we are nearing the Arctic Circle so cold and cloudy really means freezing and gloomy). The transducer was thrown over the port quarter and was being secured by a couple of deck personnel. STARC member, Kristin, facilitated communication between Deck Opps and JAMESTEC off to the side; as JAMESTEC spoke very little English and Kristin is so good at talking with her hands I’m sure she’s closing in on her very own version of sign language. After the first hour I bounced back up to the computer lab to warm up and talk to Daniel where I learned that during this debacle, Daniel noticed that there was an unidentified noise being detected by the Hydrophone. Weird, because we turned all of our instruments off; Also, during this mooring communication debacle, science found their 15^th dead sea bird today (It is an alarmingly high number of dead seabirds so they are thinking it could be due to an unidentified toxin). Daniel decided to notify JAMESTEC about the mysterious hydrophone noise (as it could be the reason they aren’t getting a response). It turns out the mysterious frequency wasn’t prohibiting the transducer to communicate with the mooring, however it is still an issue that needs to be looked at further. After several hours JAMESTEC finally got a release response but there was still no sign of the mooring surfacing. At the nightly meeting, the Chief scientist motioned that we move on to the next DBO site. The plan is to circle back around on the returning trip to check if the mooring surfaced. 

The conclusion to the day was beautiful. The pressure increased and the water got super glassy. The sun was low creating an “illusion” of a sunset (the never-ending sunset) and in the distance, several whales were surfacing around us. 

Throughout the rest of the week we still couldn’t find the source of the mysterious frequency. We notified engineering in hopes they could help us figure out the source.

We are reaching the end of science but we are still pretty busy. Luckily there were no other MAJOR issues with the instruments so we are able to work on other projects. I started writing up a protocol for cleaning and checking the voltages of the transmissometer on the port SSW. This is a weekly protocol that will eventually create a through log of the instrument’s performance.

in the afternoon we tested and set up the DAMP drifters with LT. Miller… we may have lost two Allen wrenches in the process but we got it all ready to be deployed :). One of the scientists, Dr. Cross, gave a presentation at the nightly meeting about NOAA’s super cool and awesome drones! We are to intercept one of the drones in the morning. 

In the morning, Leah gave a yoga class in the hanger. She did a very good job leading the class and we all left the hanger feeling grounded. Unfortunately, the yoga session was at the same time as Dr. Cross’ drone interception so I wasn’t able to attend. however, the drone communication was a success.

During Austin (MarTech) and Ami’s shift, Austin noticed that the serial numbers for the SSW instruments were different in the acq. file than on the instruments. I did a round and double checked (it’s best not to edit the acq file too much so we wanted to make sure we got everything down before we made edits). It turned out that the DO sensor in the BioLab was a different serial number than in the config files. Daniel will have to correct the acq file for us.  

THE DAY OF THE CUPS!

Cups Cups Cups! everyone got together and designed some Styrofoam cups to plunge into the deep (The cups with be put in a mesh bag and then attached to the rosette). After everyone had finished decorating their cups, Kristin and I attached the bags to the rosette. At the next station the rosette and the cups will be deployed 3000m deep. When the cups return they will be tiny versions of themselves. it’s a cool tradition the scientists have to commemorate their work on the research vessel. 

-One of the cups I created was a Peacock Mantis Shrimp. This is what it looks like after it has been plunged into the deep.

After cups day we did some more work. There were issues with the LCI90 and the 3/8th wire; LCI90 stopped talking to the MET. This was a full day of tracing wires, locating the point where the UDP packets were being held up as well as changing out some mini switches. None of this worked. Several hours later we realized that there was a very simple solution: power surge the main LCI90’s in the wench room. Basically, turning it off and then turning it right back on, SMH. The rest of the week I worked with Daniel to write up a How-to document for the DGH and the RM Young Temperature sensor AND got to pretend I was a Ghost Buster during sweepers with a BACKPACK VACUUM CLEANER! Maybe it sounds silly but I really enjoyed cleaning that day. 

My phone is filling up with picture of codes, wiring set ups in J-Boxes, transmissometer voltages, MET data and of course beauty shots of the mock DGH setup for the configuration document. 

Que in Stevie Wonder “Isn’t She Lovely”- (Music is a big part of the work day)

This is one of the pictures I used in my documentation of the DGH set-up and configuration for the RM Young Temperature sensor.

The week began with CTD casts along the shelf and slopes north of Alaska, along a line designated NNE. Although we were in deeper waters, the scientists cut the casts off at 300m in order to save time. In another move to save time, every other cast was CTD only, meaning that they did not take water samples using the Niskin bottles on the way up. This definitely saved time, cutting the CTDs from roughly one hour from deployment to recovery to only 30 minutes. One really interesting observation during the CTDs was the presence of Atlantic water on the bottom of the ocean. The CTD graph would show a drop in temperature down the water column until the CTD reached the bottom. At the sea floor, the temperature would rise along with the salinity. This warmer water, kept at the bottom by it’s higher density, turns out to be water from the Atlantic, transported over Russia according to the scientists.

Because we’re working on a Coast Guard ship, the marine technicians here don’t get to do any of the deck work. The CTD deployment and recovery, along with the A-frame and winch handling, is all performed by the Healy’s deck and engine crew. Although I haven’t been able to take part in any of the deck work, I’ve watched how the Coast Guard operates their machinery and I’ve been impressed with their communication skills. The deck crew uses clear hand signals to inform the winch operator, and the bridge, deck crew, and winch operator all utilize radio to ensure that the operation goes smoothly. 

During my shifts this week I’ve only seen a few issues. One of the bottles on the deep 3000m cast failed to fire. The CTD rosette uses an electromagnet to release tension on the lanyards holding the bottle open, allowing the bottle to close on command and capture water. After the deep cast, we cleaned the firing ring and troubleshot the bottle, and this time it fired properly. Another issue we encountered was when the CTD pump didn’t turn on at first. The pumps can be selected to turn on manually, or automatically when they detect a certain salinity level when they enter the water. We believe that the intake hose had some air trapped in it, which stopped the pump from starting. Moving the CTD through the water column cleared the issue. 

One project I’ve taken on for the Healy’s deck department has been writing a program to analyze the winch data. The program works to read the raw binary data transmitted daily by the winch sensors and return the day’s highest tension and the times that the winch reached a certain tension level or above. The difficulty is making the program efficient, since the data files are so huge. The sensors record data 20 times per second, and the files consist of one day’s worth of data. The program has to read 1.7 million lines of data, so it can take some time to load the results. 

Yesterday (Aug 18) we recovered 3 Japanese moorings. They were in fairly shallow water, so the process didn’t take too long. The ship navigates to the mooring location and then one of the Japanese scientists will transmit a wakeup code to the mooring release via a transducer that they lower over the side of the ship. After locating and communicating with the releases, they will transmit the release code while the Healy and it’s small boat look for the floats to surface. The Coast Guard then hauls the mooring on board, removing sensors along its lines piece by piece. 

Today is the 19th, so the scientists will only be on board for five more days. It’s been a great experience to see them all working so hard around the clock. It’s also really encouraging to see so many people passionate about their work and the marine environment. Since I’m not getting off with them in Nome, I’ll miss having them on board for the post-cruise transit back to Dutch Harbor.

The week began back off the coast of Nome where we got to watch the C-130 cargo plane drop spare parts for the engineers. It was amazing watching the operation – the plane dropped a flare then circled around to drop a box right by the flare. The Healy’s small boat then deployed and retrieved the package. Unfortunately, the spare CTD unit that was shipped from San Diego was delayed, so we stayed several extra hours offshore for it to arrive. Then we left Nome and the science mission was underway again.

I’ve been on the 0000-1200 shift along with Austin, a UNOLS tech pool technician. He’s been great to work with and I’ve learned a lot from him. I appreciate his background in electronics and data acquisiton, and he’s taught me all about each of the instruments and their software. He’s also shown me pictures from his various trips across the world as a technician, and through them I’ve developed a greater respect for the job. 

After leaving Nome, Austin and I performed a deck test of the new CTD. Our main concern was ensuring that the pressure reading in air was not way off, like the previous fish. First, Austin showed me how to create a new configuration file for the CTD software. This file includes the sensors that are included on the CTD, along with the values of each of their various constants and offsets. With the new config file created, we conducted the deck test by plugging the new CTD into the deck box, from which it receives power and to which it transmits data. The new CTD had an in-air pressure reading of 0.6db, which was encouraging. With the new CTD working, we repackaged it to be used as the spare. 

The remainder of the week was very standard, without any major issues besides a mooring recovery failure. One of the JAMSTEC (Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology) moorings was unable to be recovered due to biofouling on the releases. Despite this, we managed to finish the 3rd DBO (distributed biological observation) line this week, and pushed north towards our goals in deeper water north of Alaska. On the transit to our northern stations, we rendezvoused with a saildrone in order to recalibrate it remotely. These large autonomous drones are 24 feet long, with an 8 foot draft and 16 foot sail.

I’m excited to begin the northern portion of the mission, because we will start to enter deeper water and recover more moorings. As we go farther north, the weather has been getting colder and the days longer. In a few days we will do our one deep CTD of the cruise (due to the lost days we won’t have time for more than one deep cast), and the scientists plan on shrinking styrofoam cups.