Sometimes science is best not learned in a laboratory or in a class room. Not everyone can memorize and regurgitate information, and a lot of times let’s face it that information for information’s sake seems mostly useless in the scope of thing. Out in the middle of the ocean I have started learning thing about salinity gradients and how fish migrate diurnally to avoid predation. These are thing I learned before in oceanography courses. Out here though I get to see how the salinity gradient changes over the course of a day, where the oxygen minimum zone shifts as night fall progresses. Through doing countless CTD casts I have seen these plots, time and time again, and now I have begun to grasp the relevance of fresh water input through rain events in a saline environment.

On this portion of the long term experiment in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City Beach we have scientist looking at several types of acoustic data. Most have been interested in the data in horizontal planes in relation to the sea floor, and looking at reverberation effects due to various environmental factors. However we now have a group that are looking perpendicularly through the water column and seeing the type of life using acoustic technology. This has allowed me to see first-hand a phase shift in ambient noise, and what they believe to be caused by vertical migration of various animals. This is not the first time it has been noticed evidently, but it is still really cool none the less.

Since this experiment is being done in relatively shallow water, 20m being about the maximum depth at times all the engines need to be shut off for different reasons, and we are set adrift at the mercy of the current and waves. While being adrift for a short period of time is not too bad, once it has gone on for hours and you are caught in a trough of 7 to 10 foot waves, things start to get a little uncomfortable. Swivel chairs turn into fun time rides for about 30 seconds, until you are forced to lock your legs under a desk just so you can conduct some form of normal business. The AC units have to be turned off at some points because their cooling outlet drains right on top of the down facing sonar and causes data to be lost, so it often can get a little warm inside the ship. This unfortunately means a lot of down time for the crew, which can be a good thing and bad. About half way through the first week everyone starts getting kind of bored and cranky.