Author: Cherisse Figueroa

It has been absolutely busy, but hearing that land was near gave us something to work harder for!

Since our internship is coming to a close with Woods Hole drawing near, we have upped our work to double time! Trying to get s much stuff done and scrambling to find anything we can perfect before our arrival for all those folks waiting to see the R/V Atlantis since it has been dry docked for the better part of a year and retrofitted with brand new equipment. Working with SSSG (both Allison and Chris) has given me such confidence with working with so many different tools, I feel like I can take this knowledge and apply it to things in my future. One thing is particular I am excited to try applying what I picked up and learned from the internship is creating my very own live-in van and customize it myself for all my traveling needs.

I am sad to be leaving everyone and the boat, a place I dedicated a month and a week, but happy for the opportunity to work alongside some very dedicated and hard working people, seeing all the sights that I would have never had the opportunity to do otherwise, and making long lasting connections. I hope that in the near future I would have the opportunity to do another internship to be able to work on more research vessels, or better yet see if any employment opportunities come up that fulfill everything I wish to dedicate myself to the scientific community.

A safety test conducted at sea before our arrival, all with expired safety equipment. Never fired off a flare, was pretty exciting!

Came by some drifting hardware that attracted an ecosystem of fish, including these mahi-mahi! They’re such beautiful fish, just amazing. Truth be told, I did feel a bit sad but at the same time the cook on board utilized both the whole fishes. Fillets taken, roe collected, and bones acquired for a great stock.

Obligatory fish photo, the bull was me sized!

One of the last sunsets I was able to enjoy before woods hole

The welcome we got when we arrived! Not pictured was the fanfare of boat horns also welcoming us  in.

It has been slow and steady progress getting the R/V Atlantis ready after she’s been on ‘vacation’ for a better part of the year. Old furniture either being thrown out or reused, new furniture being placed or fitted, totes being emptied then filled again with more stuff that happens to get dumped there by another person also in a hurry to finish a task, just absolute chaos. However, through the sweat and frustrations we are finally seeing big leaps in progress around the ship. It finally feels like all the labor we’ve been putting in for nearly a month straight is finally coming together for some seblance of order! I just wish I had taken some before and after pictures of the entire floor we have been focusing on.

The highlight of this week for me was not the fruits of our labor paying off at a visual observation, but some pretty spectacular inginuity and environmental manipulation. I finally had the chance to go through the Panama Canal (something I learned of as a child from ‘Animaniacs’, guess my age), observing and learning about how the canal actually functions. Pretty exciting stuff, tried to stay up for the majority of it but quickly ran out of steam around 1am. We began going through roughly 8:30pm and from what I was told we didnt finish getting through until 2:30am. Needless to say, the entire crew was pretty wiped from either staying up to watch/having to deal with the canal workers that had to come on board to handle the line.

Right now, we are close to Cuba and it’s gorgeously blue over here. Sea turtles have been spotted a couple of times, just need to be out there at the right time with my camera out!

Bella Dina Lax and I working on putting together one of the many benches around the labs (Thanks for the great shot Grace Fulton!)

Before getting to the canal, I was outside watching the city get closer and a HUGE pod of dolphins came to play. I’m talking like a pod of 50 at least. Quite a magical moment, you can hear these guys when they’re around. I didn’t know they were so loud with their prolific squeals and clicks!

Outside Panama Canal waiting for our turn in the que.

Starting to go through the canal, what you don’t see is all the fun and noisy blackbirds, tons of bats, and a croco-gator (couldn’t tell) off to the right.

After saying good bye to most of the science crew back in San Francisco, there has not been any down time to relax after quick crash course on some of the many scientific equipment on board. The ship has been dry docked for about a year and a half now, and the R/V Atlantis has been fixed with all new interiors. Now everything that was originally inside has been in storage and also new eqipment has been bought to fit all new appliances and rooms, so it has been the interns job to be ready and available for any labor that is given to us or we sought after.

This is the first time being this far down the Pacific Ocean, and let me say that California dry heat is a blessing compared to the sheer humidity that all of Mexico has been providing for us. It has certainly made unpacking unventilated cargo vans full of furniture, totes of tools, and other bits and ends a extremely sweaty and laborious process! I think my crowning achievment for the past week is learning different tools and how to use them for different jobs around the ship. Whether we’re securing spaces for sea, painting, extracting various deck plugs in the floors, setting up IP addresses on transmitters/recievers, just to name a few things! I think I am most proud of the matrix-style wall of monitors for a wench control station here in the computer labs. I got to set up the measurements, best method of mounting, and execute the plan. I think that’s what I am most proud of this week.

On a brighter end of things, though I have spent a better part of the year in the Bering Sea, these oceans are just so blue and full of fun and active critters. I have seen dolphins galore (no good pictures, but some pretty spectacular videos), floating debris creating mini ecosystems for tropical fish communities, a mahi-mahi, and whales breaching. Another first for me is seeing a clear sky so far away from any lights and seeing the sheer amount of stars that has been gorgeously humbling, shooting stars every night, and the milky way. Truly a beautiful part of the world and one I feel so lucky to have the chance to experience it even after a hard days work.

Before we started

Putting up the unistraps (An all day effort…just getting them parallel…)

And a 90% completed job! Only 3 more monitors on the left side, but a job well done!

Has this been a whirlwind of different events! Much different than the boats I’m used to back in Alaska!

Meeting everyone that is involved with the program was fun, everyone has been so warm and generous with their knowlegde and specialty. Very sad when I learned that most of the key crew we would be shadowing would be leaving us when reaching San Francisco, so I took as much time being present for most of the calibrations and testing they were doing for the equipment on board. One person I got to work close to was the chief scientist Jennifer Johnson, who was overlooking calibrations with the EK80. Not only did I help her log some of her testing over an oceanic shelf area off the coast of washington at 3am, but we also had the opportunity to view methane seeps off the coast of Oregon! It was very exciting for me because using this equipment goes hand in hand with what I hope to do for future research explorations and having someone there who was passionate in her field and allowed me to shadow her made a world of a difference to me.

Since the other crew members disembarked, we are near Cancun in Mexico. It is balmy and sunny than what I’m used to, but I am enjoying the work I’m putting into the preparations for the boat before we arrive to Woods Hole. I also saw flying fish for the first time! Looked like shining skipping stones as the fluttered out of the ships way.

Working with Jennifer watching for noise disturbances during EK80 calibrations

Deploying a XBT

One of the 2 methane seeps we observed off the coast of Oregon. We viewed it with the EK80 and the multibeam aboard, very exciting to note the differences and similarities between the 2 equipments!

Hello Everyone!

My name is Cherisse Figueroa and I am a recent graduate from Humboldt State University where I majored in Oceanography.

I am beyond excited to be a part of this amazing opportunity to work alongside establish scientists aboard the R/V Atlantis, especially in the field that I am personally most interested in: deep sea science. What my long term goal is to contribute to this new and unknown area of the ocean, primarily focusing on complex communities that form on hydrothermal vents or whale falls. Being chosen for this expedition, not only do I work alongside people who have done exactly what I want to do, I get hands on experience with the equipment and lifestyle I will hopefully one day be able to use myself in my professional future!

For the past year, I have been able to keep myself pretty busy working in the commercial fishing industry in Alaska boarding fishing vessels in the Bering Sea. I have been out at sea for most of the year, only coming to land for short periods of time. My position aboard the vessels is to do at-sea biological sampling and data entry for the vessel aboard and aiding in the preservation of sustainable fishing in one of the most healthy and controlled oceans in the world. It is physically tiring, working in some of the most trecherous weather conditions, and no WiFi, but I love my job and what I can do for better fishing practices.

Speaking of being at sea for most of the year, I recently disembarked my last vessel I was on for the past 3 months 4 days ago and now will be boarding the Atlantis is 3. Good thing I won’t lose my sea legs!

See you soon!