Category: Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences & Arizona State University Page 8 of 9

After a short jaunt home, followed by several cancellations and delays, I have finally made it to Bermuda! Unfortunately, I arrived late-so while I was unable to meet the crew upon my arrival, I was welcomed with my first Bermudian sunset. After meeting the crew and my two mentors the following morning, I took a short walk around the BIOS station and familiarized myself with the boat. Around 14:30 this afternoon, we made a short transit to the other side of St. George to load up our science party- and to avoid issues with low tide. The rest of the day consisted of safety briefs, drills and a little bit of exploration. Bermuda is breathtaking and I am beyond elated to explore its beauty!

Cruise:

My first cruise will last less than a week and will consist primarily of BATS and Hydrostations. BATS, an ocean data time-series established in 1988, provides long-term data for the open ocean of Bermuda. Similiarly, a nearby relative HYDRO, is another data-time series established in 1954. Together, these two regoins have been supplying inumberable data, insight and measurements within the field of oceanography.

My first cruise consisted primarily of CTD work, along with a few PITS sediment traps, primary production arrays, zooplankton and phytoplankton tows. Additionally, we dragged a few in-situ pumps off the back deck. While I am familar with both the CTD and net tows, the PITS sediment traps and the primary production array were new to me. PITS stands for particle intercept trap system and is essentially a line towed off the back deck with flask at varying depth, which catch sediment onto a filter. The production array is a long winch rope line, fed through our a-frame wheely, and consists of a tray of erlenmeyer flasks filled with water. The flasks are set spatially along the line and sent deep down past the photsysnthetic zone. The array line is deployed early morning before the sun rises and retrieved after dark.

                                              Photo Credit: Nick Mathews

Aside from similiar work, I was happy to find many familiarities between the technology of the Atlantic Explorer and prior boats I have spent time on- the Pelican and Point Sur. The CTD station is within the wheelhouse and is centered along a large flat screen TV – capable of changing its view to our navigation, ADCP and Knudsen- along with a winch monitor displaying tension, payout and speed.  The system setup is reminiscent to a CTD movie theater and is an effective display method for scientists and techs alike. Additionally, the winch operator- also located in the wheelhouse- is no more than two feet from our stations, making communication very easy and effective. To make matters more coveninent, a CTD depth sensor is mounted to the winch station for optimal use. Aside from the CTD station, and the wide living plan of the Atlantic Explorer, the principle of technology and work is very similiar. Today, we made our way to several BATS stations, completed several CTD casts, along with several zooplankton and phytoplankton tows. The tows were dragged off our back deck, 250m below the surface at 1.5 knots for half an hour each.

Hello all

Well once again I find myself a little bit behind on my blog posting but better late than never.  My days here continue on as usual .  I am currently just finished a ten day long trip that had us traveling from Bermuda down to just off the coast of the Bahamas, up to the coast of Florida to the Carolinas, and then back across to Bermuda.  We didn’t stop at any of those places but we were close enough to see the lights at night. 

During the entire length of the journey we towed a cute little torpedo shaped package (which we refer to as the “fish”) that continually pumped water back up into the science labs within the ship.  It was a little bit tricky getting everything rigged to go out the first time because there is a lot of tubing and rope tied together in an unusual configuration but it all came together in the end.  Also, a little bit unusual, is that this fish is being towed over the starboard side of the ship using the crane.  Normally packages are towed off the back deck using the A-frame and one of the winches.   No problem though just took a little bit longer to piece together.  Once it was in the water the first time it stayed that way for basically the entire 10 day trip.  There was one brief stint where one section of tubing detached from the fish and we had to haul it up to get everything refitted.  It took about 2 hours to make everything completely secure again but eventually we got it back in the water and resumed the trip.  Other than the fish being towed the only other thing we did on the trip was a single CTD cast every day.  Compared to our usual trips that include 4-5 CTD casts a day (on average) this was a very very calm cruise.  Again…in the marine tech world that is the very best kind. 

We leave again for a 6 day cruise the day after tomorrow.  The upcoming trip is for the BATS gang (the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series) and they go out every month and have for the last 30 years or so and collect the same data from the same place.  It is an incredibly powerful set of data that they have accumulated and it is one of the most frequently cited set of data in oceanography.  Pretty impressive stuff.  That does mean that they are very comfortable on the ship and they perform the whole cruise like a well oiled machine.  I really like these types of cruises because it gives me a great opportunity to watch everyone as they get everything in and out of the water so proficiently.  Nothing like watching the masters to up your game:)

On a purely non-work related note, this past trip had us out in the open Atlantic Ocean during the Perseids meteor shower and it was breathtaking.  For the whole trip I was able to watch the sky for a few minutes at a time and see at least one shooting star (or meteor if you prefer).  My shift started at 2am every morning and I would sit outside and watch the sky for at least an hour just watching the amazing stars.  At least 7 of those days I could clearly see the Milky Way.  It was absolutely wonderful.  I grew up in the city and am not much of a sky/star/astronomy buff but there is something incredibly serene and captivating about being on the open ocean, no land in sight, no sounds other than the water, very little light from the ship…just quiet and peaceful with nothing but a gazillion bright stars twinkling away.  Made me feel so unbelievably lucky to be where I am every single night.

And now I think it is only fitting to sign off here on that glorious high note:) If all goes well I am hoping my next post will be entirely pictures if I can swing it so be prepared:)

Elizabeth

Hello hello,

  So another cruise successfully wrapped up here.  It was a short trip (just 4 days) but the science teams never fail to keep us busy!  Everything went pretty well but we did have to abort one of the 4 MOCNESS casts because there was some trouble with the winch.  So to back up a little bit, the MOCNESS stands for Multiple Opening and Closing Net, with an Environmental Sensing System.  It is a big aluminum frame that has 9 big nets attached to it.  When the system is in the water the opening of each net is controlled by a person on the bridge so that each net can collect samples from different water depths.  It is a pretty cool contraption. 

Unfortunately the first time we got it into the water the MOCNESS was doing just fine but the winch controlling it started getting hot and smoking.  Thankfully the winch operator noticed it very quickly and was able to emergency stop the operation.  It then fell on the marine tech and one of the engineers to start tinkering with the winch to see what the issue was.  Apparently one of the 3 contact points on the brake was stuck and and had to be released and cleaned up before it could be put back together again.  A very special nod to the brilliantly capable engineers that keep these ships running…even at 3 am.  

After that small snafu the rest of the cruise was excellent.  Everything went well and we were able to collect all of the samples that the science team requested, and the other 3 MOCNESS casts went off without a hitch.  We even deployed and recovered a glider.  Unfortunately there is nothing on the glider that allows it to be picked up from the ship.  I mean really nothing…no D-ring, no hooks, no way to grab it at all.  So for us to recover the gliders we have to go out in the small boat and literally grab it out of the water by hand.  It was me, Nick the marine tech, and Ronnie the bosun out for a short ride in the small safety boat.  Thankfully Nick is a very tall young man with a good long reach so once we got to the glider he reached down and grabbed it while Ronnie and I tried to help him haul it in and secure it.  Then we drove it right up to the back deck of the Atlanitic Explorer and passed it over.  Went pretty smootly all in all but still very thankful Nick had those long arms:)

Well that is most of the excitement from our last cruise and I still have a few days here on land before the next one so until next time,

Elizabeth

PS…I do have more pictures to add for for the moment I am unable to upload images (again…sigh) so I will have to investigate before I can include any more

Hello everyone,

   I have been continuing on with my internship here in Bermuda.  We have only gone out on a few cruises and they have been pretty short (though everything will probably seem short after a 45 day trip!) but still full of new experiences for me.  We just returned from a one day cruise that was a deep CTD cast and the recovery of an incubation chamber that we had put into the water three weeks ago but the whole trip was fairly uneventful.  I have very quickly learned that “uneventful” is a wonderful magical word when describing research cruises and it means that everything went smoothly.  Nothing broke down, everything went into and out of the water as it was meant to, no one was injured…uneventful in the best way possible. 

During our time on land we have delved into several projects that have kept us busy.  we walked through terminating the end of our CTD cable which I have mentioned before.  It is a long process but a very important one and it was nice to get a really good tutorial about the process.  On Monday we will terminate the actual cable instead of a practice one so I will try to include some pictures for the next post.   We have also been working on the CTD itself making sure it is all ready to go for the cruise next week.  There are 12 different sensors on our CTD so we have to make sure that each one is within its calibration date, is functioning properly, and that everything is very securely attached to the CTD.  Sounds pretty straight forward but it can become several long days of work if things don’t go smoothly. 

I was also fortunate enough to get invited to see some of the behind the scenes action involved in operating a glider.  These gliders are loaded onto a ship and brought out to open waters where they are  slipped into the water by hand.  From there all of the action is back in a lab office at BIOS.  The scientists have programmed “missions” into the glider and can send it commands from land.  In the beginning the test commands are “dive to 5 meters and surface” and then “dive to 60 meters and surface”.  The science team monitors the activity to make sure that all of the sensors are recording properly, that the glider is moving the way it should, and that it is following the commands it is given.  Once the testing phase is done then the glider receives a longer mission that it completes on its own.  It will dive to 300 meters (for example) come up to the surface and transmit the data before changing position and diving again.  The gliders can stay out in the ocean for months at a time collecting data before being recovered.  They are pretty amazing little fish.  I wasn’t with the team when they launched the gliders but it sounds like I will get another chance to see it later this month so hopefully I can grab some pictures.

Speaking of pictures I wanted to get a few out there of the back deck of the R/V Atlantic Explorer.  In my last post I mentioned it being a wet deck and if it was anything except for the calmest conditions we would get big waves over the side.  Here are some pictures from our last cruise to tide you over before my next chance to take some more.

Until next time!

So after returning from our short one day cruise out to our hydrostation, we spend a couple days prepping everything up for our BATS cruise (Bermuda Atlantic Time Series). This is a 7 day cruise that takes place once a month and is one of the longest running oceanographic time series. So far we have been out 5 days and aside from a few minor set backs, everything has been running smoothly.

The first issue we encountered was an oxygen senor with our CTD. For some reason it would only work below 20 meter, and after tinkering with it we only made more issues trying to fix this one. After a while we called it a wrap and put the CTD back to its original setting and just left the issue to deal with at the dock because we did have a secondary sensor that worked just fine.

After a few days of deployments we encountered our second problem which was our COM7 winch that we were using to tow our MOCNESS. We were performing a test run without collecting samples and while we were towing the device back in our winch kept tripping its breaker and shutting off mid recovery. Luckily this was the test run and we did not deploy it too deep but it was an extended effort to get it back on board.

Aside from that the trip has been a great success. We’ve had a very successful MOCNESS operation were all 8 nets collected great data and with this particular device, that can be difficult. The MOCNESS is comprised of 9 nets that are triggered electronically to open one while closing another to collect plankton samples at varying depths.

Unfortunately this is my last blog because my internship will come to an end next Tuesday (June 21st). I wish I could stay much longer but am very grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to be an intern at BIOS (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences). I have gained so much knowledge and experience in just the short 6 weeks that I have been here. I will attach a last picture when we make it to shore because it would probably take the rest of the trip to upload anyway haha.

All the best,

Mason Schettig

Hello again!
  I have finally returned from my hiatus back at home in Minnesota and
now come to you all the way from sunny Bermuda.  Being home was quite
a nice and unexpected break, especially after nearly 7 weeks at sea on
my last cruise in Hawaii but it feels good to be back on the water
again.  I am now aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer (AE) where I will
finish out the last 3 months of my internship. 

It has been really interesting to see all the differences between the R/V Kilo Moana (KM)
and this ship and the most obvious one is the size.  The KM was very
distinct in that it was a double hulled ship which made it over twice
as wide as the AE.  It could carry over 50 people (crew and
scientists), had a very spacious back deck, a large galley, big
storage spaces, etc.  The AE has about half of all of those things
which has affected many different aspects of my time here already!
First and foremost of these is that I really haven’t been lost at all
on the ship (yay me!).  I spent the first couple of weeks in Hawaii
trying to figure out the very bizarre layout of the ship.  Even when I
knew my way around it pretty well I still managed to turn a corner
every now and then and end up someplace I didn’t even know was there!
So far I have found the layout here to be a little less confusing
which I am always a fan of.
 

   Another thing that is very different is the positioning of one of
the most commonly used pieces of equipment in oceanographic work: the
CTD.  On the KM everything went into the water from the back deck
because of the ample space available there, the layout of the ship,
and because that is where the A-frame is.  Here on the AE the CTD goes
into the water from the side of the ship.  They have a large A-frame
across the back deck for most pieces of equipment, but they also have
a smaller A-frame and launching site along the starboard side that is
used basically just for the CTD.  It calls for a little bit different
procedure for deploying the CTD than I was familiar with but it easy
to see how convenient it is to have an isolated position just for that
and how streamlined it makes the whole thing.  It’s pretty nice and
definitely more to come about that.
         Already I have been out on a very short cruise to put some incubating
chambers into the water (they will stay out about month so we haven’t
recovered them yet) and done some CTD casts.  This was basically a one
day cruise so we didn’t divide up the schedule into strict shifts like
we normally would have.  Eventually most of us ended up being awake
all night doing CTD’s and wow was it intense.  We were right on the
edge of a tropical storm and the waves were rocking.  Also…another
minor difference that apparently has a big impact between ships is the
distance from the deck to the surface of the water.  I would say the
KM had maybe 10-12 feet (ish) and the AE has maybe 2.  The back deck
is considered a “wet deck” and boy was it ever.  Waves came over the
side like crazy.  One almost knocked me down and another one managed
to knock down another tech.  The water just kept coming!  It was hard
to deploy and recover the CTD because the waves were pretty large and
led to a ton of motion from the ship.  Crazy adventure but I was
soaking wet by the end of it.  Glad it was a short one?
      I will surely describe more differences and adventures as I go but I
will digress from that a little bit now.  I want to show a little
appreciation to the people I have been so fortunate to meet so far.
The crew and scientists aboard the R/V Kilo Moana were SO good to me
for the whole time I was there.  I was a little nervous to go into
this unknown world of marine technician-ing with no specific
background in it and very little direct experience and everyone
treated me so kindly and with ample amounts of patience.  I learned
new things every day from the techs that were training me but also
from the AB’s that worked on the deck, the engineers that kept
everything running, the officers that ran the ship, and even the
scientists that were gathering samples.  Amazing and wonderful people.
I have no doubt that I will get the same here in Bermuda.  Already I
feel like a member of the team here and have been so welcomed!  I
manage to feel a little bit more lucky every day.

Well I am currently on a cruise now and will fill you in more about it next week but for now that is all the time I have.  More to come later!

Elizabeth

So this past week has been filled with lots of fine tuning to get everything ready for our trip to Hydrostation S which is part of BATS (Bermuda Atlantic Time Series). BATS is the longest oceanographic research time series in the world which is an awesome event to be a part of. Another MATE intern (Elizabeth) has hopped onboard so we have been running heavy with MT’s the past few days. 

This past Tuesday we took off and made our way to the Hydrostation with the seas being a little rougher than normal. First deployment was a custom made incubator ran by a scientist from Old Dominion University. This device had many serenges that would draw water in with each on having different agents in them to give specific details of the water. It had a long line with a weight pulling the device down and an acoustic release for when they are ready to recover the device which will be June 30th. After making sure the device was on the bottom (talking to it through a transducer) we made a CTD cast to the bottom collecting water samples in our Niskin Bottles on the way up.

After the bottom cast we made a 3 hour transit to the hydrostation were we would spend most of our time. The longer the trip lasted, the worse the weather and sea conditions got. We made a hand full of CTD casts throughout the day getting plenty of water samples for the BIOS science team. Once we started working into the night it started getting really rough and wet on the deck. It was the first time I had seen our crew use three tag lines just for a CTD cast and it was completely necessary. When coming back to dock we had to make a special trip around the island and spend a day in St. George because it was to windy to come in through our normal channel. All in all it was a great experience working in those conditions, makes one really appreciate calm days.

Now we are getting ready for a 7 day cruise with the BATS team from BIOS and we will be taking off June 12th (Sunday). We have only minor preparations to touch on tomorrow and then we will be ready to rock in roll. After this I will only have one more blog but I love the crew here and am so happy I was given this opportunity to work with BIOS.

All the best,

Mason Schettig

So last Friday the R/V Atlantic Explorer made it back safe and sound from a very successful cruise. It was a great learning experience seeing how things are wrapped up at the end of a science research cruise. Once back at the dock it there was still a fair bit of work to demobilize. The spectacular Filopino crew worked quickly and efficiently using the crane to hoist the heavy equipment off the vessel and on the dock. I gathered with the other MT’s to the tech lab to clean up the data folders, organize it in a neat/orderly fashion, and then all of the data collected was burned on to a CD with two extra copies. 

After the hustle and bustle of the demob, we gathered with the science crew to get opinions of how the cruise went (very successful I may add) and just talked about things other than work before they made there way back home. Luckily for me I had the following two days off (Saturday and Sunday) to relax as well as explore Bermuda (it is a travel destination after all). I borrowed one of the Marine Technician’s bikes to get around more efficiently since its not too big of a island.The waters all around are bright turquoise blue with rich culture and history around every corner. I stayed moderately close to BIOS so I wouldn’t risk getting lost or too worn out to make it back safely. I managed to find a secluded beach were I decided to swim around and cool off. The water was warm, clear, and quite inviting. After many miles on the bike I made my way back to BIOS. The remainder of the weekend was designated to touching base with loved ones and catching up on some sleep.

The first day back at work we hit the ground running to get everything in order for the upcoming cruise. First task to tackle was reassembling our CTD and doing some fine tuning to make sure everything is running properly. After a couple cable splices and troubleshooting we had all of our sensors working well and then all that was left was to mount on the Niskin Bottles which was an easy task. 

After taking care of the CTD we moved on to the next mission critial task which was fixing the issue with our 12 kHz Depth Sounder. This proved to be an easier than expected task. After searching through the ceiling panels we discovered the plugs were not connected to anthing and just had to made a terminal box for them to plug into. A few soldered wires and connections later it was back up and running. 

At this point we have knocked off all the tasks needed for our next departure so we have been working on smaller issues that just have been pushed to the back burner. We will be leaving next Monday for a day cruise to a Hydrostation that will be a quick out and back trip. That is all for now but will have more next week!

The second week at sea has been much like the first, very busy. There was a change in plans however which required an entire day of transit to a new work site and our waypoints were made up on the fly. This didn’t slow down operations however once we arrived to the new location. Along with tons and tons of CTD’s we have been deploying and picking up a Woods Hole Glider (measures Internal waves, surface waves, wind speed and direction), Wire Walker (Surface wave spectra), and more of the OOBS (Ocean Observing Buoy System). Most of these devices are dropped off and left to collect data for roughly a day or so and then we get a GPS fix on them and go pick them up. 

Weather wise, its been pretty inconsistant which is to be expected in this area. One moment it will be clear and sunny then next it is stormy with sideways rain and lightning. For the most part the seas have been forgiving with smaller swell sizes so the ship hasn’t been rocking too hard.

Today is actually the last day at sea and we are currently in transit back to Bermuda. We should be making it back tomorrow (May27) around roughly 1300. It has been a great first cruise with BIOS and an amazing science crew to work with. All the guys from John Hopkins as well as Scripps have maintained great, positive vibes and are nothing less than respectful to the crew and the intern (me). I could only hope to work with a team like this in the future.

Picture of me getting ready help recover a Woods Hole Glider
*Photo taken by Nick Mathews

What a busy first week it has been. To start my internship off I met all the crew and staff a BIOS (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science) and was welcomed by all. Right off the bat I was helping get all the gear and equipment on board and helped mobilize so we were prepared to get underway. For this cruise we have been working with the John Hopkins Applied Science Lab as well as a crew from SCRIPPS Ocean Institute. After testing and fine tuning all the equipment as well as going through the briefing we were quickly underway. 

The first two days were designated for transit to the work site which was named “Aquarius” and this location is about 300 miles southeast of Bermuda. During transit we mainly focused on our CTD and fine tuned all the senors incorporated with it. The science crew provided us with a few of there gear to mount and connect into our CTD system which took a little extra effort to fit everything on, as well as get the correct calibration coefficients tuned in. Once everything checked out and was tested we could move on to other preparations such as assuring our network was up and running so we could easily transfer data to the science teams with a public folder. 

Once we arrived to the work site we quickly were saturated with many different operations that occur at all hours of the day. My first deck operation was a CTD cast which was pretty straight forward and I just played  minor roll until I got more comfortable with the ship. After a couple casts, I began take more responsibility and was handling tag lines and taking lead. Later in the evening we deployed a buoy system called OOBS (Ocean Observing Buoy System) which consisted of 3 different buoys with many different sensors (CTD, ADCP, Mets, ect.) all connected with small float buoys in between. It is approximately 400 meters in length and this was the very first time I had seen anything like it. It was a fairly complicated deployment but with a good crew it went very smooth. 

Throughout the first week we deployed mainly CTD’s but also deployed a Woods Hole Glider, Wire Walker, Profiler 2 and XBT’s. It felt like once we started it never stopped. There are operations going on about every 45 minutes to and hour unless we are making a lengthy transit across the work site. 

By this point on day 7 I am feeling more and more confident in my deck skills and am getting more comfortable with how the ship operates. Everyone works as a team and they work very well. I would like to make a special consideration for the cooks aboard. They make great meals and Randal the head cook makes deserts to die for. A typical dinner could be anything from Lamb shanks with rice and cucumber feta tomato salad to Filet with baked potato and pasta salad. Deserts vary as well from key lime pie, chocolate cheesecake, to fresh baked cookies and everything is make from scratch. A good cook can make or break a crew and on this boat they are the final touch to a wonderful crew.

Unfortunately I could not attach any pictures while underway. The internet is slow and the majority of bandwidth is designated to the scientist (for good reason!) Once I make it back to shore I will be attaching many many pictures of the awesome operations that have been going on! 

That is all for this week but can’t wait to see what lies ahead for me on this adventure! 

Picture of me coiling up cable from the recovery of the SPMR profiler. 

*Photo taken by Peter Rogowski from Scripps Institute of Oceanography