Category: Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia

The bags are packed, the flight is booked, and the goodbyes have been said.  Its time to return to Seattle after being gone since July.  I’m somewhat sad of my departure but I know that good things are going to come along.  

My time on the R/V Savannah have been some of the best I’ve ever had.  I met some great people and got to help support amazing scientific goals.  It is an experience that I will never forget.  

While I haven’t had much luck on the job search so far, I have found a few marine technician positions to apply to…So hopefully in the near future I will be able to call myself an actual marine technician.  I am very glad I got to enjoy this awesome internship.

 

 

 

It is Thursday, Septemeber 25th.  We are currently three days into a two week long cruise off of the coast of Georgia and inside the local estuaries.  The mission of the current expidition is the same as the first cruise I went on as a marine technician intern.  In some ways its sort of fitting…to start and end my time as an intern with the same group of scientists.  Sadly this is the same group that I had to struggle to get to understand the basic concept of safe science.  

Luckily it seems like they have finally began to pick up on the fact that I’m not joking when I say hard hats, life vests, and closed toed shoes must be worn at all times when doing over the side opperations.  Or that when they are running the CTD that you must subtract at least 1.5m from the actually depth to ensure the package does not slam into the seafloor. 

While both of those are very concerning matters, I am currently focused on a much more stressful problem…why our SCSserver has decided to continously crash and bluescreen.  I have noticed that the SCSserver has been sopratically shutting itself down for the past week+.  Originally I thought it was John who shut it down while we were at dock (still sort of strange seeing we generally keep it running 24/7), however when it crashed on the first day of the cruise I realized that we have a much bigger problem on our hands. 

John’s inital fix was to change out the server power supply, thinking that a dying power supply was causing the problems…however the server crashed again that night.   After I did some researching on the blue screen codes, and asked some friends for help, we managed to narrow it down to a few possible issues.  While troubleshooting I attempted to do a restart where I pulled out the power cord and held the power button for 30 seconds.  By leaving the power unplugged for 5-10 minutes this would drain any remaining power from the motherboard and clear the NVRAM. When this solution didn’t work John took the server case off and reseated the ram sticks and cleaned out the fans to insure proper ventilation…however this also failed.  The next solution I tried was to do a system restore…this is done by holding F8 while powering it up…this would supposedly give me access to a menu where I could select “Repair Computer”….the problem is whoever originally set up the server did not enable the access of this command…Finally I went back to researching the error codes in hopes of getting more insight.  What I found was that one of the errors displayed had to do with a program called Sonic Solutions, which is pretty much a driver controling the DVD drive.  Supposedly the sonic solutions driver is known to cause blue screen errors when used on a Windows 2003 server (mini rant= Windows 2003 is no longer supported by Microsoft…so why in the world are we using such out dated software…all the important scientific software should be able to run on a newer server setup by now= rant over).  So after removing the Sonic solutions software I am currently waiting to see if the server crashes again.  Honestly I have a feeling it will…I have a feeling that the server is crashing for a mix of reasons not limited to the Sonic solution program and probably a corrupted hard drive….

 

Anyways….computers can be evil sometimes, but if my solution works and stops the crashing it’s going to be the best feeling in the world. 

*I appologize for any spelling errors.  The keyboard seems to be acting up (lagging response time/seems to hate certian keys)…

As of right now I am in the middle of another NOAA National Marine Fisheries cruise.  So far this cruisehas bee rather uneventful, with 0 Red Snapper presently caught.  However it is real exciting to see the scientists from the last cruise as well as some new faces.  Whilethis may be the current voyage I’m on I would like to focus on the unexpected events that unfolded before this cruise began.

As I metioned earlier,life always has a way of testing you.  In this case my test came from a last minute cruise put together during the two weeks of dock duty that I had.  Since it was the first time the crew has had so much dock time a few of them (including my Marine Technicin mentor) took some out of state vacations.  The problem with this is that when a las minute cruise cam around I became the fill in Marine Technician on th R/V Savanah. 

I must say that it was both a nerve wracking and thrilling experienceall at the same time.  On the day of the cruise I fired up our flow through system, prepped the CTD, and turned on the ADCP and echosounder.  I then spent time filling out the pre cruise log, noting which configuration files I was using, what our fleet broadband usage was, and what the goal of the cruise was.

Luckily this cruise was rather simple.  We were heading out off the coast to collect water from the niskan bottles, do some zooplankton net tows, and deploy an ADCP mooring package (all stuff that I have done before).  Yet of course things weren’t as simple as thy sounded.  When we reached the first station everything decided to go wrong at once…

When turned on and put over the side we discovered that the CTD was unresponsive…luckily I had seen this happen before on a previous cruise but it was still a total adrenalin rush/deer in the headlights situation.  The fix for this problem was to bring the CTD back on board and shut it off for about 30s before turning it back on again.  Essentially the handlers putting the CTD over the side accidentally turned the switch on- off- and back on again which seems to confuse the software. 

The next problem we discovered was that readings of the CTD water temp and salinity was different then the flow through SBE 21’s readings…and the chief scientist was using the flow through readings to choose his sample sites.  Since the water temp/salinity was too high we needed to find another site.  To fix this issue I had to turn off the flow through, put in the back up SBE 21 and then restart the system….luckily it worked great. (During this proccss I managed to crash the SCS system…)

The final problem I encountered was never solved…for some reason the echosounder readings in the bridge begin freaking out when ever the gyrocompass GPS starts acting up…I have to wait for the new GPS to be ordered before I can try and fix that issue…

Overall the trip went amazingly well after those first few hiccups.  I can say for sure that I love being a MarineTech and want to continue in this field. 

 

 

My current work list consists of:

• Ship data summary document (a document given to all scientists at the end of the cruise to help them navigate their raw data cd) – update document to reflect changes in file structure.
• ADCP Frame – Remove ADCP. Sand and paint frame with Anti-fouling paint.  (See picture above for awesome Apocalypse coustume aka sanding and painting gear)
• Shared-Use Equipment maintenance:
•                Grab Samplers – lubricate
•                Trawl bridle – make new bridle
•                NEUSTON net – Inspect and replace/retie line holding chain on
• Re-soak SBE 21/25 (using bleach/water solution) – vacuum bottom of canister (to remove debrie that can clog and distrupt sensors
• Finish updating wire log database (data recorded when J-frame is deployed)
• PC Cleaning – take apart and clean laptops as well as servers to optimize airflow
• CAT5 to Chief Scientist cabin – Pretty much we have had requests to permit internet access to the chief scientists room, which required us to make new cables and run them from the router/switch.  It was a good training in electrical work.

• Check Salinities on the two SBE 21’s in our possesion – we had just recieved a unit back from SeaBird that had been tested, so it was a requirment to make sure both of them had similar readings before installing the new unit.
• Pot Hauler maintencance – remove hauler, relube bolts to main sheave, reblube shackles on hauler and outer sheav, use abil wire to secure shakle pins
• Electrical wiring diagrams – using a computer software to convert handwritten electrical diagrams to cleaner computer based diagrams.
• Update PC log – Finding all of the computers on the ship and writing down basic information such as usernames/passwords/OS/RAM/Processor Speed/and Optical Drive.
• Updating NobleTec Chart Software – Making sure the Wheelhouse has the most up to date version of their navigation software to ensure safe passage during cruises
• And most importantly….putting tennis balls on the bottoms of all the chair legs….

 

Of course the work on a ship is never ending.  It seems as if every item on my list that I complete spawns two more things to do.  One of the most frustrating things currently is the fact my mentor is on vacation for the week…so while I am more the confident at my ability to complete all my tasks (and the new ones that pop up) I am also finiding myself stuck on some tasks because I would like to get his approval first.  Ohh well, in the meantime I will continue to finish my work list and help out the rest of the crew on their projects.  

So for this post I have decided to change up my writing style.  Since I really enjoy photography I figured it might be best to provide photos in order to give you an idea of what I get to see everyday versus writing a wall of text.

Overall my duty as a marine technician has remained the same for the current NOAA fisheries cruise I am deployed on.  The main differences between this cruise and the previous cruises is that I get to run the pot hauler to retrieve the fish traps that we set at each station.  Anyways…

 

As a marine technician you need to be prepared for a variety of weather conditions.  For the most part our cruise has been uneventful (with the exception of the first 3 days) and we’ve been able to enjoy the 1-2 ft sea state and the beautiful sunsets that come after an 80-degree day on deck.

However some days we have to suffer through pouring rain, thunderstorms, and high seas.  Yet even those days (where you are spending most of the time hoping you don’t vomit up your lunch while helping out the scientists) you can find those beautiful moments that make all the suffering worth it.  

For this particular cruise we spent the majority of our time off of the shelf of Georgia and near Daytona Beach, Florida.  The objective of this cruise was to collect data using fishery-independent sampling techniques, specifically by using chevron fish traps and underwater high-definition video.  The main fish that we were aiming to catch was the Northern Red Snapper, which is a prized food fish, caught commercially, as well as recreationally.  Red Snapper is the most commonly caught snapper in the continental USA making up almost 50% of total catch.  Overall we sampled a total of 142 stations with traps and underwater video (112 random, 11 opportunistic, and 19 recon) in Georgia and Florida over 10 days at-sea.  The weather was a little bumpy to begin our cruise, forcing us to forgo some sampling on the second day. Highlights of the cruise were 172 red snapper trapped, including a bunch of small red snapper around 200-300 mm total length.  A couple of videos likely had 30-40 red snapper visible. We also caught a small (3-kg) goliath grouper off Daytona Beach.  Catches of other species were light to moderate.  Video quality was very good, and the MARMAP group was able to record 80-90 GoPro Hero 3+ calibration videos for a hopeful switch to GoPro cameras next year.  I believe we will be donating around 300 lbs of fillets to the Salvation Army in Savannah.

For the most part I spent the cruise running the pot hauler to retrieve the traps, as well as standing watch, and working on instrument malfunctions.  Retrieving the traps was a three-step process.  First you had to grapple for the buoy lines. Once you pulled the buoys in and created enough slack you could attach the line to the pot hauler.  Lastly you had to pull the trap on board and dump the contents into a bucket.  

Step 1: Grapple buoy line

Step 2: Reel up trap using pot hauler  (and make bets on trap contents)

Step 3a: Stop the pot hauler with enough rope to allow scientists to pull trap onto deck.  Avoid reeling in too much or else you will screw up the block. 

Step 3a: Stop the pot hauler with enough rope to allow scientists to pull trap onto deck.  Avoid reeling in too much or else you will screw up the block. 

 

Once all of the traps are collected the science party will begin processing their catch.  Overall there were pretty much three different species that were consistently caught: Red snapper, Black sea bass, and Tomtate.

Since this cruise was focusing on red snapper all the specimens caught were processed.  The scientists took weight and length measurements, as well as otolithes (fish ear bones), DNA samples, Reproductive Organs, and Stomach content of the red snapper.  The other trapped fish were measure for weight and length, however depending on the species (I don’t remember the exact list) they may have gotten worked up more. 

Beginning the data collection process

Fish are sorted by species

Bucket full of Vermillion Snapper

Once all species are sorted the scientists take a species bucket and dump it into the laundry bucket to determine total mass

After being weighed the fish is measured.  The species shown here is a Red Snapper.

Depending on the species the fish may or may not get an extended work up.  In this picture the otolith (fish ear bone) is being removed.  

 

Usually the catches were generally similar (assuming there was actually something in the trap) however the best part of the cruise was when we found an unexpected species in our traps.

Remora aka Shark Sucker.  This species is generally found attached to sharks, turtles, large fish, or even the hulls of ships.

Short Bigeye- Generally not found in trap due to their habit of feeding at night and hiding during the day.

Reticulate Moray

Red Octopus

Salps- A planktonic tunicate that was wraped up in our trap

Unknown (to me) Eel

Golith Grouper

 

Since this was a fisheries cruise one could probably assuming that most of the science party members like to fish….that was garanteed this trip.  Every chance they got, either while steaming towards the next trap site or while anchored during the night, they would put their lines out.  I’m not going to lie….it was sort of contagious.  I’ve never been fishing before this cruise but with enough prodding I finally decided to cast out a line…and was instantly catching fish left and right.  It was awesome.  What made it even better (in my mind since I don’t eat seafood) was the fact anything we caught was being added to our dataset.  Overall we caught a lot of different fish.  While trawling we caught Dolphins, Barricuda, Little Tunny, a sailfish, and some sharks.  Bottom fishing had its own unique catches, mostly Snapper, Squirrelfish, Tomtate, Black Sea Bass, Sharks, and a Sea Robin.  Below are some of the pictures of everyone enjoying their free time fishing.

One of the scientists hooking a barracuda

Close up of barracuda

First fish I every caught – Snapper

Second catch – Snubnose shark

Squirrelfish

Red Snapper caught by one of the science party

Lizardfish caught by one of the science party

Tom Tate

Dolphin

Sea Robin

After taking our sediment samples the scientist Meg and I decided to build a sandcastle.  Must say it was a fitting way to end our cruise.  Photo by Sonia Brugger.

1^st Cruise

 

            During my first cruise I mainly spent my time learning as much as I could about the ship and the available science equipment.  This particular cruise was focused mainly on physical oceanography, which meant a lot of CTD casts as well as constant collection of ADCP and SCS data. 

 

            For those not familiar with oceanographic sampling equipment a CTD package (which stands for Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth) is a device that allows scientists to collect vertical profiles of the salinity (measured by the water’s conductivity) and temperature of the water according to depth as the package descends from the surface.  Depending on the scope of ones research there are also other instruments that can be attached to the CTD.  These include a transmissometer, which measures the amount of particulates in the water, a fluorometer that measures fluorescence as an indicator of plant life, a PAR sensor that measures the global solar radiation in the spectral band active for photosynthesis, and oxygen sensors that measure dissolved oxygen in the seawater.  In general research vessels deploy the CTD attached to a rosette.  The rosette is made up of a framework of sampling bottles (currently 9 – 8 liter bottles on the R/V Savannah, though some rosettes can house up to 36 bottles ranging from 1.2- 30 liters in capacity) affixed around a central cylinder.  With this setup researchers are able to signal the rosette to collect a water sample whenever they see properties from the CTD sensors that are of interest.  For example during the first cruise the scientists were specifically looking at salinity and oxygen gradients as the collected their water samples. 

 

 

            The second instrument that we used during the physical oceanography cruise was the ADCP, also known as the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler.  This device uses the shift in sound frequency to measure currents beneath the ship as it is underway.  Sound waves are sent from the ship and are bounced back to the ship’s receivers from particles and plankton in the water column.  The waves are then translated into a profile of water movement.  During our cruise we used both a 300 Khz  (first leg) and a 1200 Khz (second leg) ADCP.  The 300 Khz ADCP is the one that is generally kept in the well for cruises while the 1200 KHz is used mainly for shallow water research. 

 

 

            Shipboard Computer System, (SCS) a NOAA software, is a vital program for the research done on the R/V Savannah.  This program collects, process, displays, and achieves data from the navigational and scientific sensors aboard the vessel (essentially just taking data from multiple sources and combining it in one easy to use interface).  The two types of data logging supported by SCS include “continuous” data and “event” data.  Continuous data is data that is vital to safe navigation and I recorded and processed on a continuous/real-time basis.  Examples include information from the GPS, gyrocompass, water depth indicators, and meteorological sensors. Event data is recorded on an “as needed” basis.  The SCS can also derive data such as wind speed and direction.  Overall the SCS provides a vital summary of information including location, direction, water depth, vessel speed, atmospheric pressure, wind speed/direction, water temperature, and water salinity. 

 

Software requirements:

 

In order to be a successful marine technician one must accumulate an understanding of the different types of programs used to control the scientific instruments on board.  For the most part these programs are a staple on all research vessels (though versions may vary).  Examples of common software includes:

 

CTD

-Seaterm= Used to connect to and start/stop data logging for the CTD.

-SeaSave= Used to see the actual plots and data produced by the CTD.

 

SCS

-SCSMenu_v4.6.0= Used to access and visualize multiple sensor readings in an easy to use user interface.

 

ADCP

-WinRiver (Acquire)=Used to start/stop data acquisition from the ADCP and see the outputted data.

 

Navigation

-NobleTek=Used to see current location of the vessel overlaid on NOAA charts.  Also allows for the plotting of points (stations).

 

Overview of cruise

 

Overall the first cruise was very exciting.  While it was mostly physical oceanography (which can be a tedious subject to tackle data collection wise), I was still able to get exposure to different instruments.  These include a Van Veen sediment grab, a Microstructure profiler, a CTD, and a custom made device that essentially measured the optical properties of the surface waters.  We also recovered multiple buoys and moorings during this cruise…which turned out to be a rather difficult task.  In order to recover the moorings we had to grapple for the small surface buoy.  When we were able to snag it we quickly pulled it to the ship, all the time watching the line to make sure it wouldn’t go under the boat and get sucked into the propellers.  One of the crewmembers would pull the buoy up so there was enough slack in the line in order to tie it off to a cleat.  When they managed to do that I came in and cut off the zipties and undid the biofouled shackle (talk about lots of cuts if you aren’t wearing gloves),  for the buoy and the small microcat sampling device that was connected right under the buoy.  Once I had completed that task I pulled the buoy out of the way and we connected the line to our A-frame winch and pulled the mooring up.  Due to the materials and the way the moorings were constructed we had difficulty recovering some of them (frayed lines, etc) and had to call in a dive ops team to remark two of them.  Once the dive teams added a new marker buoy and line we successfully recovered the moorings. 

 

When it comes to difficulties during this cruise we had two main ones.  The first main problem was a generator crash that occurred during the second leg of the cruise.  This crash happened around 10pm during one of our triangle transects.  Luckily we weren’t in too shallow of water and were able to drop our anchor before our dead ship ran into the banks of the estuary we were working in.  While I missed the first two hours of the dead ship, I woke up around midnight and noticed the lack of lights….and air-conditioning.  The first thing that came to my mind was “Ohh ….! I need to check on the servers”.  I ran up to the pilothouse to make sure we were not just doing a pre-planned generator switch as we had done earlier in the day but was informed of the crash.  With this information I went back down to my lab and safely shut down the server and backed up all the data.  I really lucked out that the backup generator for the server didn’t fail (The first thing I was warned about by my mentor was the instability of our current backup generator).  Finally around 2am the crew was able to get the ship up and running again and I booted the server up.  While that crash was quite concerning it actually worked out for the best in my opinion.  It gave me very good experience of how to shut down/start up the servers as well as helping me fix a computer issue I had been dealing with earlier in the day (The SCS had stopped working on the pilothouse computers and the SCS server blue screened and router resets etc wouldn’t fix it…thinking back on it the variation in current that we had been receiving to the computers during the day may have been causing all the errors we were getting.). 

 

The second difficulty I had to deal with was the science party and their view on safety.  This is where tact comes into play.  One of the main issues I had during the cruise was having science members who would not follow directions or wear their safety gear while working on deck.  For the most part I was able to get the interns to follow the rules after pulling them aside and politely asking them…but the worst offender was the chief scientist and her technician.  For the life of me I could not get them to wear their hard hats or life vests while deploying the CTD.  It seemed that as soon as I talked to them about one thing (life vests) they would instantly start wearing that but not the hard hat.  By the end of the cruise I had gotten the C.S’s tech to start wearing his gear after refusing to allow him to do deployments (which was frustrating for me since I needed practice on the winch vs doing taglines for him). However the chief scientist would still not listen to me about wearing her hard hat until I brought the captain into the mix.  I really just don’t understand why it was so hard to wear the safety gear.  I even asked her why she refused to wear a hard hat, offering to get her a new one if the one she had been wearing was uncomfortable etc…

 

2^nd Cruise

 

The second cruise was at a much more “relaxing” pace when compared to the first cruise.  While the vibe of the first cruise could be compared the Hare from the story The tortoise and the hare, the second cruise was definitely the tortoise.  However even with our slow pace we still ended up finishing all the stations 2 days early.  

 

During this cruise I actually stood watch, which basically means 4 hrs on and 8 hrs off.  For this cruise I stood watch from 4am-8pm and 4pm-8pm.  For the majority I spent my time on watch piloting the ship and learning the basics of navigation, proper radio etiquette, and autopilot use.  I must say I absolutely loved being on watch and getting to help pilot the ship (on top of my normal duties).  I’ve even discussed with the captian about getting him to sign off on my sea time so I can take my steersman or 100 tonne exam.  

 As I finish my first week on the R/V Savannah I have quickly determined what I forgot while packing.  In actuality I figured it out the first day on the ship while digging through my suitcase, but over the course of the week I quickly realized I could live without the majority of the stuff I brought with me.  For some reason it is extremely nice to know I can live without the majority of the stuff I brought… though I wish I had discovered this sooner so I didn’t have to bring such a large bag.  In this blog I am just going to go over some items that I have found extremely useful during my trip thus far as well as the ways I have kept myself entertained after my watches. 

Clothing
-Extra Underwear
-Extra Socks
-Extra Shirts
-Boots and Sandals

When it comes to clothing I am very glad that I brought extras of socks and shirts.  I knew that I would probably get wet while working on the deck but the smell of dried saltwater, plus the stench of sweat (doesn’t matter how much deodorant you use…by the end of the day you’ll smell like sweat…it’s Georgia)…or dirty feet depending on the article of clothing.  It just sucks.  By having extra shirts and socks you don’t have to worry about changing in the middle of the day if you get too dirty.  As for extra underwear the purpose of that should go without saying…just bring it.  When it comes to clothing most research vessels have laundry machines on board however the number of times they can be run depends on the water level (also it seems that the science party seems to hog the machines most of the time…) Keeping this in mind I generally like to pack a week and a half’s worth of shirts/socks.  Personally I have no issue with re-wearing my work pants or shorts multiple times as long as they don’t smell so I generally pack less pants/shorts to save room. 

In terms of boots/sandals I believe it is best to have one pair of work boots (generally steel toed even if its not necessary) and a pair of sandals that you can wear while in the shower…cause who wants Athletes foot…. ewww.  I also brought a pair of running shoes with me for the times we are on shore or I’m on the plane.  It’s interesting to see the range of footwear you see on the ship, especially amongst the crew.  We currently have one crewmember on board who almost never wears shoes…he gets teased for it all the time but it’s still sort of amazing.  I guess if you spend enough time running around shoeless you get used to it.  Other than that it’s really common to see running shoes and while they are in the pilot house lots of sandals and Crocs. 

Utility
-Thumb drive
-Lighter
-Knife

I must say the thumb drive, lighter, and knife has been some of my most asked to borrow/use items.  All of them are extremely useful as most people forget to bring them.  For some reason it seems like most people in the science party forget about thumb drives and believe that emailing or burning a CD is the best way to transfer data…. internet connection is horrible on the ship and burning a CD is in my opinion a waste (most people I know have external hard drives if they are planning on large data transfers, so much quicker).  It’s also much easier to just use a thumb drive, especially if all they want are pictures that you’ve taken of their operations. 

While most people might find a lighter useless unless they are a smoker it can be a great way of breaking the ice with other crew and/or science party.  Since there are generally a few smokers on board it’s not that rare to be asked if you have a lighter and people generally remember if you were nice enough to let them borrow yours.  A lighter can also be useful when splicing. 

As a marine technician a knife can be extremely useful for multiple purposes.  In my case I generally used it to cut lines or zip ties during our mooring recoveries. 

Personal Stuff (Female Specific)

I personally don’t like to wear makeup while working with the exception of some lotion, but I did bring an eyeliner stick and mascara for use during the days I have at port.  In my totally biased opinion it’s probably best to keep the amount of makeup you bring to a minimum. 

Food
-Chocolate/Candy/Gum

This is another one of those icebreaker items.  It’s always nice to be offered candy/gum and generally works as a decent conversation starter for people like me (I’m really bad at finding topics to talk about…especially when you are sitting on watch at 2am in the morning). 

Recreation
-Laptop w/ music, videogames, books, movies

My suggestion when it comes to recreational items is to just bring a laptop and some thumb drives filled with music/games/books/movies/etc.  It’s much more efficient then packing hard copies of all the books you want.  Another good thing to remember is that most ships have their own DVD collections…I must say I am amazed at the current collection on the R/V Savannah, so many new movies which is awesome. 

Free Time

           So depending on your watch schedule you may sometimes be lucky enough to find a few minutes/hours to spend relaxing versus watching computer screens or operations going on.  In my case I have had a decent amount of free time due to the type of transects that our science crew is doing.  The chief scientist is essentially having us doing “triangle transects” which means the ship travels 200m, turns, goes another 200m, turns, and finally another 200m.  At that last point the ship will stop and the CTD will be deployed.  This repeats for 24+ hours…. you can imagine the excitement.  During the whole operation the ADCP is also running, so essentially we are trying to collect a time series of the water mass movement in the area of the transect.  I’m not really great at explaining the science that is being done so I apologize (Always fell asleep during my physical oceanography classes…oops). 
         Anyways, during my free time I have generally spent it learning about knots/rope work, marine navigation, Arduino microcontroller boards, and also all of the science that everyone is doing.  I know this might not sound like free time to some people since you are still learning and generally getting schooled…by everyone…I lost count of how many times one of the crew made me redo my splice, tad bit frustrating to do it wrong and have him take it apart and then correctly do it in seconds.  Or when I asked one of the scientists about his project over a game of cards (I essentially tried to regurgitate what he said to me about the triangle transects and I would say I miserably failed at conveying exactly what he is doing.)
        I highly suggest that anyone who is interested or plans to work on a ship (scientist, crew, or otherwise) learns how to do the basic knots and splicing.  Not only is it extremely useful but it can also be a good way to waste some time.  So far I have relearned the bowline (most useful knot ever…. in my opinion) and also learned how to do a basic splice.  I have also spent some time learning about marine navigation, mostly learning how to run the autopilot, use the radar, and proper radio communication.  Lastly I brought an Arduino microcontroller board with me.  Essentially I can write code and program it to do a whole bunch of different things (lots of people use Arduino boards for the ROVs or other small controlled robots) currently I have it set up so I can play an LED light game with it.  The goal of the game is to stop the light when it flashes green and each time you get it correct the flashes will get faster. 

Anyways, I have to get back to work.  Next week I’ll probably discuss the biology of Georgia seeing that we have seen a lot of cool critters and will be starting a new fishery related cruise. 

Personal Adjustments

       As a marine technician one is generally faced with many adjustments.  These can include things such as climate and time differences, but also larger changes such as the upheaval of ones regular schedule and living situation.  As a MATE intern one of the easiest adjustments I had to make revolved around the time and temperature changes.  As mentioned in my previous blog I generally live in Seattle, Washington.  What this means is that I am accustomed to rather mild weather.  Summers are generally in the 70s-80s (though the week that I left we had a heat warning due to the consistent 90 degree days…I know some people will be laughing at this, but for some reason Washingtonians don’t know how to deal with 90 degree weather).   Winters are also relatively mild, usually in the 40s-50s with plenty of rain.  Similarly to the 90-degree days when the occasional snow shows up everyone freaks out.  I should also mention one more thing…. there really isn’t such a thing as “humidity” in Washington., every once in awhile we have a “humid” day…but its rare.  Then there’s Georgia.  Honestly I have loved Georgia so far, but one thing is for certain, it is much hotter and I was pretty sure the humidity was going to be the death of me that first day.  Luckily ones body can adjust to climate changes relatively quickly and I was fine by the day we left. 
        The second small change that I will quickly address is one of time differences.  This is another change that your body can adjust to relatively quickly, however it is still strange to jump 2 hours ahead of time.  For my flight to Georgia I left at midnight Seattle time before arriving at Chicago O’hare airport at 7ish am Chicago time before finally arriving in Savannah Georgia at 11 am Georgia time.  I can definitely say I was jet lagged even with such a short time change, it probably didn’t help that I never seem to be able to sleep on planes. 
      The last topic I’d like to address is the separation of marine technicians (as well as crew members etc) from their families.  While researching this position one of the most common negativities that I heard was the loneliness that came with the job.  Many marine technicians and crew are separated from their wives/husbands/kids for days to months etc.  After awhile this can cause a toll on their relationships.  While most are able to handle it it still is something to consider if you want a career on a ship.  While I do not have this particular issue (no kids etc) I can imagine that it would be tolling after awhile. 

Scientific Adjustments

     In the scientific community there is one thing for certain…. it doesn’t matter how fool proof your plan may be…. things happen.  Going into this internship I have been lucky to have a good scientific background with a double major in oceanography and aquatic and fishery sciences.  This is nice since I am able to pick up on the research that is being done much quicker then I might have without this background.  Since my background is in the marine sciences I am also familiar with a decent amount of the scientific instruments in use by the current science party (or at least understand the deployment mechanism if I don’t understand the actual data). 
       When it comes to the relationship of scientists and the marine technicians I always remember the description our Intro to Oceanography professor gave us on our first day cruise; “Marine technicians are there to translate the science parties demands in a way that will make the ships crew not want to murder them.  This includes telling the scientists straight up if their plans will not work [due to limited equipment, ship capability, weather/time constraints, etc] and how to adjust their ideas.  As you can imagine scientists that are limited on ship time and by budget constraints do not like hearing that they cannot collect the data that they would want/need.  “  Overall my classmates and I gained an understanding that while we may get disappointed if we are told our original plan may not work we needed to remember that the marine technicians were there to keep us and our equipment safe and if you ask they will more then likely be willing to help you come up with an alternate plan for your data collection. 
      With this mindset I went into my internship knowing that things would most likely go wrong and that I was there to make sure that science could still be done.  So far during this cruise things have been going relatively smoothly.  The main issues we have faced revolve around the CTD as well as a device use to collect ocean optical data, which we nicknamed “the donut”.  For the CTD we have had random misfires, where the niskan bottle will fire yet the bottom plug will not set all the way resulting in the bottle draining as soon as its out of the water.  While this is generally just a random occurrence with no particular fault my mentor and I are currently taking off the niskan bottles one by one to adjust the way the bottles are cocked.  This may not help the setting issue but it will surely make it easier to cock the bottles while prepping for a CTD cast.  The second issue we’ve had on this cruise so far is the “donut”.  I have included a picture of the device.  Overall it is merely an intertube with a Pelican case cooler with electronics attached in the center.  Coming out of the pelican case are two pvc pipes, one enters the water and measures the optics at the surface and the other points upwards to measure the amount of sunlight hitting the device.  When we first deployed the device it did not have enough weight to successfully float away from the ship by itself, so we had to “bump it” by turning on the thrusters.  However the lack of weight also made the device prone to flipping if the bump wave was too big and the lines weren’t taught.  So of course during one deployment the device flipped.  Luckily we were able to retrieve it and none of the electronics had gotten wet.  To make the device more stable we decided to attach a weight to the wooden board on the bottom of the device.  So far this has worked out great. 

Conclusion

     Overall I am still having a blast.  The crew and science party has questioned me multiple times as to why I would ever want to do this job.  The funny thing is as more days pass I’m starting to clarify why I want to be here, and what it comes down to is adventure.  At this point in my life I have multiple job opportunities that I can pursue, but I really don’t want another old lab position where you might get the funding to do one research cruise a year.  I love being on the water and working on ships too much.  By working as a marine technician intern I not only get to meet new people but I get to constantly learn about new science and explore new places.  I know the good always comes with the bad, but I think I am willing to deal with that.