I spent some time before on the R/V Roger Revelle and it was an amazing experience. I recall thinking that the Marine Techs have a “pretty sweet gig”. I am thrilled to dust off my prior SONAR equioment knowledge from having been a SONAR Technician in the Navy and apply it to this sweet gig. Also, highly excited for 5 weeks of delicious cuisine on one of the newest research vessels. I feel like I have all of the luck right now and I’m grateful.
Category: MATE Blog Archive Page 47 of 89
Posts that were imported from the historical MATE blog at marinetech.org
We have reached the final station of the cruise. Our plan is to sit tight and sample here for the next day or so, then make our way back to Seattle. With only a few days to go, the chief scientist loses his balance during a roll and tumbles headfirst into the steel doorway of the ship. Todd sees him take the fall and is by his side in an instant. We head for shore.
We all sit around the galley, John in the corner with a towel pressed on his wound, and trade head injury stories to pass the time. Turns out, every decade or so, John hits his head. It’s been fifteen years since the last one, so he laughs and says he was overdue. The guy has had dozens of staples in his head, and by the end of the day, he will have nine more.
After an injury occurs, there is a twelve hour window for stitches. We are due in Neah Bay at 0200, leaving just four hours to get John to the nearest hospital. It takes the whole team, both on shore and at sea, to make arrangements to dock in Neah Bay, get a shoreside crew member to drive from Seattle to the peninsula to pick John up at the dock, make the bumpy back road drive to Port Angeles, find a hospital, seek treatment, get breakfast, and get John back on board at 0900. By some miracle, it all comes together, and we are off again.
Our last day on board is spent navigating among the San Juan Islands. The water is clear and green as sea glass. We glide past cliff sides covered in evergreens above and mussels below. With the underway pumping system chugging away on its own, the entire crew and science party are out on deck, taking in the smooth seas and sunlight. At slack tide we make it to Deception Pass, Todd tells me of the insane currents he has encountered here, and of the time he once flooded a fishing boat trying to make it through at the wrong tide. But the water is calm enough right now, and as we coast along we wave to the onlookers standing on the bridge above, who eagerly wave back. Sunset hits as we head south on a run behind Whidbey Island. The Cascades and clouds turn pink as our cruise comes to an end.
With the HABCAM (and my pride) recovered, we remained in the Nantucket Sound area while the science party assessed the damage to the vehicle. There was little external physical damage, thanks to the monster steel frame the vehicle sits in. Over the next few days, we would dredge while the vehicle was repaired. I assisted in the retermination of the cable for the third time since the start of my internship – a process involving many finely detailed steps, including the use of a sort of “chinese fingertrap” to push the fire optic cable into the wire clevis. Even with the cable repaired, it was determined that the fiber optic connection needed work since the cable had been sheared off. So, just as soon as we had left, we returned to Wood’s Hole for the science tech team to get some shore side support. Little did we know that even greater obstacles were waiting.
After more maintenance on the slip ring that integrates fiber optics into the towing cable, we were set to depart again. Only this time, our window of opportunity began to shrink as a low pressure system developed, threatening bad weather. Though a seagoing ship and capable of withstanding some wind and seas, it is generally dangerous to tow in such conditions and would have made for a long, uncomfortable, and risky towing operation to be out in the weather, so the plan was modified. We wouldn’t be out long enough for this to be of concern however, ass everal hours into returning the HABCAM to the water the vehicle would lose all power and data output. Recovering it from the water, it was determined that an internal fuse had blown, requiring another visit to lovely Wood’s Hole.
During our stay, the weather in the Atlantic would rapidly deteriorate, shrinking our window of available tow time. The HABCAM was returned to fully functional status, but the high winds barred us from returning back to sea. So it was, that the third and final leg of the annual scallop survey ended on a note of caution and appreciation for the many variables, good and bad, that may appear when engaging in ocean research.
So, without a HABCAM in tow for me to find uncharted rocks with, I am free to return to the bridge as we navigate the vessel back to its home port of Lewes, DE. A new, shorter 3 day mooring trip awaits us, and will be the last operation for my MATE internship.
Hello all,
This week had a roller coaster of ups and downs with the greatest up being the recovery of the HABCAM but getting it to work properly was harder than expected. Unfortunately, we may have got it working, we didn’t end up using it again. Not enough time was allotted to make use of the HABCAM once all the issues were corrected. We continued with a few more dredge sites, but they were mostly ones that we either skipped due to a sand wave bottom, flips or hangs. Basically, we ran out of time for HABCAM and sites for dredging. With extreme issues, comes extreme learning as I have found out.
To bring it back, on Sunday of 6/9, we were finishing up some more dredges before steaming back to the location of the HABCAM. The divers were going to meet us there around 1300, do some sonar scanning to pinpoint the HABCAM location. My watch with Huxley had two dredges on the first watch and four on the second. These areas were added stations along the eastern side of Cape Cod. The contained many clams and mussels. The bags were very full and needed to be shoveled to dump the dredges. This made the dredge process take an extra forty-five minutes and covered the entire table before sorting. That morning, I was running into a wall. I just wanted to give up, but I came here to learn and perform tasks. My will power was tested, sleep deprived and all. I made it through until the next day, the important day of this week. The best part of the week after all we’ve been through.
Monday was the day that we recovered the HABCAM! The morning was mostly just steaming, Huxley and I made use of our time to do regular rounds around the boat again. When I woke up, the sorting table had been rigged to pull up the HABCAM with a manual winch winder so that when the rope was pulled up, we could use the tugger to get it on board. We arrived on site around 1100, but the divers didn’t until 1300. They took their time scouting out the area with their sonars for a few hours. Then the divers went in, tied of a line at thirty-seven meters with a float. We backed down on the float, hooked her and pulled her on to the tugger. The most stressful part was over, next came the pull up on the tugger. With Tim North’s (Chief Engineer) experience, it came up without a hiccup. Once on the dredge ramp, a few adjustments were made with the trawl winch and the tugger winch. Eventually, the HABCAM was brought on board. Then, we moved it to the deck near its normal location on the port side. We found out from the divers that we hung up on a massive rock, who would have though a rock? Next, a few quick checks to see if it powered on; to everyone’s enjoyment, it did in fact power on. Now a full diagnostic was needed to see if they could re-terminate to the fiber optic cable at sea. They would give themselves eight hours to try and fix it, then we would go back to Woods Hole for their better equipped shore support. This decision was made on my off time, but the decision was made to go back.
Tuesday was the day of traveling back; the AM watch was mostly just steaming. An easy watch after having basically a week of nonstop dredging. On my second watch, we arrived at Woods Hole around 1200. Most of the work done for this watch was tying off the boat at port. I helped Christian on shoreside by getting the boat tied off to the cleats on land. After tying off, the engineers and scientist from NOAA came aboard to diagnose issues with the HABCAM. It took until 1700 before they were confident that it would work again. The personnel that came aboard had left shortly afterwards with the termination to be done while steaming back to where we left off. It took until the next day before we one, at location and two, ready to deploy it again. Another up for us.
Wednesday was the day where we finally put the HABCAM back into the water. It wasn’t until 0300 where the termination was completed, and a load test was initiated at 5000 pounds just like the first time it was terminated. The termination passed without a problem; it took some time though due to one of the shackle nuts not screwing in. Afterwards came the painstaking process of reattaching the termination to the HABCAM. This was only an issue because the cotter pin was not going on very easily. Once everything was together, another test was performed, and it was good to deploy. Huxley, Andy and I deployed it without a problem around 0500, so it was soon for bed. For our second watch, I found myself gearing up for more dredging. What happened? The possibility that a fuse blew on the main can caused a failure in data acquisition and could only be fixed when at port. The decision was made to do a few last stations, seven, then head back for hopefully one day on Friday. Thursday would have been a day for fixing it, but the weather would have been poor so departing was delayed. The areas that we had to dredge were left over sites, which unfortunately were the locations of where we got many rocks. Huxley and I only made it through three dredges before our off watch. We did find many rocks and scallops though, which was a nice end to our dredges. They weren’t even too heavy either.
Thursday was an easy day for sure. The first watch was mostly just steaming back to Woods Hole to fix the HABCAM again. The weather was expected to be pretty poor so we wouldn’t have been able to leave again until Friday morning at the earliest if everything went well. It was determined that we would not be able to leave Friday so the scallop trip ended one day early. Huxley and I most relaxed for once after all the shoveling we’d been through. Finally arriving, Christian and I tied off the boat once more around 0500 on the shore side with Shaun and Huxley feeding us tag lines. A few shore side scientist came aboard around 0900 to get started on fixing the HABCAM. It was eventually fixed, but no one knew if we would be leaving again the next morning. The plan was to take it easy on all of us and get off the boat for a few hours. Around 1800, we, as in the crew and science team, made our way a few restaurants. I mingled with the different science members as per usual at this point. We all had fun as it would turn out to the last day for them to be aboard the ship.
On Friday morning just before breakfast, it was determined that we would not be setting sail with the HABCAM. I guess the science team figured it wouldn’t be worth going out for six hours of HABCAM. It would have been a twelve-hour round-trip steam and they only had the boat until Saturday morning. The arduous task of unloading the boat was the main concern from then on. Unloading the three dredges, HABCAM, getting both ramps unbolted and securing all the deck items was everything that needed to be done for the science team to be on their way. For the crew, we would leave to go back to Lewes, DE after dinner. We set sail shortly thereafter and a thirty-one hour steam was underfoot. Since there was no science team aboard, the four of us could be on the same watch to get the major cleaning done on Saturday. With that being said, we all went to bed for an early morning of cleaning.
Saturday, the day of cleaning! The key areas to clean are the dry-lab, vestibule, below deck state rooms, life jackets, the wet-lab fridges, and the tool room floor. Shaun and Huxley tackled the state rooms first, while Christian and I handled the dry-lab. The dry-lab was an easy clean it just took some time as the floor had tiny blue rubber mats with holes to allow dirt to get off shoes. This covered the entirety of the lab so we had to pull them up in sections, sweep and mop. Then there came the wiping of the benches which was a very easy task. The two of us then went to the fridges. The two fridges in the dry-lab contained scallop meat for continued science testing, but it left a very rank fish smell when opened. Therefore, a thorough cleaning was in order with a product called ‘Simple Green’. It took a couple times of cleaning for the smell to go mostly away. Shortly after we started cleaning the life vest. More Simple Green was used in this process and hung them up to dry. Shaun and Huxley were taking out the vestibule mats and cleaning the floor with, you guessed it, Simple Green. The last main task was the tool room. All four of us were working to clean it up. It seemed it hadn’t been cleaned in some time. All said and done, the boat was looking, Sharp. The rest of the steam for that day was mostly catching up on work or relaxing. We all could get some sleep finally and be up early to get the boat tied off in Lewes. A bittersweet end to the scallop survey, but I at least have one more week on the Sharp with a quick turn around for a quick two-day cruise with the Office of Naval Research.
This week has been full of ups and downs, laughs and pain. I never realized how much hard work could go in to protecting different species of economic value. I’m glad to have been a part of this even when major issues came up, that being the lost HABCAM. If anything could go wrong, it definitely did, but everyone was very professional about it and solutions were made. I hope to keep that adaptability with me as I progress myself.
Best,
-Sebastian D.
Hello all,
Back at it again with some more dredging. Back breaking, sure, rewarding, definitely. I couldn’t imagine the people that do this every year. This is Huxley’s third year; he doesn’t seem scared off as of yet. There must be something to all the hard work we are doing that makes him come back for more.
For this week, much fog and wind were a constant theme. I never really knew were the sun was, the time of day, or how long of rest I would have. When the dredge was down, we had a max of 15 minutes before the process of bringing up the dredge and much time to shovel it all out depending on the load. It’s amazing that even during summer, we can be cold, wet and foggy. Still we had to press on until getting back to Woods Hole for a crew and science change.
On Sunday (6/2), we continued the process of dredging again. We seem to have gotten it down to three to four dredges a watch, with a total of twelve to sixteen dredges a day. There would occasionally be flips, where the dredge would flip over and just be dragging along the bottom. We would therefore have to retow it or drop the sight all together. Another difficulty would be what we call a hang; this involves where sand waves are present on the bottom and the dredge rams into it causing it to get stuck. The boat then has to back down onto it and then pull it up. The unfortunate effect from this is its mostly a sand cast and will need to be retowed or dropped. At this point, there is a hierarchy of suck when it comes to the contents of each dredge. First comes rocks, then mud, sand, sand dollars, mussels, and everything else. They are basically a result of how heavy each shovel amount are in them.
On 6/3, we continued to dredge. A total of four dredges for the first watch and four for the second watch. The temperature continued to be cold and foggy with a breeze; good thing we had foul weather gear on. Some of these dredges contained many mussels and barely any scallops. A total of five were found on the first dredge of the morning watch. We did have a hang dredge, which usually means sand and a lot of it. You could construct a beach volleyball court with all the sand. Somehow, many scallops were captured in it. Two CTDs were performed with me working the computer and radio.
A CTD is a useful set of instruments and equipment to acquire various at depth variables as well as water samples. The one in use on the R/V Hugh R. Sharp is the SeaBird 9 plus, a standard package for water sampling. It contains a rosette of Niskin bottles to acquire water, salinity sensor, temperature senor, depth senor using a digiquartz instrument, oxygen sensor, and fluorescence for biomass. To prep the CTD, we setup a new file on the SeaBird Seasave software, remove the caps from the sensors, open the Niskin bottles, and radio to the bridge that we are good to cast. The method for casting is unique to the Sharp due its hands-off casting. It has a mechanical arm that pulls the CTD up into it and cast it down over the starboard side. Once in the water, we start the pumps and have it set five meter from the bottom. If the science team needed a water sample, we would fire three bottles at the start of the mixed layer of all the variables. Then we would bring it up to the surface and secure it down. The last thing is to do post processing of the data and flushing the pumps and bottles. A great system to gather in-situ water quality variables for various scientific research. Many of these have been cast, and many more will continue to be cast, usually one or two a watch.
On 6/4, for the first watch, we complete a total of three dredges. The worst one was the one with the mud; mud is very stuck together making it difficult to shovel, plus when the science team sorts everything, it takes much time due to many tiny organisms that inhabit it. The last dredge had some interesting organisms, a few large female lobsters, which we promptly put back, a couple octopuses, but not many scallops. On the second watch, we were steaming back into Woods Hole for a science change a couple of crew change, mainly an engineer, chef, and a mate. I assisted with tying off the boat on the shore and getting the gangway on board. We started with the stern, then bow and lastly the spring line (middle). Tomorrow, we will be gathering food and having an easy day. My father lives near here in Falmouth, so it will be nice to see him for a few hours.
In the morning (6/5), after breakfast, the HABCAM was worked on by the science team’s technicians and engineers. I helped by getting food with the new chef Hunter, Christian, and a NOAA employee, Nancy who was on the first leg. A few hour later with a full minivan of grocery items, we head back to the ship. After unloading everything and putting all the groceries in their place, I made plans to meet with my father, his girlfriend and my sister. We had lunch a local place then went to his house for a few hours. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay late as we were leaving again early in the morning, around 0500. A great day to see him as it was the first day that was not completely foggy and cold. Later on, we will have perfect weather for the next step of HABCAM and dredging. I will let in on some foreshadow, but the HABCAM will have a major issue tomorrow, but the weather will hold out regardless.
On 6/6, time to steam out again around 0900 due to the HABCAM being worked on to make sure everything powered up and worked properly. I assisted with the removal of the tag lines and secured the rails. The next location was a six-hour steam to Georges Banks. At this point, I switched watches with Shaun to back with Huxley. Now I’m working on the 0000-0600 and 1200-1800 shift. Now was time for bed. The second watch of the day was pretty easy, Huxley showed me how to conduct the weekly oil check looking for areas that could potentially contain leaky oil. I found multiple locations of open spaces under the deck for possible oil. We check the engine room, auxiliary room, winch and propeller room. All looked to be good. Afterwards, we finally sent the HABCAM back into the water around 1700 just in time for dinner and bed.
The major issue has sprung up right before our watch for 6/7. To the great dismay of the science team and the crew, around 2230, the HABCAM was unfortunately disconnected from the cable at 36 meters a few miles from upper Cape Cod. This being the most dreaded result from all of us. When Huxley and I awoke, we were calmly told by Christian that we had lost the HABCAM. It seemed very peculiar how calm everyone was at this. The ship was doing loops using the echosounders to locate the possible location of the HABCAM. Since the HABCAM is a very expensive set of equipment, it is most dire to locate it. When making many passes, there was a pretty good change that we found it located next to a twelve meter long by seven meter high object located at a depth of 36 meters, possibly a rock or uncharted wreck. We could see the HABCAM due to it being metal, it showed up as a high density object that is yellow as opposed to the benthic habitat being red. The HABCAM also had an acoustic pinger which we tried to locate using the Teledyme Benthos DRI-267 Dive Ranger with the ACU-266 surface attachment. Huxley held it over the starboard side next to the CTD. The ACU-266 started pinging a depth and a direction. We were not 100% certain because we wanted to make a few more passes at daylight, but a pretty good idea of its location was confirmed. For the rest of the night, the only thing Huxley and I did was do the monthly safety rounds for emergency lights. It was a bummer that the HABCAM was lost and on the first day of Leg III. There were talks of getting a commercial dive team to locate it and attach a line for us to recover it. This has not been the first time it was lost; a few years ago, it was lost in deeper water which took the use of an ROV to recover. Since this location is within diving restraints, it could be done within a few hours. The next logical step would be to continue on, but instead of HABCAM, we would do all the locations for dredging. The second watch had us start to continue dredging to my dismay. At this point everyone was getting battered by the dredging process, I was hoping for at least a couple of days break, but pushing through was all we could do. We ended up completing three dredges this time, one with mud, one with many heavy rocks, and the last being relatively light compared to the previous two. Right after the rock load was emptied, a pod of seven humpback whales were sighted. I finally had the opportunity to see whales in the wild. What a sight to see. I wish I had taken pictures of this awesome sight. Everyone on deck stopped to enjoy the sight. On the last dredge, a few dolphins were also spotted, and we acquired lots of scallops. I also got word that the dive team will be able to come on Monday to tie a line to it given that our site location is correct.
For 6/8, we somehow managed to get through ten dredges between both watches and two CTD cast. One of the dredges was even flipped, but we pushed through with five each watch. Most of the dredges were easy compared to ones with rocks. Apparently, these locations on the north east end of Georges Banks contains less rocks which is a relief. They tended to contain many sand dollars which at this point became very easy. The majority of the task for the sorting from the science team. They were slower than normal because many more small organisms like the sand lance were hard to find. Some baby cod, a few monk fish, and many small flounder were found. All in all a much easier time than the day before.
Another week completed on this adventure at sea. The toils of the sea were realized when we lost the HABCAM. Anything that can, will go wrong when in the unforgiving sea. Everyone was being professional when these issues struck. I’m seeing firsthand how being able to cope with change when at sea is a very important characteristic because we really don’t know what will happen. We don’t know everything that’s below the sea making much harder to plan for everything that could go wrong. Even the dredging has its toils when flipped or hung because of the mixture of boat speed, winch length, and benthic topography. The crew has experienced a great number of issues over their long careers so coping with them seems to be practically flawless. I hope to take this mindset with me as my future career is opened up.
Best,
-Sebastian D.
This cruise, so far, has been quite eventful. After beginning our journey back North, we decide to turn up the Columbia River and head inland. The transition to calm water is a relief, and I am happy to have a break, however brief, from the constant rocking and rolling of the boat. A few miles upriver, we decide to lift up the boom that has been deployed over the side of the boat for a quick inspection. As the crane lifts the end of the pole up, it bends and snaps in half.
Either end of the boom was anchored by cables at the bow of the ship, which left the length subject to the weight of our forward momentum and the ocean’s waves, allowing it to bend like the flex of an archer’s bow as it is drawn. Over time, at the center of the pole, the aft end of a welded joint began to split, until only a sliver, about an inch long, was left holding it together. We had caught it just in time.
As a testament to the strength of the team here at UW, it takes us twelve hours to find a dock, find a welder, take the whole thing apart, fix it back up, and put it all back together. By one in the morning, the only thing stopping us from going back to sea is the tide. We wait till morning.
We depart the Columbia with the ebb, with the aim of surveying the river effluent as it mixes into the Pacific. As we skirt the edge of the river plume, the water changes back and forth from a muddy turquoise to a deep, clear blue. The salinity jumps between 20 to 30 parts per million, which brings the science party unbelievable excitement. They have renamed our mission “Plume Chasers” and insist that we’re the next big Discovery Channel hit. We follow its track South until all traces of the river disappear and all that’s left is endless salty blue ocean.
I awake the next morning to Brian knocking at my stateroom door. I hear him say “orcas” and I am up on deck before my eyes are even open. A pod of about a dozen whales rides in our wake. They surface, one or two at a time, and then all together at once. A few juveniles breach and playfully rub against the adults. Farther behind, a massive dorsal fin rises slowly from the sea and a dark body with two white eye patches emerge, pointed directly towards us. It must be the alpha male, taking up the rear of the pack. Words cannot describe the sense of wonder I feel. I have never interacted with animals this large before, and my heart jumps with waves of nerves and excitement. For a moment, I am no longer the apex predator, and I feel as if I am being preyed upon. Watching the family move with coordination and intention, it becomes clear that these animals are highly intelligent. I am completely overcome with admiration for these creatures, and I am reminded that the ocean is truly a humbling place to be.
Hello all,
Wow, what a week! I’ve definitely been put to the test with endless amounts of dredging. Who would have thought that dredging would be back breaking work. From the moment you wake up to the moment you sleep, dredge, dredge, dredge. Nothing but eat, sleep dredge, repeat. I’ve never been worked so consistently as this, with 6-on and 6-off, all you want to do it sleep. I couldn’t imagine doing 12 hours straight.
Let’s begin where I left off. Sunday and Monday (5/26-27), more of HABCAM. I’m realizing now, I haven’t explained what the HABCAM is or does. Since, I didn’t do much on my side, I probably should explain it. The HABCAM is a metal vehicle, equipped with a multitude of sensors, such as fluorimeter, altimeter, sonar, side-scan sonar, temperature and salinity probes, two cameras, and four strobes for the cameras. This system is used to take pictures of the benthic environment, processed for color and then annotated by the science team. This is a less invasive approach to estimating scallop populations then dredging, which I’ll get to later. The science team annotates for fish, rays, skates, and scallops. Since each image has a depth from the bottom using the altimeter, the relative size of the scallop can be estimated from the field of view. Thousands of images are taken and subsequently thousands are annotated by the science team. This system is pretty sensitive due to the type of cables that are used, mainly fiber optics, meaning the ends of the cable need to not have any pinch points of the 10 micrometer glass fibers could break and no information can be transmitted from vehicle to server. Issues have been continual with the HABCAM from the sonars not working properly, to strobes going out, to even camera loss. Some issues like the cameras has been fixed on and off, but the strobes have yet to be corrected. To get decent images, the HABCAM should hover around 2.0 m off the bottom. Since the benthic topography is variable, the science team has access to wire in and wire out to keep it in the sweet spot. As they say, its like playing a delicate game of the claw from an arcade. The only difference is the vehicle is much more expensive than a one-dollar toy. Occasionally, it will crash briefly on a sand bank, but it always recovers immediately. Once the images are annotated, post processing needs to be done on land to then estimate population, in tandem with the dredging.
Later in the day around noon on Tuesday (5/27), we arrived in Woods Hole, MA where most of the NOAA survey team are based out of. For this leg, it will be mostly a refueling mission, but work on the HABCAM will also take place. I’ve been to Woods Hole in the past as a tourist, so being on the research side here was a dream come true. We tested out two pumps, one gas powered, the other electrical. Although, I was told, if we bring on enough water to use either pump, we have bigger problems. I hope we never actually have to use them. Both worked like a charm, the electrical one, was way stronger than I expected with water shooting four feet up. Shortly thereafter, time for a needed break in Cape Cod. A few of the crew went on out to the local wing house for wings of course. We didn’t stay out very late due to needing to get out early in the morning.
On Wednesday (5/28), we shipped out later than expected around 1500. This mainly had to due with trying to troubleshoot the issues with the HABCAM such as the strobes, sonar and fiber optics. Our next test sight was 10 hours away to dredging. We checked our surface monitoring system and echosounder, everything checks out.
On Thursday (5/29), the day has finally come to start a mass of dredging. After breakfast, Christian and I had about an hour until all hell broke loose. We had to tie down the HABCAM with rachet straps and pull enough slack cable to not get hung up when the A-frame payed out. Then we had to reconnect the Starboard winch to the dredge with a shackle.
Soon we were in position and ready for our first cast. On went our foul weather bibs, steel toe deck boots, gloves, work vest, and helmet. We quickly went outside for some good ol’ fashioned hard work. The dredge needed to be disconnected from the tugger and up went the dredge, then went down to the specified depth from the science team. After 15 minutes or so at the bottom it came up.
This is the choreographed part of the dredge that takes much time. First, we need to hook the dredge on ramp with the tugger and two lifting straps. Once its on board and pulled as far as it can, we hook a lock chain to it. A scientist then removes a small device that test for pitch, roll and temperature. Then the straps come off and hook the tugger to the bungee/cable on the center winch block on the A-frame. Then we feed the tugger and pull the bungee to get the cable over and hook it to the chain on the back end of the dredge. The dredge goes up to dump its contents, in which Christian and I shake it down with rakes. Then, the end goes down and we pay in the tugger to get the bungee/cable through the winch and free up the tugger. Lastly, we remove the lock chain and the dredge goes back down the ramp where we secure it was some tag lines. All of this takes about ten minutes; quick to learn, but you should go fast. I had to keep jumping over this rock ramp to get to my station on the starboard side. I always fear of falling in at this point, but I’m secure in my abilities to keep me going.
The fun part begins with shoveling the pile of benthic organisms to the sides of the table for sorting by the scientist. Anything from scallops (the main thing we’re looking for), rays, skates, sand dollars, crabs, hermit crabs, flounder, hake, starfish, shells and many more. Everything needs to be sorted with a majority being in the category of “trash.” All invertebrates have a separate category by species.
Once all the species were sorted, and the science team has moved all their baskets and buckets into the science van, Christian and I would clean the deck of all excess debris. Christian on the hose and I on the brush, moving all the critters back into the sea. The first couple of dredges were very light with maybe a couple scallops. Our first watch we had enough time for three dredges. Then it was off the bed, leaving Shaun and Huxley with the CTD cast and more dredging.
For the next couple of days, all we would do is wake, eat, dredge, repeat. Boy what a time to be alive.
On Thursday, today was very eventful, but also very tiresome. For both watches we did nothing, but dredge, dredge, dredge. A couple of CTDs were sprinkled in, which is very simple. To cast, we would prime the Niskin bottles, take off the cap to the fluorescence, remove the syringe from the pumps filled with Milli-Q water, remove the safety chains, turn the deck box on and start recording. We would signal to the bridge that we were ready, and by using the Knudsen, explain what depth to submerge it. As it is put in the water, the pumps would start, and we would lower it to five meters to remove bubbles and back to the surface to go down again. Christian and I would watch the graphs with salinity, temperature, fluorescence, depth, and oxygen. When recovering it, the bridge would pull it from the water, with Christian and I securing the safety chains, cover the fluorescence, and fill the pumps with Milli-Q water. After the scientist got a water sample, we would re-cock the Niskin bottles and rinse with freshwater. Lastly, we processed the data from the cast using a script that gives us a smooth graph that’s adjusted for ranges and shows only the up-cast.
After four more dredges for dredging on the first watch and three on the second, the day was over. This was a day of eat, sleep, dredge, repeat. We did see some interesting creatures along the way like a torpedo ray that has electrical discharge of 400 volts to kill fish, which is crazy. I learned how to shuck scallops, which turns out to be quite easy. You have to run a knife along the body until it pops open, then remove the skirt by pushing it up over the meat. Then cut off the meat into a pale. Boy did we have many scallops for some of these dredges. The last one before bed had six or so baskets. We only ever had enough time to do maybe one full basket. From what the other watch told us, they didn’t have very many scallops, mostly trash.
For Friday, we finished up the last bit of dredging before a couple of days of HABCAMing. When it was pulled up, it was a crazy full. It has not yet been this full since starting. All the way to the brim full of sand dollars. Amazing how much could fit into it. Someone suggested it could hold 2000 lbs. when full. This was definitely full and difficult to get out of the bag. We had to get five guys to shovels some of the contents out to the edges of the table. Some had shovels, some had rakes. All in all it was painstaking process. We eventually got it all out and got the dredge secure. The next major thing was shoveling it all to be sorted. Christian and I were doing our best, but at some point, Christian got down to start moving baskets to the edge of the deck. We eventually got it all, washed the deck and finally were done. Next was the process of unrigging the dredge to get the HABCAM back into the water. We hooked to dredge to the tugger and pulled it on board. We hooked it to the lock chain and rachet strapped it down. We unhooked it from the starboard side winch, and it was as good in place.
Once getting to the location, a CTD cast was in order and just like before, got it ready, cast it, captured bottles, recovered it, cleaned it, and processed the data. All was smooth moving. Now came time to drop the HABCAM. No issues in dripping, with rest of day for some relaxing time after the past few days of nonstop work. We went back to dredging on Saturday, on our second watch, with a total of three cast getting boulders, scallops, and mussels.
A hard week has passed with a few more to come. I’m seeing the important hard work that goes into surveying. Every task has its purpose and varying level of difficulty. I’ve had to keep my mind straight for the task at hand to keep everything moving smoothly, even with little sleep. Sometimes, sleeping is very difficult with the rocking, but we all power through. We strive for the best data we can collect. I appreciate this experience, no matter how hard it may be at times. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.
Best,
-Sebastian D.
For the past few days, we have been working our way down the coastline, following a zig-zag pattern as we follow the current south. We cruise with ease, with the wind and waves are at our back. The days are mostly grey and smooth, with the occasional whale spout or pod of dolphins breaking up the endless ocean.
The group of scientists on board are studying the presence and fate of methane in our coastal waters. They extract the gas from the surface of the ocean as we cruise by, and then compress it into gas cylinders for further analysis. Methane is a greenhouse gas, with a much greater ability to retain heat than its better known cousin, carbon dioxide. This means a relatively small amount of methane may have a large affect on the global climate. This research project aims to understand the role of methane in coastal ocean processes, and then using computer modeling, project how these processes contribute to the climate on a global scale.
Initially, we planned to sail all the way to central California. To everyone’s dissappointment, the forecast is calling for a storm just around the corner of Cape Blanco. If we choose to continue, a nine foot swell awaits us, and we’ve already been struggling through less. With our hopes of eating chowder in the Golden State dashed, we turn tail and head North.
With this sudden change, we need to come up with a new game plan that fits within the limits of the weather, tide, and time. We all gather around the navigation computer, the science team points out other locations they would like to sample, shooting out new research ideas and case studies on the fly. We manage to pull together a plan that everyone seems to be happy with, and I walk away pretty amazed at everyone’s flexibility and ability to improvise on such short notice.
This kind of experience makes it clear that the nature of fieldwork taught in class just doesn’t reflect reality at all. I have yet to see a single research cruise where things go as planned, where scientists walk off the boat with the exact data and samples they expect. It is almost unfair to lead undergraduates on with the idea that fieldwork may be accomplished with a printed handout on a clipboard, and the option of a rain check if bad weather arises. The truth of it is that when the boat has been rolling nearly 180 degrees for three days straight, when your equipment keeps falling over no matter how many bungee cords you strap around them, when the prospects of weather gets even worse, you work through the nausea and figure out something better. The truth of it is, as Liz likes to say, research at sea is fast and loose.
“Red sky in morning, sailors take warning” – I learned this adage while at sea in the Pacific, and it is just as true for the Atlantic. A distant low pressure system can create long period swell that rocks your boat. Thankfully I’d earned my sea legs some time ago, and when getting underway for part 2 of the Scallop survey, I did not join the science party in “manning the rails”, so to speak!
Continuing our transect pattern with the towed HABCAM ROV (seen below), there was little to do on the technician side, save for the occasional technical error. Another maritime phrase came to mind as I sat, legs atrophying, trying to keep busy during watch – “Sailing is a continuum of boredom, interrupted only by moments of shear choas”. Luckily, the deck and tech teams respond quickly in these moments, pulling the vehicle from the water when power or data was lost. I was able to assist in the retrieval of the vehicle, and assist the marine technician and science team in complicated retermination of the fiber optic cable that connects the HABCAM to the ship’s data display.
Now working with a less-technically oriented supervisor, who’d also graduated from a maritime academy, I spent my days trying to fulfill the role of the Third Mate. I assisted in deck maintenance, safety checks for equipment, drills, and even installed a man overboard tracking system on the bridge. Complacency breeds danger, so I wake up every day resolute to learn something and jump in to new opportunities. This included being able to go over the side to tighten the HABCAM ramp during an unusually pleasant day in Wood’s Hole, Massachusetts. After showing initiative and know-how on deck, I’m now trusted to help moor and navigate the ship, which is a great feeling for a fresh Third Mate/Tech!
We’re out to sea again, and thankfully will be more active on deck with the HABCAM towing complete. Next comes dredging, shoveling, and sorting the sea bed for scallops and other marine life! More soon, and smooth sailing to my fellow interns.
-Shaun
Hello all,
Another week has gone by. More HABCAM was done with problems along the way, a port stop to fuel and change crew and scientist, and back underway for more HABCAM this time with minimal problems. Soon we will be up at the NOAA port in Woods Hole for a fuel top off on Monday.
For Saturday evening, Huxley and I started painting the sorting table as it was getting very rusty. After a few hours of being outside, we ventured in to where Huxley started to show me a few important knots that he uses the most frequently; the clove hitch, bowline, and half-hitch. I began practicing and some of the scientist were also trying to learn as well. I went over tying off the cleat and our shift was just about over.
For Sunday morning, the HABCAM was pulled once more because power was lost. Chuck, Huxley and I recovered it with ease using the tugger and A-frame. I secured it by using two of the knots I learned. The science team then started connecting cables and seeing what they could do to get it going again. Somehow, they got the HABCAM working and Huxley, Chuck and I put it back in the water with no problems. For now, the HABCAM is working, one of the cameras stopped working and two lights stopped as well, but they could still get images. During the end of the second watch of the day, we pulled the HABCAM again. This time Christian, Huxley and I went down to the winch room to examine the slip ring and the cable box. Reinforcement to the fiber optic cable was added and a polish to the fiber itself. Not much else can be done until hitting land.
For Monday, again issues with the camera feed of the HABCAM which resulted in recovering it. Another polish, but this time only one camera feed was present. The decision to put it back in was made even though we had little feed and no logging potential. Since it was the last day of this leg, getting the data was more important than having real-time access to it.
Tuesday morning was met with a full steam to port to unload, refuel and have a crew and scientist change. The day was spent cleaning up, making sure the loggers were working and much waiting. We didn’t arrive to port in Lewes, Delaware until 2300. Huxley showed Shaun and I how easy it is to tag off the ship. The first leg was finally over! Bed quickly came as we all needed to be awake for 0700 for some minimal maintenance.
Wednesday came quick and without warning. The crew was up for 0700 breakfast. A couple of tasks were needed to get done to make the quick change as easy as possible. One, tighten the bolts to the HABCAM slide; two, laundry for all the linens; three, get food; four, paint sorting table; five wait for the next batch of scientist and crew. I helped with tightening down the bolt, but the main thing was the food. I made a 5-hour run for food with the cook to feed ~20 people for the next two and a half weeks. We ended up with three carts of food and one pallet cart of drinks. Feeding this many people is a big undertaking; I appreciate the effort put in to feed us all. It took us over an hour to put everything in the car. A quick ride home and quick unload and the new scientist and volunteers arrived. Shaun, Huxley and I wee scrambling to get the linens clean, but we eventually got it. The other few tasks were completed as I was away. Also, the HABCAM was temporarily fixed by the oncoming lead scientist, which ended up lasting until the next time we hit port. Later that night, we set sail again which was just as easy the first time as this time. At this point, Shaun and I switched watches to be with the other mentor; now, Shaun with Huxley and I with Christian. I am currently on the 0600-1200 and 1800-0000 watch. Soon Christian and I started up the Surface Monitoring System (SMS) and moved the keel to the flush position. We made our round by checking the deck, milli-q station, the SMS, and the WinchDAC (measure tension, pay out and speed of all the winches). Quickly, Christian and I went to bed.
For Thursday, we started with breakfast and checking the deck. Everything seemed to be in order. We still had a few hours until the HABCAM drop, so we started tidying up our office space. Once arriving at the first site, Tim (engineer), Christian and I dropped the HABCAM into the water. A little bit of a late start though due to the HABCAM sonar not working, but the scientist went ahead with it. For the night watch, the only hiccup that happened was the winch controls were lost for the science team to control the height of the HABCAM. The ship sped up and Tim, Christian and I went to the winch room and restarted the winch box. The science team got controls back with the rest of the night being great.
For Friday and Saturday, not too much happened. Mostly we monitored our systems, looked for fishing gear to avoid in the water, and completed rounds. I learned how to clean bolts with a wheel brusher and some information about the CTD setup and calibration. Some more organizing was in order, which I learned the location of more replacement gear as needed.
I’m definitely learning a lot over the last week, the amount of work that needs to be done has decreased as the HABCAM for us is more hands off. I am able to learn about the systems on board and how to set them up if need be. Christian has helped me out with continued questions I’ve had and I’m grateful for it. I’m building up the confidence in the marine technician field. It seemed very daunting, but getting more familiar with everything, it seems completely doable given the right mentors. Another week down, four more to go!
Best,
-Sebastian D. 5/25/19 EDT 2330