Category: Vessel/Laboratory Page 64 of 89

We have now been at BIOS for about half a week, and are preparing to leave for our next HYDRO/BATS cruise. (For those of you who are not familiar with the ocean-data time series: Hydro station S and BATS, check out my other blogs for more information!)

It is officially hurricane season and our recent weather has proven that statement true. We are currently waiting out Hurricane Jose in Bermuda. Tomorrow afternoon we plan to transit to Hydrostation S and BATS for a five-day cruise. During the duration of our cruise, which will involve the same deck operations as prior cruises, we will be picking up a glider for Ruth Curry- director of the glider program MAGIC.

The Mid-Atlantic Glider Initiative and Collaboration (MAGIC) was launched at BIOS in 2014 to enhance BIOS’s long-standing ocean measurement programs in Bermuda, using autonomous underwater vehicles. The goal of MAGIC is to gain new measurements from underwater gliders to assess the contribution of small-scale processes that sustain the ocean’s biological productivity. Each sensor is equipped with a variety of sensors such as a conductivity, temperature, depth and several optical sensors that measure oxygen and fluorescence. One of Ruth’s gliders, Jack, is outfitted with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) which provides detailed profiles of ocean currents. To check out more information, see the site here: http://magic.bios.edu/about/

I will be accompanied on this upcoming cruise with a technician from the tech exchange program. I will be holding my own shift during this cruise, but it will be interesting to learn from a new and experienced technician.

Upon his arrival Friday, he helped me sanitize our RO 100L tanks. Prior to his arrival, we were having issues with our Milli-q system. Our elix, an RO water maker, has been working excellently.

However, our Milli-Q system, which is attached to our Elix RO maker and RO tanks, was not performing at the quality it should.

The system works together to sanitize our water on the ship. Water is fed through our water system, sent through two prefilters to remove heavy metals, through several filters and cartridges on the Elix, into our tanks and then is pumped into our Milli-q system which gives the water a final sanitization. In order for the water to classify as purified “Milli-q” water, it must read 18.2 mega ohms on our machine. Our milli-q was running low, an indicator that the water quality is not high. After speaking to a Millipore technician Friday, I changed out our two pre-filters, replaced our Milli-q q-guard and quantum ex-filters and performed a tank sanitization. Our tank has been accruing gunk for some time, so the process was much needed.

In order to sanitize the tanks, Jason and I drained clean milli-q water into several carboys, removed the tanks from their water feeds and cleaned them outside with a diluted bleach solution. Afraid the bleach would possibly contaminate science samples, we opted to clean the inside of the tank with 5% HCl solution. Once the tanks were cleaned, we hooked them back up and began making new RO water.

So far so good, let’s hope the weather holds up!

Week 2 Aboard the USCGC Healy

By Royhon Agostine

On September 5, 2017

In MATE Blog Archive, US Coast Guard, USCGC Healy

With the cruise under full swing there has been science 24/7 around the clock, I have drifted towards the noon to midnight or later shift. Most people have 12 hour or 8 hour shifts, the weather was much colder and more windy earlier this week, currently it has been foggy and less cold as we are northwest of Barrow. As shifts rotate, I am constantly seeing new coast guard faces. Most of my time recently has been consumed with GIS related projects. I have been collaborating with the sediment scientists to create a map of past cruises, comparing past sampled site’s biomass in grams per carbon and overlaying the current cruise sites. I have been assisting with the sediment scientists helping sample sediment from the Van Veen grabs, and collecting live specimen from them as well. In addition, I have continued to assist with the bongo net toes, seeing some interesting specimens such as copepods, arctic cod, prickleback, other fish larvae and jellyfish.

This week I aided in repairing the Salinometer; removing, cleaning, and replacing the conductivity cell as well as calibrating the system. I also disassembled and reassembled a Benthos Pinger, making sure it is in working condition for deeper water Haps Core samples. On average, most of the area we have been in has been no deeper that 100 meters. Today we have been in waters over 1000m deep. For the deep-water core sampling Brett and I securely attached the Benthos Pinger allowing for a more accurate depth reading to help successfully retrieve cores.

I have also been monitoring the CTD casts and ensuring the casts go smoothly. I have learned how to clean fiber optic cables and create fiber optic connections thanks to STARC’s fiber optic crash course. Currently, I am optimizing some of the niskin bottles and writing a manual on the proper specifications. In addition, I have some GIS manuals to write up on how to mosaic and import ICE imagery into the QPS system so they can be overlaid with the live location of the ship. I have been attending the nightly planning meetings with the head of the departments, usually nothing interesting happens but it is nice to be involved and see how the operations are planned.

It looks like no ice will be seen on this trip, global warming is very visible compared to previous summers. Scientists have shown me pictures of walruses and polar bears with plenty of ice around from previous years at the same location we are currently at. In addition, earlier this week we rendezvoused with the two sail drones, there is a picture going around with a seal catching a ride aboard one of them. One of the Coasties convinced me to hit the gym with him earlier this week and I am still sore. I am still learning a lot every day, my mentor is a great teacher and my co-workers are always willing to explain present issues to me.

They filled the ice cream freezer with ice cream bars, it’s hard for me to stay away from all the Blue Bunny treats! For Labor Day yesterday, I attended the celebration in the hangar, enjoying some snacks and games with both scientists and crew. The northern lights were visible a few nights ago, but sadly I was not awake to see them, I am hoping I will get to see them before the end of the cruise. Time seems to be flying by with only about 10 days until we return to Dutch Harbor.

Photo Credit: Amanda Norcross

Week 5.286 Aboard the Armstrong

By Lauren Kowalski

On September 4, 2017

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Neil Armstrong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Hi all,

It’s been 0.286 weeks since my last blog and since I’ve completed another cruise. AR22 was super short but super intense at the same time.

We pulled away from WHOI around 0830 Saturday morning and we docked at WHOI at 1400 Sunday afternoon.

AR22 was an MIT – WHOI Joint Program student orientation cruise. A handful of 3rd year graduate students planned the cruise while the 1st and 2nd year students experienced sailing/oceanographic research with WHOI, some even for the first time.

My job was to supervise deployment and recovery of the CTD and make sure they didn’t hit the bottom during the cast. It was different and a bit more complicated than normal casts because one of the instruments the science party brought on board was strapped to the CTD. The VPR is a video plankton recorder and it is really heavy – that meant we had to closely monitor deployment and recovery of the CTD.

Because of the short nature of the trip, Joe and I didn’t do typical SSSG on call hours. We alternated casts at the beginning so that we both got used to deployments and recovery with the VPR, we took cat naps throughout the cruise, and were mostly both available to the students because with it being so short we wanted to optimize our presence to them.

Right when we pulled up to Station 9 it turned midnight – which meant it became my birthday! My birthday day continued on like the previous, and we worked until ~0600 when we finished all 12 stations. I then proceeded to sleep like a rock.

It was an intense and exhausting 30 hrs, but it was an amazing learning experience!

This about wraps up my internship. I want to thank everyone who followed me on this adventure; I gained a lot of experience. This internship definitely solidified my drive to be a marine technician in the future.

Thanks again!

~Lauren

I’ve been suspended from a crane!

By Amanda Dostie

On September 3, 2017

In Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences & Arizona State University, MATE Blog Archive, R/V Atlantic Explorer

After returning and demobilizing from our mooring cruise, we set sail for an overnight trip on Hydrostaion. For anyone who is not familiar with Hydro station in Bermuda, it is an ocean data time-series established in 1954, which provides long-term data for the open ocean of Bermuda. For decades, Hydrostation and BATS (a sister station) have been a pinnacle research program in Bermuda.The cruise was short and involved only a few CTD casts.

After our overnight trip, we docked off station at Penos in St. Georges, Bermuda. We remained off station for five days. During our stay at the docks, we received fall and safety training. The training covered the varying marine hazards, safety procedures, equipment, and field training. During field training, we dressed in our ship’s harnesses and practiced being suspended from cranes and climbing the mast. The experience was a blast and another training I can put under my belt!

During training, we were suspended. Using our pulley system on our crane, we attached a rope to the harness back D-ring and were suspended several times for practice.

Using lanyards, the yellow attachment device on the mast rung, we practiced climbing our mast- a job I may be required to do as a marine tech.

After fall and safety training, we made our way back to the BIOS docks where we met with IT supervisor, Mark Jolly, to troubleshoot our shore-ship wi-fi connection. For several weeks now, our shore to ship connection has been down. Weeks prior, I spent days terminating all our wifi cables, reconnecting, tracing cables and shore-boxes with no luck. After working with Mark, we realized a cable on our ship’s wifi switch had gone bad and was not receiving sufficient signals. After swapping it out, and connecting our switch, we regained our shore wifi- which was very happy news for all the crew who was having difficulty getting internet access. While shore connection is down, or rather- we go out to sea, we rely on satellite internet. And while our satellite internet is good quality, high internet traffic can easily clutter it up.

All in all, I had a great experience docking at Penos in St. Georges. The area is beautiful and only a two minute walk into town! I am very thankful to be in a place as beautiful as Bermuda.

Week 4: Adieu Atlantis

By Jacob Lowenherz

On September 2, 2017

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Atlantis, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Wow. What an amazing opportunity this has been, I can’t believe that it is coming to a close. We pulled into shore earlier today and I am already on a bus to school.

Last night, I was up till 2am finishing up a project, and I went up to the bridge and watched as the 2nd mate and an OS steered us into the harbor to wait for the tide to change in the morning. It was a beautiful and peaceful site. I could hear the haunting clangs of the bells on the buoys in the night, and watch the rhythmic turning of the light houses on shore. I had never expected how peaceful sea would be, but every night for the past week we have had the most beautiful sunsets. Whenever people ask me about my time, I think one of the first things I mention will be the sunsets, as they are breath-taking. I have always been impressed by their beauty, but seeing them every night with no obstructions was incredible.

It felt natural to be back on shore, with the exception of walking out of the ET lab to be greeted with a tour group staring at me rather than the open sea. Being back at WHOI felt so normal, and we were able to get everything done with enough time to chill with the interns before I got on the bus to head back.

The past week I worked on the standard maintenance as well as inventorying all the ET cables in the hold.

Last night almost all of the interns and Bruce played a board game all together, it was a really nice way to decompress and to bond before we all headed our separate ways.

I feel so accomplished and amazed at all that I’ve done, this feels like it was a once in a life time opportunity, but I so hope that its not. The community of scientists, pilots, and engineers that I got to work with was so incredible and confirmed for me that this is the place where I want to end up.

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you

Week 5 Aboard the Armstrong

By Lauren Kowalski

On September 1, 2017

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Neil Armstrong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Hi all,

This past week aboard the Armstrong was spent in port while we prepped for our next cruise and did some routine maintenance.

Monday, I reviewed instrument instruction sheets for the instruments that we will be primarily using during the Labor Day Weekend cruise. We’re doing a whole bunch of CTDs, but during transits between stations the science party is planning on using acoustic instruments, like the ADCP, EK80, Knudsen depth sounder, or the multibeam.

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of doing routine maintenance on the -80°C freezer in the main lab where while cleaning it out the inside I accumulated a bucket full of snow. My other focus that day was completing the data disc (which I did!). Joe and I notified the chief scientist from AR21, so that he knew the disc was ready.

Wednesday morning, the R/V Atlantis departed WHOI to chase storms in the Atlantic Ocean. It was a unique experience to see the boat off because typically I’m the one who is on the boat sailing away.

The R/V Atlantis departing WHOI. Photo credit, me.

Since the data disc was finished, I started the new cruise process by running a newcruise command in our servers which mounts all of our instruments to the server and makes sure that data for this next cruise is collected in the appropriate locations on our servers. I set up the science Elog for the new cruise and Joe and I completed and sent in our SSSG cruise report from AR21.

Science started loading their equipment aboard for this weekend’s cruise on Thursday. This proved to be a busy day for me. I created packets of the updated instrument instruction sheets for the science party to reference throughout the cruise. The end of the day was hectic because I was the primary contact for the science party so I was running around making sure they had everything they needed, etc. This short cruise is going to force me to learn at a wicked fast pace.

And lastly, today is full of final cruise prep. I started off Monday with a to-do list that was barely half a page long however, now it is spilling over a page, so my goal is to have everything checked off today (its about 95% checked off already).

Stay tuned on Monday for a post about the Labor Weekend Cruise which departs early tomorrow.

~Lauren

Week 1 Aboard the USCGC Healy

By Royhon Agostine

On August 29, 2017

In MATE Blog Archive, US Coast Guard, USCGC Healy

Week one aboard the USCGC Healy has been a wealth of knowledge. The first day aboard I was given a tour of all STARC related equipment, the ship is a massive maze and it took me a few tries traveling between my stateroom and the lab not to get lost. We left port at 1000 on Saturday the 26. We then headed to Nome to pick up a few more scientists before we began collecting data. The weather so far has been pleasant with somewhat sunny days and not too much breeze. The ship’s movements are hardly noticeable compared to the fishing vessels I have worked on. There are numerous science teams aboard and the instruments which are being used include the CTD with 24 Niskin bottles, a van Veen grab and Haps core for sediment samples, as well as zooplankton net tows known as the bongos. The onboard network has plenty of reading material regarding manuals relating to STARC operations and daily ship operations.

The first two days at sea, we were setting up the scientist’s equipment in preparation for the test launch of the equipment. We replaced the Nitrogen bottle in the pCO2 system and once underway all systems were fired up and recording of data began. Tony and I re-terminated the 32 cable for the zooplankton toe equipment, in addition the deck unit had to be wired into the system; between all the meetings this, was an all-day project and was very satisfying to complete in a successful and clean manner. Yesterday, after retrieving the scientists from Nome, a test run of equipment was carried out, the CTD was launched and sediment samples were gathered. In between STARC projects, I have been working on creating a manual of how to aesthetically mosaic satellite ICE imagery via Global mapper, Qgis and Arcmap, the computers onboard however are lacking Arcmap which makes things more difficult but luckily, I have a student version of the software on my laptop.

Overall, I feel I have already gained a lot of experience, everyone is very friendly and willing to teach, as the MATE intern my supervisor has given me the freedom to help in whatever interests me. I assisted in the first zooplankton specimen gathering, seeing crab larvae and other specimens under the microscope was extremely fascinating. Today we Started on the first DBO line southwest of Point Hope Alaska. I feel overwhelmingly fortunate to have this opportunity and will make the most of this experience. I have been waking up at 0700 every day for breakfast and work, I usually rack out between 2100 and 2400.

The food has been great so far, and morale seems to be high among the science and coast guard crews. As we head north, the temperature change is noticeable affecting the temperature of our staterooms.

PhotoCredit: Amanda Norcross

Surprise Mooring Cruise

By Amanda Dostie

On August 27, 2017

In Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences & Arizona State University, MATE Blog Archive, R/V Atlantic Explorer

We made it in early Friday, and after a long and relaxing weekend, demobilized Monday. The beginning of the week was spent catching up on tech duties, our first priority: installing our new milli-q system. While the process was a good learning experience, it was prematurely retired when a mooring broke loose off of Bermuda.

Two days later, scientists from Woods Hole (WHOI) flew in for a surprise cruise. We left mid-week and arrived on site early evening. Once we arrived on location, we lowered our transducer to the haul of the boat and sent out several acoustic pings from a benthos release box. Using acoustics, the device triggers a release- causing the mooring to float to the surface. Once the mooring was spotted, we spooled several hundred meters of mooring wire, which was later used during the reassembling process. The mooring is several thousand meters- consisting of sediment traps, transducers, pumps, and sensors. The process was an all-day operation.

We spent the morning reassembling the mooring, re-terminating connections, replacing the line and releasing the mooring. The process is tricky because you have to be very careful which terminations you disconnect while the mooring is overboard, or you can lose thousands of meters of cable and instruments. Overall, the trip was a success and a great learning experience.

Pictures Galore!

By Lauren Kowalski

On August 25, 2017

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Neil Armstrong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Hi all,

We have made it back to WHOI a smidge early. Now that I’m connected to the shore network, I can finally share some photos!

R/V Neil Armstrong docked at WHOI. Photo credit: me.

Sailing through the North Atlantic. Photo credit: me.

Supervising CTD recovery. Photo credit: Rebecca Travis, WHOI.

Surface mooring deployment. Photo credit: me.

R/V Neil Armstrong and long finned pilot whales during surface mooring deployment. Photo credit: James Kuo, WHOI.

Operating the a frame during an instrument deployment. Photo credit: Rebecca Travis, WHOI.

Rebuilding the Saturn V Lego rocket that was damaged during transit. Photo credit: Joe McCabe, WHOI.

Working on the incubator pump. Photo credit: Vasile Tudoran, WHOI.

Cleaning behind the rack in the main lab. Photo credit: Rebecca Travis, WHOI.

Using the rescue boat to attach a tag line from the ship to the glass floats at the base of the old surface mooring. Photo credit: me.

Helping recover synthetic line used at the base of the surface mooring. Photo credit: Rebecca Travis, WHOI.

More pics to follow in regularly scheduled blog! 🙂

~Lauren

Week 4 Aboard the Armstrong

By Lauren Kowalski

On August 25, 2017

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Neil Armstrong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Hi all,

This week was full of transiting back to WHOI. I finished up my 10pm – 2am ice watches, which was nice because I got to go back to a regular schedule. In the morning, around 0700ish , the bridge spotted a LARGE ice berg that was miles away. I was asleep at this point so I didn’t see it, but I saw pictures from the crew.

On August 21, we were near Halifax, Nova Scotia and scientists predicted about ~40% complete eclipse at that location. The best time to view the solar eclipse was at 3:55pm. The morning was foggy, but thankfully throughout the day it cleared up and it turned out to be a beautiful day and an even better day to see the solar eclipse! Around 3:45pm I went up the bridge to take a peak, and one of the scientists had special eclipse glasses so I could clearly see the partial eclipse! Later that night the sky was still clear and it was perfect for stargazing. I saw the Milky Way, the Big Dipper, stars that may have been planets, satellites, shooting stars, and so much more. It was a nice clear and not too cold night.

We finally finished installing the incubator pump and it works and the area looks great!

Because we had time during the transit, Joe and I started some end of cruise tasks like prepping our data disc that we give to the science party and starting our SSSG cruise report.

Fun fact – my internship has been extended to include a short 2 day cruise over Labor Day Weekend! Since that doesn’t depart until 2 September, I’m going to be working in port next week prepping for the cruise and doing some other SSSG tasks.

We docked yesterday but we didn’t start doing the majority of the demobing until today. Because we had some down time yesterday Joe showed me around the R/V Atlantis. The Atlantis, for those of you who do not know, is the sister ship to the University of Washington’s R/V Thomas G. Thompson, and it’s home to HOV Alvin! I got to see Alvin! My oceanography dreams are coming true!

Posing with the R/V Armstrong, while on the R/V Atlantis! Photo credit: Joe McCabe, WHOI.

~Lauren