Category: Vessel/Laboratory Page 83 of 89

By far the most frustrating thing to troubleshoot onboard the Oceanus has been the satellite Internet. Unfortunately, it’s what we need to fix on a regular basis and what people care about the most. Simply put, when the Internet is working people are happy and think highly of the marine tech’s capabilities. When it’s not, well you get the idea.

Early Saturday morning after deploying another Ocean Bottom Seismometer I returned to my station and realized that the Internet was down. I rushed to the main lab to have a look at the L-band satellite modem but all indicator lights were looking good with reasonable numbers for azimuth, elevation, and Automatic Gain Control (AGC). Puzzled by the fact that things looked ok I went up again to inspect our network router, but that didn’t seem to have any problems either.

At this point my limited knowledge prevented me from doing much more. I really didn’t want to begin pushing unknown buttons potentially causing greater damage. Instead I started going through the 500 page modem manual trying to find what could make the Internet go down but have all green indicator lights, waiting for Johna, the marine tech, to come on watch.

What is frustrating with this complex system is that it could start working by just rebooting, never knowing what was wrong. Other times we go through a long series of diagnostic tests treating probable errors. In the end we are never 100% sure that what made it work is a direct result of a specific sequence of actions we took.

Once Johna arrived we spent two hours trying to narrow down the source of error. It could be our network router, the satellite modem, the antenna control unit (DAC), the gyroscope input, or even a loose cable. She had a feeling that something might be wrong with the power of the antenna, so we asked the captain if we could use the iridium telephone to call technical support. Steve, from customer service, confirmed that we where outside the footprint of our satellite and we had to increase the power. So we logged into the page interface and changed the power level from -26Dbm (Decibel-milliwatts) to -24Dbm and just like that the Internet started working.

Lesson learned: when we are more than 200 nm off the coast and the internet goes down for no apparent reason increase the power level and see if that helps.

Observations and Ideas

By Sonia Brugger

On July 24, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Savannah, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia

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.

Filtering Phytoplankton!

By Nathan Burnham

On July 23, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, US Coast Guard, USCGC Healy

Working 12 hour shifts filtering water to preserve the phytoplankton can be fun..even when those shifts are at night, because in the Arctic, it really doesn’t matter….there is no night. 24 hours of daylight, so that when you go on deck for air, its bright and clear even at 0200 in the morning. That happens to be the time I have to go to the bridge to record ice conditions for another part of the scientific mission. I always linger on the bridge. The ship breaking through the ice is mesmerizing, and there is always the chance that you will see wildlfie. So far I have seen two polar bears, walruses, whales and a LOT of seals. The BEST part of the last few days was when Master Chief invited me up to Aloft Con, the crows nest like pilot house high above the bridge and let me pilot the ship through the ice floes…obviously under very close scrutiny. It was a real dream come true for me – a real bucket list item!

My normal work is not so fun. collect CTD water, filter it, preserve the filters…repeat. The breaks come as we transit from point to point, that is when I do my work for my mentor, programming a microcontroller, configuring winch monitors, cleaning the seawater flow through system and making educational videos about the mission for out-reach..I stay busy.

Internship begins

By Daniel Fernandez

On July 22, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, R/V Point Sur

Next week I will be onboard the R/V Point Sur. As of now, I have been reading practical boat mechanics books and CTD operation manuals. Working at sea will be a new experience for me but I welcome it with excitement. I could not have asked for a better place to start my ocean journey than Alaska. With the guidance of senior marine technicians and scientists, I feel this experience will serve as a stepping stone in my career and future interest in marine engineering. So far my interactions with Stian, Nandita, and Tami have been great. They have been very supportive and effective at getting me prepared and I am thankful for that. I look forward to fly to Dutch Harbor and meet the crew.

Week One-Scalloping

By Alison Mitchell

On July 21, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Hugh R. Sharp, University of Delaware, College of Earth, Ocean and Environment

I have been on board the R/V Hugh R. Sharp for a full week now and am having a really great time. I meet the boat last Monday in Woods HWhole. The plan was to leave on Tuesday evening, but due to a new part for the radar not being delivered we ended up not leaving until Wednesday evening. I got to the boat late on Monday and went to a restaurant near the boat and got dinner. First thing Tuesday Mat, another MATE intern on board, and I accompanied the cook Lee to the supper market to stock the boat for the coming trip. We spent nearly 4 ½ hours at the store and filled numerous carts. We bought so many groceries we had to tie some of them to the roof of ourt rental mini van. When we got back to the boat we spent a long time unloading groceries and putting everything away. By the time everything was put away it was time for dinner and then bed. On Tuesday, I accompanied Max, the technician on board, and TR, a deckhand, to the UNOLS Northeast Winch Pool we were shown how to operate a new winch that we will be bringing with us on our next trip. Most of it went straight over my head but I understood parts of it. In the afternoon my parents came and took me out to lunch and dropped off some last minute things, and at 6 we left the dock. I helped Max with the pre departure check list for all the tech. equipment. Once underway we turned on the flow through system that takes constant seawater measurements. We also dropped the keel so it is flush with the hull of the boat. There is equipment in the keel ~~so it~~which gets pulled up inside the hull when the boat is in port. Depending on the equipment the keel can be dropped down further if necessary. I am standing a 12 hour watch from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm with Max, so after the flow through and dropping the keel I had dinner and went to bed. The first night underway I woke up to the rocking of the boat several times. On Wednesday morning we started dredging at the beginning of our watch. We have a group of scientists on board from NOAA, who are doing scallop surveying. We dredged all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There is a lot of work and steps involved in pulling the dredge up and emptying it onto a table to be sorted. Sometime on Friday night we finished the first group of dredges and switched over to Hap Cam, which is a sort of sled that hovers over the bottom of the ocean and takes video, which is then reviewed by the scientists. The Hap Cam can stay in for days at a time so there is very little to do during this leg of the trip so I have been hanging out on the bridge doing a lot of reading and getting to know the crew better. This cruise goes to the end of the week and then we will bring the boat back down to Lewes, DE where we will have about a day until the next group of scientist joins us.

Adjusting

By Sonia Brugger

On July 18, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Savannah, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia

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.

RVHRS Scallop Survey – Last Leg

By Matt Scheuer

On July 17, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Hugh R. Sharp, University of Delaware, College of Earth, Ocean and Environment

After having to stay in Woods Hole one extra day for radar repairs, we left with a mostly-different group of crew and scientists. I was now on night watch instead of day. Transitioning between opposite sleep schedules was tough for the first couple days, but turned out alright. I was happy to get on night watch just to see how it is. Turns out it’s pretty much the same, but darker. I prefer day. Night watch doesn’t have a “lunch” and you eat breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast. But a lot of people like the night shift better because it’s slightly more relaxed and you don’t get sunburned. It also goes by quickly. Photographing is harder, but some night shots came out very cool looking.

As we left Nantucket sound we were met with relatively rough seas. The plan was to do over 70 dredge tows and very little habcamming. I’ve gotten better at all the steps in the dredge process on deck. I’m always amazed by what we pull up and wish I had more time to study each sculpin and identify each strange item. I really don’t like how much bycatch we kill and waste. Most things come up dead or dying in the net, and there is very little effort to save things or at least eat whatever we can. We usually keep the best flounder or haddock, but a lot gets thrown back dead. The scientists count the fish but don’t measure most, so we get some data on some things but not as much as we could. Certain critters tend to survive, like skates (no swim bladders to expand) and most crustaceans but we could definitely do better with the bycatch. Of course our fine-meshed research dredge is tiny in the vast ocean, we do short tows, and the whole purpose of this research is to help protect marine environments. But it’s still tough to watch things suffer and die on deck. That’s one awesome advantage of the habcam- it doesn’t harm the benthic habitat or organisms at all. New marine technology can do some wonderful things.

Eventually the seas subsided. The weather was remarkably good the entire time, only a few rainy watches. There was a lot of fog out on Georges Bank though. The bottom was rockier on this leg of the cruise so we sometimes used the crane to switch in our rock chain dredge for certain areas. Rock chains are simply chains across the mouth of the dredge that exclude huge boulders. Some tows come up full of rocks. Several areas were very dense in big, old scallops. Going home with a big bag of sea scallops is one of the best perks on this cruise.

Another great thing about being in my specific position on this trip is that I’m in the middle of everything. Surrounded by a perfect combination of often-separate marine fields, I can get experience in all of them. I’m working with both the scientists and crew (groups that generally end up divided). The purpose of this scallop survey is to assess stocks for regulation, so my interest in marine policy ties right in. I’m learning hands-on about research, biology, fisheries, technology, computers, engineering, and seamanship all at once. Gaining experience as a technician and an understanding of how data is really collected will be valuable in any field. Being a technician is a nice balance of everything; I never felt confined to one role. Being able to interact with everyone on board was great. There’s a rich mix of very interesting people on this trip. Several of the crew came from commercial fishing backgrounds, and the scientists work for the government. The scientists, engineers, mates, captains and technicians all have a wealth of expertise in their fields. I tried to learn as much as I could from everyone.

We finished our marathon of dredging and spent the last couple watches habcamming. I piloted and copiloted a bunch. The display computer for our flowthrough system suddenly broke on one of the last watches and we spent a while trying to diagnose and fix the problem. Eventually we switched everything over to the data computer and got the (problematic) network of monitors back and displaying water information around the ship.

We had a few more dredge tows to finish up the survey, then pulled in to Woods Hole once again. The 2014 sea scallop survey was successfully completed! The ship unloaded equipment and I disembarked, concluding a truly awesome voyage.

On to the Healy and a Rescue in the Ice!

By Nathan Burnham

On July 15, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, US Coast Guard, USCGC Healy

The trip to Dutch Harbor was about what you’d expect, progressively smaller planes in progressively worse weather, but the scenery flying over the Alaskan Panhandle was AMAZING. I lived in Alaska for many years, but have never been out to the Aluetians.

My mentor got me situated on the Healy and within a day of my arrival we were at sea. The transit north through the Bering Sea was nearly flat calm! Not at all what I’d come to expect from the stories I’ve heard. It took us three days to get to the ice in the Bering Straights. We hit the ice for the first time while we were at supper and the Coast Guardsmen cheered…I guess the crew of an ice breaker is happiest in their natural element. It was very cool.

I split my time doing tech work for my mentor and doing science with the science party. We do CTD casts along long transects, planned to sample phytoplankton growth under the ice. We have a quest this cruise to find a phytoplankton bloom. The hypothesis is that with thinning ice conditions more light is making it through the ice earlier and causing abnormal growth conditions for phytoplankton…that may be, but what it means for me is long nights sampling and filtering water and afternoons spent getting my geek on with the ships data acquisition system. My tech watch is from 1600 until 2000, my science watch is from 2000 until 0400…I’m pretty busy!

The food is great, the company is amazing, the crew of the USCGC Healy is wonderfully professional, and the scientists are flexible…they have to be because about 36 hours into our first transect we got word that we were being diverted to rescue a sailboat stuck in the ice 200 miles east of our position. The Healy ran through ice at speeds of up to 12 knots. It was a real bone rattling ride with the ice thundering down the hull, and the ship would frequently lurch violently as it careened off ice ridges and thick floes. We found the sailboat completely surrounded by sea ice, where he had been for 8 days. The crew inched the Healy in close, pushing floes aside carefully, and passed him a line. We then, very gingerly, towed him clear of the ice and escorted him on his way to Barrow. The sailboat captain is doing his SECOND solo sailing of the Nortwest Passage! He is 67 years old! He built his boat himself. He inspired me, which my wife was not pleased to hear.

Now we are back at work looking for the phytoplankton bloom. Wish us luck!

RVHRS Scallop Survey – Second Leg

By Matt Scheuer

On July 14, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, R/V Hugh R. Sharp, University of Delaware, College of Earth, Ocean and Environment

The storm passed without much intensity. Just some wind and rain. We left Woods Hole to cooler, clearer, beautiful weather and headed out to Georges Bank through Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound. On the way we had an abandon ship drill, passed one of the cape wind test towers, and saw a big colony of seals on Monomoy Point. We deployed the habcam and zigzagged with it for a couple of days. There has been a lot of wildlife already- both on the bottom and at the surface. The habcam was recording lots of scallops, sand dollars, sea stars, and hake with occasional skates, lobsters, and goosefish. On the surface we saw schools of small fish being chased by tuna, pods of dolphins riding our bow wave, and several whales. There were numerous petrels and shearwaters gliding over the surface and picking plankton out of our wake.

Within the first couple of days, seas began building and were forecast to continue increasing. Soon we had 10-15 foot swells, made more dramatic by intermittent failures of our hydraulic stabilization fins. The boat was rolling pretty hard at times. To be honest I kind of enjoyed the waves. In addition to the stabilizer problems we had a few strange, sporadic, hard-to-diagnose communications issues with our winch data network and our CTD. Troubleshooting these systems kept us techs and the engineers well occupied. As a whole, the important stuff has been working fairly well.

I learned to pilot the habcam, which is a little tricky but overwhelmingly cool. The pilot carefully watches incoming images, a sidescan display, and the depth/altimeter readings while using a winch control joystick to pay out or reel in cable. Ideally the camera sled flies two meters over the bottom. Keeping it there is easy when seas are calm and the seafloor is flat, but underwater dunes and a pitching boat complicate things.

Dredging takes a lot of hard work out on deck. Working the dredge and sorting the catch is fun and good exercise, but tiring when we have a lot of back-to-back tows. The habcam is less work-intensive- for better or worse. Once in the water, the scientists control it from the dry lab and there isn’t much to do other than help fly it and annotate images. I do my daily sensor logs and maintenance, work on small projects or problems, clean the ship, help with whatever I can, and talk to the scientists in the lab and crew on the bridge. Until something goes wrong.

At one point we were on the bridge when a radio call came through from the lab saying that they lost all control to the habcam winch. The captain already had the ship at at full thrust so there was nothing the scientists could do but watch their picture feed and cringe as their million-dollar instrument plowed along the bottom. Ted, Casey (an engineer) and I ran down from the bridge, through the engine room, and to the winch room where we reset the winch controls and hydraulic power unit. Science raised the habcam to inspect it- luckily there was no serious damage.

We had a few more days of heavy seas and a whole lot of dredging. The variation in our dredge contents are amazing. It’s almost always a different mix, even between nearby stations. Sometimes it’s all scallops and fish, sometimes the dredge is filled entirely with sand dollars. It was cool to see all the life down there and I wished I had more time to study everything we caught.

Eventually the waves calmed down to the point that the sea became glassy. I don’t know if it was the calm water making things easy to see or some situation with currents, upwelling, nutrients and temperature- but one day we saw dozens of blue sharks, breaching and feeding whales, jumping tuna, schools of smaller fish, and enormous basking sharks leaping fully out of the water.

After a week and a half we began to work our way back towards Woods Hole to restock and change out scientists again. Ted, Max, and I disassembled part of the CTD carrousel and swapped out the sensors. This is done periodically so they can be sent in for maintenance and calibration. We had a day in woods hole, loaded fuel, did the crew change, and bought so much food at the supermarket that their checkout computer crashed. Another MATE intern, Ali, is now on board as we set sail again.

First week onboard R/V Oceanus

By Nikiforos Delatolas

On July 13, 2014

In MATE Blog Archive, Oregon State University, CEOAS, R/V Oceanus

The first 24 hours onboard R/V Oceanus where rough. The vessel’s normal ±30 degree rolls eliminated my interest in any kind of food and slowed down my thinking process. I spend extended time on deck staring at the horizon or in my bed trying to rest. Since then I have been feeling much better as the sea has calmed.

The day of our departure I helped load and secure 24 ocean bottom seismometers (OBS), as part of the Cascadia Initiative offshore component. Technicians from WHOI have been deploying them at specific locations in a counterclockwise pattern approximately 170 nautical miles offshore of the Oregon coast.

I have been on deck for all deployments so far, having the unofficial duty to take down and setup the section of rail the instrument has to clear to go overboard. It’s fascinating being involved in this process; always being aware of staying out of people’s way but still being around to learn and help. It’s also amazing to see all the specialized smaller teams coordinating with and among each other. The four WHOI marine technicians on deck that know all about the OBSs have to communicate with the scientists inside the lab that determine the deployment position, the Oceanus marine technician operating the crane, the crewmember overseeing the operation and of course the bridge where all actions are radioed in for approval.

In addition to that, I have taken up a small project to solder and pot cables that will connect the old Conductivity/ Temperature/ Density (CTD) instrument to the new type of cables. It takes extra patience with this precision work especially on a rolling vessel.

When I am not busy I read manuals on troubleshooting and operating the resident science equipment, how to use the various software, and learn how the satellite communication network works.