Hey all this is Mija Wheeler, I’m the MATE Intern aboard the R/V Atlantis working under the Alvin Submersiable Operations Team. At the time of writing this, we have been at sea for going on the 3rd day coming out of port from San Diego, California with a science party from CalTech and the University of Santa Barbra.
What I’ve gathered from the scientists so far is that the goal of the expedition is to study invertebrates, bacteria, viruses, substrate, and the general composition of the water column near Methane seeps located approximately 1000 meters down. Using the Alvin Submersible, alongside the accompanying elevator, scientists have so far uncovered several rocks, sediment samples, and some bacteria; they’ve also found some neat crabs, sea worms, and sea spiders that were found at these dive locations.
As an intern with Alvin, the last couple days has been a whirl wind of learning and experiencing new things. Outside of learning the launch and recovery process of the submarine, I’ve been having a blast talking to the scientist in my free time to see first hand what was being pulled up. I could go on and on but my break is about to end and I have to get ready to go help with the recovery of the sub.