Unfortunately, this is my last week at BIOS, but what a week it has been! I have to say, the time I have spent here in Bermuda has not been wasted. Plus, I think I got the best of both worlds during my stay in Bermuda. My first week started right off the bat by meeting everyone and then shipping out to sea for five days. Week two, we stayed at the port, and I got to see how the marine techs handle their “8am-5pm” lifestyle at home.
To finish off week one, we got back to port on Friday and helped unload the scientist’s gear/equipment for the first four hours. After 12 pm, the fun began. Everyone needed to decompress from a stressful cruise. Networks went down, Gyro-compass streaming was faulty, a MOCNESS deployment failure that led to re-terminating within an hour to re-deploy successfully and a seawater pump, to all the labs, explosion: to name a few things that transpired on the cruise. But, on the lighter side, I got to deploy and recover the CTD, help deploy pumps to various depths and I also got to help deploy a MOCNESS!! The CTD and pumps are generally common among most cruises but the MOCNESS is a more of a rarer deployment, so I am incredibly fortunate to have taken part in that.
So a lot happened on that cruise, which means we (the Marine Techs) had a lot of work to do before the next scheduled cruise in seven days. Our first objective was to re-terminate the CTD. By the way, if anyone was wondering what “re-terminating” means it’s essentially cutting out a section of wire, connecting “fresh” wire to the plug end of the wire and then protecting it by making it water/pressure proof. By re-terminating cables, you ensure corrosion near the plug doesn’t affect the performance of data streaming from the instrument to the computer on the ship—where Marine Techs and scientists analyze/record the data. And to give everyone an understanding of the amount of time it takes to properly re-terminate a wire, it took us roughly six and half hours to place the molding that would protect the new connection. Granted the Marine Tech was doing the re-termination was explaining and showing every step carefully so that I could understand the whole process, but generally, it’s no quick task.
Once we completed the re-termination for the CTD, we started on re-terminating our COM7 winch (another type of cable used to connect to different types of instruments). We had to stop half-way because BIOS took us on a field trip! We got to visit an island named Nonsuch where we snorkeled and visited a terrestrial protected island where ornithologists use this area to help bring back an almost extinct species of bird named Cahow.
Overall, a week at port leads to projects that focus on fixing systems that failed or gave issues during the most recent cruise. Once those projects are handled, there are always more things to do—you can count on it. When I believed we were in a good place, we had five more things to work on. But, it’s needed, and everyone encouraged each other to stay focused and accomplish the goal(s) at hand.
I would say the first week of my internship taught/developed my deck handling and problem-solving skills while the second week improved my research and wire handling skills. I am truly honored to have received this internship because it showed me a world I never knew existed. Plus, I got to meet some incredible people and have some amazing experiences while improving myself as a worker. The life of a Marine Technician is not an easy one, but it’s a great developing position that could project you into something else. Or, it could be your career, everyone is different.
The people I met at BIOS showed me how to have fun while being efficient when I work. Especially, when you think the world is ending, we support each other enough to at least smile and somehow get the job done. I hope our paths cross again BIOS; you have instilled more than just skill improvement in me, you sparked passion for pursuing work in Marine Science—something I thought I lost. Thank you for everything.
Take care.
Taken by me. I was standing on Nonsuch looking out to our anchored vessel.
Taken by me, this is the Marine Tech Lab where we monitor multiple feeds that go throughout the ship. Apologies for the image format, I can’t figure out how to adjust the picture to portrait.
Taken by Mason, one of the Marine Techs at BIOS. I was pulling out all the rusted COM7 wire that was eventually cut off. Apologies for the image format, I can’t figure out how to adjust the picture to portrait.
Taken by Jillon, another Marine Techs at BIOS. I am recording data from an active CTD cast to 1000 meters (roughly 3000 feet).