This week was full of hard work, as I spent the week primarily assisting with dredging on George’s Bank, several hundred miles off Cape Cod. This area of shallows I had read about is a very productive, active fishing spot, where fishermen have been venturing for centuries. It was cool to say that I have now been out there! The habcam was back in the water on Saturday, as we were working our way out to the northeast corner of the large bank. Christian and I worked on several computer issues, such as the camera and knudsen echosunder computers restarting. It took several hours and much wire tracing, but we eventually solved the problem and got cameras back on line.
On Sunday and Monday, we spent our entire watch dredging while working our way back west, with a CTD cast mixed in every third tow. The hauls were different than in previous areas, because most of the bags were stuffed full, leaving us with much more work to do shoveling and sorting our catches after every tow. We got full bags of scallops, sand, and on some tows, massive piles of sand dollars that left green slime everywhere. There were some interesting organisms, like monkfish, several three pound lobsters, and barn door skates. The monkfish, with their ugly looking, giant mouths, actually had edible meat in the tail, which Paul, the cook, filleted and cooked up for just our watchgroup. I got to try a few bites, and it was amazing! Although the dredging was hard work, it did make time go by fast, and in general there were nice days to be out on deck.
Tuesday marked an important milestone: a month of being onboard for me. I started the day with pan fried scallops, featuring the largest ones I have ever seen (that I helped shuck)! We continued dredging with the end in sight, and luckily the loads started to get a little smaller. Christian gave me the chance to run a CTD cast completely on my own, letting me operate the computer and communicate with the bridge and engineer operating the winch to tell them when to deploy and haul back the instrument. Towards the end of the day, the weather started to turn bad, as we met a lightning storm and heavy winds, causing us to have to skip a CTD cast and dredge intermittently when the lightning was not an issue. Thanks to Captain Jimmy for watching out for us!
Wednesday was nice and warm, a good day to arrive back in Woods Hole for several hours as a planned stop to refuel, get more food, and change out several scientists. I helped catch lines, shut off the flow through system, stop data collection, clean the boat, and prep rooms for the new scientists. I got in a quick call home before it was time to cast off again for the second part of leg three, this time surveying the southern side of George’s Bank. Once again, I started the flow through system in order to begin data collection by our various transducers.
Thursday was flat calm and sunny as Christian and I started our watch. We pulled up the habcam and got the boat set up for dredging again, then helped dredge and perform occasional CTD casts with a new crew of scientists. It sure was a quick transition back in to routine, almost like we were never in port at all!
Finally, today Christian and I continued dredging, pulling up starfish, sand dollars, and the occasional scallop. I saved a few organisms from our tows that hopefully I can clean and dry on the way home. By the last few hours of the watch, all of the dredge stations for the entire cruise were complete, and many of the scientists thanked us for all of our work to help make the dredging operation a success. It was good to know that we have contributed so much to this important survey. We put the habcam back in the water so we could continue to tow it through the last transects. The rest of the watch we spent securing the ship in preparation for the rough weather ahead. We got the dredge on the work table and strapped it down, hosed down the deck, replaced the solid bulkhead that holds the CTD in place, and secured miscellaneous items. It is crazy to think that I only have four more days of this cruise and only one more week on board left. The time has just been flying by! The next blog post I will be doing on my last day aboard, and I will hope to post more pictures soon. Until then!
Huxley