You Can Go Home Again

7-14,15-09

“Sing me another song of the sea, it’s the only thing left that comforts me.”

-Dylan Summers, My Life in Black and White

Here we are. I couldn’t avoid it any longer. The day had finally come for us to fly back to Maryland. Just as quickly as we arrived, we were now departing the ship that carried us across the Bering Sea and back again. I was thankful that we had already done all our packing and cleaning because it wouldn’t have been too much fun with the headache I had from the fun of the previous night. As we loaded our luggage into one of the pickups, I thought about all of the incredible people that I had met on the trip. I knew it would be difficult to leave, but it’s all part of the game with scientific field work. In order to keep my sanity, I kept thinking about the warm summer weather and regular sleep we would be returning to. As we waited for the plane I fell asleep leaning against my back pack. Once again Rachel saved my butt by staying awake and letting me know that it was time to board.

As the plane started up to take off, I remembered the wild feeling I had when we arrived. Leaving civilization and going to sea was almost like traveling to another dimension. The world may be getting smaller in the sense that we can connect and share information from anywhere around the globe. But, the more we explore the natural world, the more doors we open for further exploration. Until humans can absolutely describe every natural process on Earth, the knowledge of the planet will always be getting larger. Looking out the window we can see mountains of the Aleutian Island Chain. Huge Glaciers can be seen slowly making their way down the face of the mountain. There may be discoveries within an Aleutian volcanoes down the road that provide new insight on the formation of the continents or the history of life. So long as we don’t loose our curiosity, the world can be as big as we want it to be.

Landing in Anchorage the air is an inviting 80 degrees. At last I finally feel like summer has arrived. This is also a good transition to the 90+ degree high humidity weather in Maryland. Normally we would be able to pick up our bags and head to the next flight, but waiting for luggage from a PenAir flight is always an adventure. We were hopeful that the cooler would make it on our flight because it was only half full. It could be a big problem if it took any extra time to get the valuable samples back to the freezers at the lab. After all of the available luggage had been unloaded, our cooler and none of our suitcases made it on the plane. In my frustration I thought back to Pop Star Aaliyah’s tragic death from a plane crash in an overloaded jet, so I guess it is not so bad to have strict weight limits. Rachel in all her wisdom gave us a five hour window between flights so we have time to wait for the freight airplane to bring our luggage. Thankfully it was only an hour or so until the next freight flight and all our luggage arrived safely. I don’t remember much from the next flight back to the lower 48 states. Only that I fell asleep in a couple minutes and had no interest in watching the in flight movie.

Our final leg from Minneapolis to DCA was one of the most anxious flights I had been on since I was a youngster. I was not quite tired enough to fall asleep, inspired by all of my new experiences, sad to be leaving such an amazing place, and excited to get home and start looking at all the samples we had collected. Our cooler was intact after the long travel period and Rachel and I breathed a collective sigh of relief. Our lab mate Jessica Faux picked us up at the airport in one of the lab’s state vehicles. While loading our bags into the van I had never so thoroughly enjoyed the DC summer humidity. I could feel my blood temperature rise back to normal. First thing returning to the lab was stashing the sample cooler into one of the walk in freezers. Amazing to think about the time and effort put into collecting these samples. Considering the amount of money that goes into a research cruise, I don’t want to think about how much money they are worth, otherwise I might be too nervous to ever look at them. Rodger welcomed us back, and I was finally clear to sleep for a couple days.

Several months before our cruise the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences received its new research vessel for studying the Chesapeake Bay and Surrounding Atlantic Coast. The ship was given the name “Rachel Carson” after the famous author who changed the world and started the contemporary environmental movement with her ground breaking book “Silent Spring.” Carson worked a great deal around the Chesapeake Bay during her career as a marine biologist, and wrote regular articles for the Baltimore Sun. Her other books include “The Sea Around Us”, “The edge of the Sea”, and “Under the Sea Wind.” During the cruise I proudly wore my R/V Rachel Carson t-shirt around the Knorr for which I received many comments. “Great name” people would say. The amazing success of Carson’s work, which has stood up against intense scrutiny by polluting entities, and witnessing natural miracles like the survival of the short tailed albatross show us that despite the rapidly growing force of civilization, we can hold onto the natural world, as long as we are not afraid to work for it.

“For all at last returns to the sea – to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the everflowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.

-Rachel Carson

“There’s no control in life. Wherever you go, wherever you hide, there’s risk… Safety is the greatest risk of all, because safety leaves no room for miracles, and miracles are the only sure thing in life.”

-James Mcbride

-Eli

7-13-09

“When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.”

-Samuel Johnson

Land ho! Those words have new meaning after being at sea for a month, especially knowing that once you reach shore you will be getting off. I am feeling the whirlwind of excitement to be heading home soon, sad that this incredible experience will be ending, anxious that all our gear and samples will be unloaded and shipped successfully, and stoked for a night on the town with the crew and scientists. The mountains of Unalaska Island look even more spectacular than when we set sail. For the moment I am trying to take in the landscape. Who knows when I will see it again.

We waited just outside the Dutch Harbor Port for a tug boat to come and escort us in. It didn’t actually pull us, just made a brief pass. I guess it is all part of procedure to check out each ship before it docks. As we pulled up to the dock everyone headed onto the deck to get their gear ready to be unloaded. There were several men on land waiting to secure the ship to the dock and pile our equipment into trailers for shipping. Crew members operated both of the cranes to unload the many pallets of gear that had been used throughout the trip. Rachel and I held our collective breath as the HPLC instrument crate was hoisted up and set onto the dock. As I was carrying a pile of cardboard off the ship to be recycled I took my first step back on land. “Success!” I thought. “I survived the cruise!” I owe the credit to Rachel and the crew for keeping aware enough not to get knocked overboard. Now I just had to survive one night in Unalaska.

After everything was unloaded and we had completely cleaned out our lab space, all of the cruisers started moving towards the bars. I had heard plenty of stories about the craziness that ensues at the end of research cruises, and had been looking forward to finally getting to party with all of the scientists and crew on the ship. The first bar we headed to was in the Grand Aleutian Hotel. It was a small group to start but others started to trickle in as the evening progressed. Most of us were starving and quickly ordered food.

Looking out the window we saw a juvenile bald eagle. I actually had no idea what a young bald eagle looked like, but they have patchy spots on their feathers. In a way they actually look more grizzled at a young age than at adulthood. I guess you could say they become more refined with age. I was able to get within a few feet of the youngster sitting on the hotel deck without it flying away. I moved very slowly so not to startle the eagle. Unfortunately, as we walked to the next bar, my patience had diminished and I scared several adult eagles away as I tried to photograph them up close. There were bald eagles everywhere, sitting on top of pieces of scrap wood, fish processing warehouses, apartments, ship masts, and of course all over the surrounding hills and cliffs. The natural living symbol of America’s rugged wilderness made me feel more patriotic than any flag or national monument ever had. In that way Dutch Harbor was the most American place I have ever been.

The thick smell of fish billowed out of the processing buildings filling the roads with a strange mist. There were several apartment buildings that provided permanent and seasonal housing to those who worked at sea and in the warehouses. I try to imagine what it must be like to live this isolated lifestyle surrounded by fish fog. Many people feel more comfortable out in the wilderness than in civilization and others just take remote jobs to support their families. Whatever the reason, it is certainly a big change from the lifestyle that most Americans are used to.

We arrived at the Unisea Harbor View Bar and Grill. Apparently this was a real dive bar several years ago and was recently renovated because of the popularity of “The Deadliest Catch.” We spotted a number of other scientists and crew members hanging out playing pool, having a beer, and unwinding from the cruise. Tracy Smart informed me that there is a horse shoe pit behind the bar. “We should start a horse shoe tournament!” she proclaims. In order to get the horse shoes I had to give the bartender my ID. At that moment I wasn’t worried about getting my ID back because I didn’t think the horse shoe game would last very long…

Each horse shoe game would last about three rounds of throws before someone would get distracted. Ebett (University of Alaska, Fairbanks graduate student) and Lucas (3rd Engineer) had numerous cartwheel and handstand contests that would always draw our attention away from the horse shoe pit. I made a few ringers and I think I won a game or two, but the scoring was not very official. The party eventually moved inside to the dance floor. Monday was karaoke night, which made for some excellent entertainment. The highlight was seeing Kent (Captain) and Dee (Chief Mate) sing together. I have no memory of what song they sang, but I’m sure I cheered extra loud. After the song I danced with Dee in what was, thanks to me, surely some of the worst dancing ever seen at the Unisea. Dee told me that “If you don’t lead I will.” I decided to try my best to take the lead, but I don’t think it helped at all.

Some locals really showed off their pipes on the microphone. I think one guy might have sung four or five songs. There were up tempo rock songs, slow ballads, beat boxing, and some pretty good break dancing. It was one of the most lively Mondays I have ever spent at a bar. After the last call at the bar I realized I had not recovered my ID from the bartender. To do this I had to find the horse shoes. For the first time that I could recall, since I had not stayed up till 2 AM while in port, it was actually dark outside in Unalaska. I sifted around in the sand of the horse shoe pit for all the horse shoes. In my “slightly” intoxicated state I was certain that I would not be given back my ID unless I found all four shoes. Otherwise the bar owner would certainly throw me into the harbor for causing him all the trouble of loosing their valuable horse shoes. Luckily I found all the shoes without too much trouble and proudly returned them to the bar to receive my ID. We recovered as many people as we could find (Wes, a grad student from University of Alaska, Fairbanks wondered off and helped some fisherman sort fish) and everyone piled into a couple pickup trucks and rode back to the ship for our last nights sleep on board. There was still a lot of energy in the group so we all ended up talking and joking for at least another hour on the dock.

As we all headed to bed, the only thing I could really think about was falling asleep for as long as possible before our three leg flight back to Maryland. But looking back on the cruise, I thanked my lucky stars that the Bering Sea was still conserved and managed at a state that allowed it to remain such a productive ecosystem that warranted so much scientific interest. If not, we would likely not have come together to study and experience this amazing place, and I wouldn’t have been able to meet all the incredible scientists and crew on the Knorr. After seeing the natural beauty, economic benefit, and American majesty of a well preserved ecosystem, I have new perspective on environmentalism. I always thought conservation and restoration was the smart plan of action, but now more that ever I see it as the patriotic choice as well.

-Eli

"To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them."
-Theodore Roosevelt

7-11,12-09 Last Full Days at Sea

7-11,12-09

Sunday, our last full day at sea. Somewhat fitting that on the seventh day he rested, and we continued packing up our gear for the long trip back to Maryland. In the last two days the weather has gone from foggy, to clear, to windy and choppy, and then repeated the cycle. Our last time point in the phytoplankton degradation experiment was this morning. It was truly gratifying to collect all the planned samples from the experiment without any major errors. I had trouble sleeping last night thinking about all the ridiculous things that could go wrong before we came into port, but as the final hours unfold I am relieved to see everything go smoothly.

Our lab area is looking almost as bare as it did at the beginning of the cruise, as the supplies are packed into boxes for transport. Rachel’s experience fitting everything together nicely in the available space is more and more evident as I struggle to get things together. Many on board have asked if I am having trouble adjusting back to the regular daytime schedule. It’s actually not that hard when you are already tired to begin with, and can’t sleep because you agonize over insignificant details.




Eating in the mess deck throughout the cruise I have looked constantly at a picture of the Knorr next to the Sydney Opera House. In 2007 my father, sister, and I went to Australia and New Zealand while my sister was on a semester abroad at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ. We even saw a concert at the famous Opera House. In over 40 years this ship has likely traveled the globe many times over. It is humbling to think that I got to be on a small part of the Knorr’s fantastic voyage. One of the other students aboard wondered from which room the explorers located the Titanic with their navigational systems and deep sea cameras. Since I have been around all of the common areas of the ship, I’ll go ahead and tell myself that I have successfully retraced all of the history that has taken place here.




















-Eli

7-10-09 Last Bongo Tow

7-10-09

As we continue to head south we are following the 70 meter isobath, a fancy way of saying that the ship is being navigated to stay at a constant depth of 70 meters. The purpose of this is to observe the hydrography (physical characteristics like temperature, salinity, and density) along a constant depth. These types of physical trends in the water column during the summer are set up by the ice cover of the preceding winter and spring. “Everyone (all the organisms in the system) has to play by the rules set by the ice for the entire summer” as it was put by Chief Scientist on board, Ray Sambrotto. This past spring a large mass of ice detached from its original sheet and headed much further south than expected. An observation mooring was moved miles from its original location by a southward iceberg, and had to be recovered and tagged with a GPS unit for later repair.

I looked at the schedule board for the time of our last bongo net tow. For each station we have the time and, which sampling activities will be taking place. From the board I could see that we were arriving at our station, 70m29, at 1:30 AM and that the bongo net was the fourth sampling procedure of the station. As we set up the nets everyone was a little quiet at first. We were anxious to get our last catch of krill and finish up, but sad that our duties on deck were coming to on end. As we waited the MOC-NESS was being received and the operators were looking to see what they had collected. The MOC-NESS (Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sampling System) is a series of nets that can be opened and closed at different depths so that one can collect many samples from specific depths. While they did collect some jellyfish, including one huge one held up by Dr. Tracy Shaw in the picture, they also had healthy collection of krill from about 10 to 20 meters.

It was reassuring to know we would at least get some krill during our last tow, and to spice things up a few jellyfish as well. While the bongo was in the water I did my best to will the jellyfish away from the openings of the nets. Each time I would see a jellyfish approach the nets looking like it was heading dead center into the opening, it would just slide past the edge above or below the net. It looked like we might avoid a lot of the stingy tentacles that could damage our sampled krill. When we emptied the cod ends into the cooler we had plenty of krill and only one small jellyfish. We decided to do a second bongo tow for grad student, Jared Weems (also studying krill). Once again our good fortune held up. Lots of krill and only one small jellyfish. After plenty of ups and downs, we got a final taste of favorable catch. It’s probably best that we end now before our luck runs out.














-Eli

July 9, 2009

7-9-09

The end of the cruise is drawing nearer and it is now starting to sink in. We have finished our last east-west cruise line and are heading south back to Dutch Harbor. Tracy alerted us that this was the penultimate (or next to last) bongo tow. Since we had some poor luck the last two nights I was hopeful that we could bring in a nice haul tonight and tomorrow. We had a bad omen as we looked out into the water, before the bongo nets were deployed, and saw numerous jellyfish drifting about. Considering that we had some decent catches of krill when there were jellyfish in the nets, it wasn’t a sign of complete despair. When the nets came back we had the usual tenticles wrapped around the net line, as was customary when many jellies were in the water. However this time we had a whole jellyfish hanging from the line is the nets were pulled up, something we had not seen before. It made pulling the nets aboard especially tricky so not to get stung in the face by all of the dangling tentacles.

Carrying the nets to the cooler we could feel the gelatinous material collect at the bottom of the nets. Unfortunately, our low expectations were validated. When everything was dumped into the cooler, all you could see was a mass of jellyfish squished together. As we tossed them all back we counted 22 total jellyfish, including the individual wrapped around the line. Certainly a record for most jellyfish caught in the bongo nets at one station. And at the bottom of the cooler, zero krill. We had only one more night to get a good final sampling before calling it quits. At this point we had plenty of nice krill catches, but you always like to finish on a high note.

We noticed in one of Dave Shull’s sediment cores from the previous day, there was a soft coral sitting on top of the sediment. Dave said that no one had noticed it at first when collecting the cores. He could understand why, since the core was collected at 3 AM, much earlier than their normal collection time of 8 or 9 AM. The coral looked like something covered in snow from a Dr. Seuss book. I learned from my sister that Dr. Seuss received much of his inspiration for peculiar vegetation from the Yucca Trees of Joshua Tree National Park. She showed our family pictures she had taken of the Joshua Trees in winter, and there was definitely a slight resemblance to the coral.

It’s interesting to think about nature repeating itself in vastly different environments. Some scientists have theorized that life began at the bottom of the ocean as organisms getting their energy from chemicals spewed out of deep sea hydrothermal vents. With that in mind it is likely that something resembling the soft coral came along well before the Joshua Trees. One can only imagine what types of organisms will come in the distant future that might resemble the coral and Joshua Tree. What ever it is, after watching “The Matrix” again last night for the 25th time, I just hope it isn’t a machine based life form.

-Eli

July 8, 2009

7-8-09

Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 7, 8, 9. At the beginning of each century there are always a number of fun dates that come around. Yesterday was the two year anniversary of 7-7-07, and today I thought it would be a good idea to pick things up with a lighter blog. You can only be serious for so long. My favorite pun joke is one that I made up myself. It’s a timeless classic: Why can’t a female bovine work in the postal service? Because she’s not a male cow. Get it? Male? Mail? Pretty slick, I know. That little gem has ended conversations since I thought it up in high school.

As far as our cruise activities were concerned, Wednesday morning was another dismal bongo tow. No krill again! The otherwise uneventful morning was made more interesting by another trip to the red light district to sample from our degradation experiment. This being the third day of the experiment, I am hoping that we will start to see some interesting changes in the diatoms and other phytoplankton once we are able to do some analysis.

This was also the last day that Dave Shull and the sediment group would be collecting sediment cores. Sure enough, they encountered some good mud and had an extra core for Rachel and I to slice up, and take some samples from. To our amazement, there was a brittle star at the surface of the sediment in the core tube. Considering who gave us the core, I thought of it as the brittle star of David. Two of the star’s legs were shortened by the coring process, but not to worry, Ophiuroids can readily regenerate lost arms or segments (unless all arms are lost). I was a little worried at first as the brittle star disturbed the sediment surface by moving its arms around. Rachel reassured me “Don’t worry, it’s all part of the natural processes that affect sediment.” We carefully picked up the brittle star and sent it back into the water to sink down to its natural sedimentary environment.

After slicing and collecting sediment I was compelled to eat some mud again to compare the taste with the deep core (~3500 m) that was collected earlier in the cruise. To be quite honest it wasn’t as palatable as the deep station sediment, it had a higher silt content as well. That didn’t stop me from having fun and smearing the sediment on my teeth for a nice picture. It was still better than pond mud. Since it was still the 8th day of the month I thought of a new joke: Why was the brittle star afraid of Eli? Because Eli eight sediment.

-Eli

July 7, 2009

7-7-09

On July 7th, 2007 (luckiest day of the century) there was a worldwide global warming action concert series featuring some of the biggest musicians in the world. The event was put on by a coalition of groups including the Alliance for Climate Protection, chaired by Al Gore. Performances took place in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, and Hamburg, with special events broadcast from Antarctica, Kyoto, and Washington, DC. The 24 hour event set a record as the largest global entertainment event ever held, reaching 2 billion people in seven continents.

July 7th, 2009 was a relatively uneventful day as our activities on the cruise were concerned. The weather was foggy and eerily calm. At 3 AM it was still a little light out making me feel like I was in the twilight zone again. There were zero krill in the bongo net tow, something we had not seen since very early in the cruise. This meant that we had no water to filter for the night’s sampling station. And finally, I didn’t have any incubation water to filter until the following morning. The time did give us the opportunity to catch up on some sample processing with krill eye removal, lipofuscin extraction, and analysis. There is always plenty to do on the ship, even if you are not currently collecting samples. The methodical work does give one time to think about what the future may hold for this ecosystem (uh-oh, here I go again).

One half of the fish caught in the U.S annually, and one third worldwide, comes from the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea’s unusual productiveness comes from diatoms (the same type of organisms we are observing in our degradation experiment). Diatoms are large fast growing phytoplankton, which support large zooplankton. The large zooplankton, are then eaten by large fish and marine mammals. A recent study in Marine Ecology Progress Series from the lab of marine ecologist Dave Hutchins, found that a warmer Bering Sea will support smaller phytoplankton, creating a less productive ecosystem. The study was done under temperature and carbon dioxide levels predicted for 2100. Scientists are already seeing massive die offs among marine mammals and birds in the Bering Sea, potentially due to changes in the area.

According to Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center NASA satellite data shows that there has been a 50% decrease of perennial Arctic Ice from February, 2007 to February, 2008. While this is sea ice, which won’t cause sea level rise, it does pose a problem because of the change in albedo or reflectiveness of the region. Ice is light colored and reflects much more light than seawater does. With so much extra exposed seawater there is a greater capacity for the Arctic Ocean to absorb energy and continue to warm. These changes could lead to the type of scenarios described by Dr. Hutchins lab.

On June 7th, 2007 I was actually driving from New York back to Maryland after celebrating successful passage of my comprehensive exams for my graduate program. I got a big jolt of optimism from listening to the Live Earth broadcasts on the radio. It certainly felt like a lucky day to me. For the planet, it looks like 7-7-07 will only be the luckiest day of the century if we are willing to work for it. Otherwise, it will just be like any other day that passed by while we watched the world change at an unprecedented rate.

-Eli