June 15, 2009

6-15-09 --Post written by Eli

Cruise life is a bit of an adjustment. The main difference is changing my sleeping schedule to the night shift. I'm a little off, but I think I'll catch on in few more days. Getting around the ship hasn't been too difficult, we're pretty stable (and I'm taking fewer wrong turns as I figure the place out). Running on the treadmill is a bit of a challenge. One of my favorite adjustments is the food. I thought I had died and gone to heaven after our first couple of meals on board. Rice and steak, my two main staples (ground beef at home), have been plentiful. The cooks are more than willing to make whatever type of food you need, and will save a plate if you are unable to make it during mealtime. The galley is also a great place to chat with other scientists on board and the crew who work around the clock to keep the ship running smoothly. The captain told me a story about free diving to work briefly under another ship in the Pacific Ocean. Without any warning he got the wind knocked out of him by a "playful" dolphin. "I thought I got hit by a linebacker," he said. Once he caught his breath, he dove back down to finish his job and the dolphin hit him again. A friend got his attention after he surfaced and said
"I think you should head back down again."
"Why," said the captain. "I'm done working on this spot."
"I know, but I want to get a picture of the dolphin slamming into you again."

Even without dolphins, I knew I was in heaven after we pulled in our first krill tow. It was chilly (about 43 F) and a little windy, but we were outfitted with steel toed rubber boots, rain bibs, rubber gloves, and hard hats. The seas were calm which made the experience all the more enjoyable. Since the captain had informed me that he had maneuvered the boat with scientists on deck during Deadliest Catch style conditions (waves crashing over the bow), I felt pretty fortunate. The ideal time to catch krill is during the darkest period of the night when they come up the water column to feed. At 2:30 AM the bongo nets (2 adjacent long cone shaped nets about 2 feet across and 17 feet long with collection jars called cod ends at the bottom of the nets) were lowered into the water and towed for several minutes. When we pulled the nets up they were covered with brown phytoplankton. We poured the contents into a cooler and Tracy Shaw and Megan Bernhardt (krill experts) searched through the water for krill. Unfortunately there were not enough individuals for any experiments or analysis. However, the nets collected many blue bioluminescent copepods, which would flash while we hosed off the nets. It was like swinging a butterfly net through the sky and catching a cluster of blue stars.

If a slow night of sampling can generate this much excitement, I can only imagine what lies ahead as we encounter much much more of what the Bering Sea has to offer.

-Eli