Science from the Spill

End of Cruise – Beginning of Data Analyses

brandts — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:45:49 +0000

We returned from sea in the early afternoon on Tuesday. It was great to get back to shore and see land again. We spent the afternoon packing up our scientific gear and most everyone fly home on Wednesday. Now for looking at the data!

Below are a few photos of us taking the towbody apart and of the entire scientific crew.

The Scientific Crew of the Pelican

OSU at work

brandts — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:27:48 +0000

0730 September 7 – Still at Sea

brandts — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:39:07 +0000

We are still at sea. Our sister ship is safe in port. Last night was probably the largest seas. We started transect ‘C’ but were not able to deploy the fish acoustics.. too rough. We did deploy the Scanfish and collected good data…The instrument only crashed into the bottom once (also not good). Finished the transect at about midnight and started transect “B’ at 0200. We are about to finish that about 0900 or so.

The seas have now moderated but there are still large swells and we have the seas following us. Once we finish this, we will steam towards the bay (about 3 -4 hours) and then do our acoustic calibrations before we head into port sometime late this afternoon???

Video of our stern with waves

brandts — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 20:02:41 +0000

The Storm

brandts — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:29:27 +0000

Our Cruise Track

brandts — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:31:14 +0000

It is now named Tropical Storm Hermine!

brandts — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:56:10 +0000

Scanfish (zooplankton sensor) repair from yesterday

brandts — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:12:39 +0000

1005 today…We have the seas on our tail so are sampling. We will make another weather call in about 6 hours. Sooo for now, just hold on or tie yourself down!

In the meantime, some trivia….

sooo, How many Ph. D.s does it take to turn a bolt?…At least 4!

Fixing the scanfish on the deck

scenes from last night

brandts — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:29:38 +0000

Sunset last night

Our sister ship the Brody Paul

0915 September 6

brandts — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:24:43 +0000

Well we just lost some stuff over the side. A large wave crashed over the deck and washed some things over the side. a zooplankton net remained secured and was being towed behind the vessel at full speed. Not good. We stopped the ship and retrieved the net successfully.

Got to our station and deployed our gear. Trying to get this section in and maybe one more????!!! seas big and with white caps.