charismaticmicrofauna

As a first year grad student, I have had a lot of personal challenges on this trip. There have been tremendous highs and depressing lows. Science at sea is about seizing every moment that you can and making the most of every moment that is possible. This is especially true in the case of my boss and mentor who runs non stop to the aft deck of the ship where the deep sea worms that we collect are incubating in pressurized vessels full of sulfides and back to the bough end of the ship where the laboratory equipment is that we use to test the samples of water collected from the worms to see if they are breathing and growing, and also investigating the rate at which they do these things. The time scale at which we do these things is of critical importance or else the data that we collect is not relevant. Sometimes, things go “tits up”, as my mentor KT says.

Today I was supposed to go to the bottom of the sea in the Alvin. I was told on Friday that I would be going on Sunday and Sunday I was told Monday. Today was my last chance to dive for this cruise and in the morning right before launch a leak in a line was found and it set the planned dive back by 5 hours. By 2:30 it was announced that the dive was cancelled for the day and I lost my chance. There will be another chance for me in two years, so all is not lost. I was excited to be a part of the pre-dive briefing, and the expedition planning phase. I feel well prepared for the next cruise and my next opportunity to dive in the Alvin.

I have had a lot of stressful days navigating the ever changing methods and perpetually shifting objectives of the research on this ship. Sometimes our methods don’t workout the way we would like because chemistry and biology are sensitive and our organisms even more so. Today we found an unexpected microbial colony living in our respirometer tanks and had to change our strategy for our growth conditions. At this point we are 3/4 of the way through our cruise and we don’t have a lot of time left to make the most of the grant that was awarded to us from our funding agents, but that’s research science.

Tonight there are sharks feeding on baby bonito fish off of the starboard deck. We have had a stranded egret for who we fish for squid so that it will have sustenance until we get close enough to land and it can fly away. Although, the crew feeds it so much, I’m pretty sure it’s here to stay. One of the deck bosses caught a 3 foot mahi today, and last week we had a pod of pilot whales pass us by for at least a half an hour. There were also two giant sea turtles caught up in a net together that the crew rescued and released.

I have overcome a lot of personal hurdles during the two weeks that I have been out here in the East Pacific. Every morning I wake up and stare at the sunrise over the seemingly endless ocean. I am changed forever, and only for the better.