Sea Log: 2024-02-20

Published

February 20, 2024

We’ve hit the point in this journey that the wacky sleep schedules (and/or lack of sleep for some people1) mean filters are lowered and giggles have gone up. Not all the laughs are nerdy jokes but a not insignificant ones are and I’m here for it. Don’t ask how long we talked about torque last night.2

Amidst the laughter, I’m also learning more about my crew and sci party mates. Like, Grace3 is very excellent at accents and they come out most unexpectedly, especially past midnight. Sam is passionate about physics and surfing and also some Disney movies make him a little emotional.4 Ali really likes birds and is in her birding era. Everyone is at least a little nerdy and/or quirky out here and I expected nothing less. My nerdy data side is also starting to come out–last night I got to help with some stats, R code, and building websites. I’m a happy camper.5

I got my hands on some of the cruise data and am excited to dig into what’s in there. The data docs are full of acronyms and I recognize very few of them… so this should be interesting. Once I figure out what data I actually want, I’ll have to parse it, so this might be a bit of a process. Time will tell.

I’ve also started a new list: things said that make total sense6 on a ship, but sound horrific out of context. The first entry: “You can hose and I’ll be hosed.”7 The second entry: “How big is big?”…“I want a real girthy one.”8

Have settled into more of a routine:9

  • Sleep 0300-1100
  • Lunch
  • Read, use the janky hydraulic treadmill, journal, etc.
  • Linger around and help out with some science
  • Chat with fellow shipmates
  • Dinner
  • Nets, processing, or helping out with whatever other instruments are getting towed in the water
  • Catch up on emails, then rinse and repeat

I’ve talked about net processing a fair amount. Let’s get into a little more detail about what goes on, now that I have a better idea of what I’m doing. Basically, when we pull up the nets,10 we take the cod end samples and process them differently depending on what sorts of analysis we want done. We will split the samples (usually into 50/50 splits, or 25/37.5/37.5 splits), then some get preserved in ethanol11, some in formalin12, and some just get frozen13 in petri dishes for biomass or gut fluorescence analysis. Everything gets preserved and/or frozen together, except for pyrosomes. If we find those guys we pull them out to photograph and freeze separately. A big part of processing the samples (perhaps the most time intensive?) is the size fractioning (aka fracing), where we use different sizes of mesh filters to separate the critters from big (>5mm) to small (0.2-0.5mm). When size fracing, you want to move quick but also be careful to not rip the critters from limb to limb… which is tricky when some of the creatures are very much the texture of snot. Try pulling snot out of a filter, I dare ya.

Of course, the final step of processing is to clean the nets, meaning we hose them down with seawater if the res techs have told us we’re using too much fresh water, or with fresh water if the nets have started to smell a little rank.14

Tonight we did one net for science15 and 4 nets16 for funsies!

three people sitting around a ship deck in adirondack chairs.

The arctic heat lamp counts as the firepit. Where are our marshmallows??!?

image of fog lingering over the steely gray ocean

Watching the fog roll in from deck

Select critter sightings today:

image of several hundred seagulls floating on night sea.

Seagull Convention happening now, get your tickets.

Salp in a clear tray

This is a salp. It feels as gooey as it looks.

a cormorant lingering on ladder on deck

Cormorant be like ‘wHaTcHu LoOkInG aT!?’

Sea fun fact of the day: I finished The Soul of an Octopus and let me tell you. Octopus mating is WILD. I can’t spoil the book, but please read it. WILD I tell you!

Bonus fun fact because the first was basically just directions to read a whole book: From Andrew17 we learned that “two-six-heave” is slang for getting people to do a coordinated pulling effort. Like you might say it instead of “ready set go” when you’re getting ready to pull. Originally thought to come from the gunner positions on a boat, from the people in the 2nd and 6th seat oars, when they’d have to man the lines to extend the cannons.

PS: there is an empty cardboard box left alone in the main lab labelled “BIRD BOX”. Consider me very intrigued because I have 0 clue what this is for.

Footnotes

  1. not me, this boat be LULLING me to sleep every night↩︎

  2. If you have a suggestion for how to better adjust the winch block or wire or bongo net weight, the submission box has been closed now. Thank you for your interest nonetheless.↩︎

  3. Heyo Grace!↩︎

  4. Let’s be honest, a good Disney short makes us all shed a lil tear or two↩︎

  5. Or should I say sailor??↩︎

  6. or at least 87% sense↩︎

  7. The only context you’re getting is that we’re talking about washing nets and donning the appropriate level of waterproof rain gear.↩︎

  8. Grace clarifies that we’re talking about PYROSOMES here people!! Still pyrosomes!!↩︎

  9. And actually have some free time to let my mind wander and/or read books! Now that we’re not running straight up on the learning curve treadmill↩︎

  10. using a winch, because we’re dragging these relatively deep in the ocean, at least 300m, and they have weights attached↩︎

  11. better for analyzing DNA later↩︎

  12. a type of formaldehyde, used for looking at the critters’ morphology and body structures later↩︎

  13. the -80 freezer is the warm freezer. Liquid nitrogen is for the real quick freezing↩︎

  14. Anything “ocean” or “sea breeze” scented in stores is a lie. The ocean smells rank lemme tell ya. Give zooplankton scented candles to your enemies, not your friends.↩︎

  15. aka towed and processed a Bongo. No MOCNESS because the Navy says we’ve gotta get out of this patch of ocean↩︎

  16. a ring net, two salp nets, and then a manta to round out the evening. AMENDMENT: we did 3 salp nets and no manta tow↩︎

  17. one of the ship’s restechs↩︎