Monthly Archives: October 2013

A big pod of dolphins, maybe 30 or so individuals, came by to check out the ship today. This is not uncommon at sea: dolphins love to play in the bow wake of moving ships. Unfortunately, we were stopped for … Continue reading →

URI oceanographer David Ullman tends to two birds at once: the Seabird instrument package on the CTD as we prep it for a cast; and this songbird that looks relieved to recognize other land animals 100 miles offshore.

Pity the physical oceanographers. They were all fired up to spend 13 hours overnight on the fantail, watching the uCTD (a small, portable CTD capable of rapidly profiling the water column) go up and down. Different strokes for different folks, … Continue reading →

My name is Kai Ziervogel and I am a research associate in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am studying metabolic rates of bacteria in the ocean, focusing on bacterial activities … Continue reading →

One of the fun aspects of this cruise is the diversity of scientists on board. Every night we have a science meeting, in which we discuss any potential changes in sampling plans, problems that might have cropped up during the … Continue reading →

We started our trip with a day’s worth of classroom lectures on how to run an effective scientific cruise. The two recurring themes were: It is critical to carefully plan every aspect of your cruise, and changing conditions will nullify … Continue reading →

Cheers from the night watch! The map shows where we at now and the route we have passed since we started (for an updated route go here). As you can see in the route, last night we were just off … Continue reading →

Actually I think a similar fate befalls millions (billions?) of worms every day due to ocean dredging, bottom trawling, etc. Still, you’ve got to feel sorry for this little polychaete: just sitting buried in the sediment, happily siphoning a midnight … Continue reading →

Howdy, my name is Will Fortin and I’m the seismologist among of this cast of scientists!  I am currently finishing my graduate work in geophysics at the University of Wyoming where much of my work is in seismic oceanography.  I … Continue reading →