We’ve headed back a bit more inshore from our deep water station, and are collecting samples to the southwest of Catalina Island (pictured above, illuminated by the light pollution on its other side). The weather has turned cool and rainy, almost like it suddenly remembered it was February, and shouldn’t be warm and sunny all the time. We got a good core here, but sadly the bottom waters were not anoxic. That’s good news for the organisms that live there, of course, but those of us hoping to study low oxygen conditions on the seafloor were disappointed. We have our fingers crossed that we find what we need at last basin, which we arrive at tomorrow: San Pedro Basin on the other side of Catalina Island.

I think the water sampling people are pretty happy, though. They look happy in this picture below, don’t they? A nearby seal has been happy all night, too, eating the school of fish that’s gathered in the lights of the ship.