Today’s post was written by Lara Dickens. Lara is a science teacher at Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, CA. She was chosen through a competitive application process to go on the cruise. After the cruise, Lara will work to develop classroom activities based on her at sea experience.
Lara writes:
I’m Lara Dickens and I am participating in the Teacher at Sea program during SEAPLEX. In addition to raising awareness about the Pacific Garbage Patch, I will be using this experience to inspire more students to take paths that lead them to science careers. I have already learned a lot and I have loved every minute of our adventure, and it is only the second day.
Practice samplings, equipment calibrations, safety meetings, and safety drills consumed the first 24 hours. We needed to make sure everything was okay before we get too far away to turn back if needed. We also needed to get a control data set to compare to the gyre. The big issue so far: the soda machine in the galley was not functioning well. But it’s all good now.
Things have calmed down now that everyone has a place to work and knows the routine of the ship, and gotten some sleep. I get the pleasure of assisting during the night shift. It is the most exciting time to be up and about. The ocean is a very different place when the sun goes down. Critters of all sorts come to the surface to feed. We collected vampire squid, beautiful jellyfish (we think that it was Periphylla periphylla ), and a rat tail fish just to name a few.
Periphylla periphylla in Monterey Canyon Picture from jellieszone.com
A rat tail fish Picture from pmel.noaa.gov
Biological sampling equipment includes the manta net (water surface), bongo nets (below surface) and Oozeki net (mid water trawl). All three of these pieces of equipment collect specimens at different depths in the water column. The CTD (conductivity, temperature, and depth) equipment measures the biological and physical properties of the water. It also collects water samples from different depths as it rises. Only one piece of equipment can be in the water collecting at a time … so as one comes in, the next goes out and the lab gets busy analyzing and preserving the fresh samples.
The sun is up now and I’m going to bed!
The sun sets on August 3rd as the New Horizon heads west.
Subscribe via RSS Feed
I just wanted to compliment you guys on how informative your blog posts are. You are doing a great job!
By: Alexis on August 4, 2009
at 11:55 am
Thanks so much! I’ll be sure to pass that along to the people on board the ship.
By: Alison Cawood on August 4, 2009
at 12:24 pm
Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience with us on this blog. I will be following along and learning from you. Your photographs are amazing. That sunset is breath taking! The colors in the jelly fish are so vivid. Was that taken by a mounted underwater camera or by a diver?
By: shasta daisy on August 4, 2009
at 1:09 pm
Lara,
Your such an amazing woman, as a fellow teacher I can say that I am proud that I am in the same profession as as pesron such as yourself. You make everyone that grew up on Aragon Drive very proud.
By: Paul Hernandez on August 6, 2009
at 5:00 pm
wow these pics are so awesome!! the blogs that you guys have up are so informative.thanks
By: kassandra Pedraza on August 8, 2009
at 12:42 pm
why are you guys investigating so much if you’re not going to be able to clean it up! &
what the hell is a vampire squid?
By: Diana Magana on August 8, 2009
at 5:50 pm
We are investigating it because that is what scientists do! We try to understand the world around us and how the different parts of that world (animals, humans, human debris, etc.) impact each other. Vampire squid are gelatinous open ocean squid that live at 400 to 1200 meters depth. There is nice website at http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=179.
By: Alison Cawood on August 8, 2009
at 6:38 pm
[...] SEAPLEX Day 11 Part 2 Our second post comes from our Teacher at Sea, Lara Dickens. Lara is a science teacher at Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, CA. This is Lara’s second blog post. [...]
By: SEAPLEX Day 11 Part 2 « SEAPLEX on August 12, 2009
at 2:33 pm