The New Horizon will dock in Newport, Oregon on Friday. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite SEAPLEX haiku! Voting closes today at noon Pacific time!
Our first post today is from SEAPLEX volunteer, Jesse Dubler.
Jesse writes:
The energy of the crew has changed the last few days as people start wrapping up their respective research efforts. We will continue to conduct five manta tows daily as weather permits but almost all other scientific instruments were hung up to dry out properly yesterday. We are preparing to arrive in Oregon this Friday by cleaning up the labs and our sleeping quarters. We are also securing everything in anticipation of 40-knot winds with swells up to 15 feet high along the Oregon coastline. Most of us will probably get seasick the last one or two days before we finally dock. Fortunately, this vessel is 170-feet long and weighs 30 tons so it can handle this weather without too much of a problem.
On Friday, we went out in the ship’s small boat to retrieve plastic debris floating around that are out of reach of the ship. Let me tell you… it looks easy to spot the debris from high up but when you’re in the small boat, it is so hard to spot them! We managed to find a few large objects and there were fishes swimming under those objects… it seems like a symbiotic relationship somehow in a way that we do not fully understand yet. It certainly didn’t seem as foul as the name we have given them… “fouling communities.” Another recent small boat expedition found an adorable and remarkably well preserved stuffed dog that we have named “Lucky.”
Obviously, we used the small boat because we can’t have the ship stopping to chase down every plastic bit that gets us—the nerds—excited. Although the ship did reverse course during the middle of the night once to chase down a worthy piece… a buoy! I really enjoyed hunting down the crabs hiding among all those mussels living on the buoy. I must have gotten 60 of them! I get a rush from finding a crab and the anticipation of getting pinched then high-fiving myself for not getting pinched most of the time! Oddly, the bluish crabs seem to be much smarter than the rest and they never fail to hang onto my fingers! When they do get me, it doesn’t really hurt at all but it creeps out the ladies onboard so… I get to hunt for crabs mostly all by myself! Yay! It’s amazing where they find places to hide on a buoy… so many nooks and crannies. Just when I think I’ve caught them all, I spot a large one that so cleverly stayed out of sight until that very moment.
I can’t speak for the others but I sure am looking forward to us hanging out at the brewery in Newport! Of course, all of us are anxious to get back in touch with our families and friends! That said, I feel really fortunate to have embarked on this historic voyage. This is a story I will be sharing to impress my grandchildren after I’ve long since lost my teeth.
Jesse Dubler searches through marine debris for crabs and other organisms associated with fouling communities.
A stuffed dog, nicknamed Lucky by the SEAPLEX researchers, was found in a ghost net. Photo taken by Jim Leichter.
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Jesse: Forget the teeth; hope to hold on to your sanity. Ah….the stuffed dog. Has to become the official mascot of Scripps. Glass case and all. Who would have thought it would have been in such good condition. Or feature it in PR releases and try and find the owner. What a great picture and story that would be. In these times, Scripps needs all the publicity it can get……Godspeed, Charley Fisher, Baton Rouge, LA.
By: Charley Fisher on August 18, 2009
at 9:55 am
Hi Charley,
That’s actually a great idea. I’ll nudge our P.R. staff onboard to consider this angle with Lucky.
I know we will have a live press conference in a few days when we land probably tomorrow in Newport, Oregon then another one next week at Scripps. I agree wholeheartedly that the more publicity we generate on this issue, the more collaboration there would be towards meaningful legislation.
Thanks for commenting!
All my best from the Pacific,
Jesse Dubler
San Diego, CA
By: Jesse Dubler on August 20, 2009
at 1:05 am
Jesse–Cant believe you are almost home! I look forward to hear all of your adventure once you arrive back to San Diego. Crabs rule!!!
Glad you are having so much fun! And DRINK UP once you arrive to Newport. You deserve it! Always great to see your blogs 
See you back in San Diego soon!
By: April on August 18, 2009
at 1:21 pm
“We managed to find a few large objects and there were fishes swimming under those objects… it seems like a symbiotic relationship somehow in a way that we do not fully understand yet.”
I have seen that behavior all the time when I scuba dive, the fish just like to hang under the boat. Aside from the obvious “waiting for food to fall off”, it provides them shade and also obscures their shape from prey who are below them. If you look up, the sun creates a nice shadow of all the fish above you, but not if you are under a shadow already.
By: François Schiettecatte on August 18, 2009
at 6:03 pm
This is actually a well known phenomenon, but we don’t know why it happens. Tuna fishermen will intentionally place floating object with attached radio beacons in the open water. They will later use the beacons to relocate the floating object and fish for the tuna that have aggregated beneath them. There was a large scale study called FADIO (http://www.fadio.ird.fr/finalengl/home.html) that studied this in the Indian Ocean a few years ago.
By: Alison Cawood on August 19, 2009
at 10:48 am
Opps, what I meant to say is that we do not fully understand how the mussels, crabs, and the fishes interacts together.
For instance, we are not sure how the crabs gets there… only the small ones seems capable of swimming – and they can use swimming lessons. We also found a massive crab on a small-medium sized piece of plastic… what gives?!
Subsequent research voyages hopefully will yield additional information on these fouling communities that thrive out there in middle of nowhere. One of the questions that were posed by our team onboard is… whether if plastics are actually helping rather than harming the ecosystem by providing a habitat? Correct me if I am mistaken but this is unlikely… we just do not know for sure.
Thanks for commenting!
By: Jesse Dubler on August 20, 2009
at 1:15 am
“Lost doggie”…I can see it in the headlines now. How amazing to see it in such good condition. He was a lucky dog to be found by you.
Wishing you a continued safe journey. I have friends that live near Newport and I have told them about your return there.
By: shasta daisy on August 19, 2009
at 7:05 am
Oooo… I wonder if we would have a welcome committee when we dock in Newport.
-JD
By: Jesse Dubler on August 20, 2009
at 1:21 am
It’s always a rlieef when someone with obvious expertise answers. Thanks!
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