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Janzie
Junior Nomad
Posts: 70
Registered: 11-2-2013
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Fascinating! We're looking forward to more reports.
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Sweetwater
Senior Nomad
Posts: 915
Registered: 11-26-2010
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Mood: chilly today hot tomale
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I would appreciate knowing when and where your research is posted.
I've been following the environmental disaster known as ***ushima since it began and have the physio-biochemistry education and background to know
what's been going on.
I'd enjoy seeing that plankton data after hearing about its role in the ecosystem.
I'm not looking forward to hearing the DK denial and bullchite that accompanies it when he reads any of this......
Everbody\'s preachin\' at me that we all wanna git to heaven, trouble is, nobody wants to die to git there.-BB King
Reality is what does not go away when you stop believing in it. -Philip K Dick
Nothing is worse than active ignorance. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832, German writer, artist and politician)
When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I\'ve never tried before. - Mae West
Experience is what keeps a man who makes the same mistake twice from admitting it the third time around.
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shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13048
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
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Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
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what a beautiful and succinct description of life at sea!!!
This sentence is so profound and vital to your happiness at sea..."my inner ocean has found peace with the rolling sea around me"
Thanks for taking us along on your voyage and we hope you continue to blog about it.
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BajaBlanca
Select Nomad
Posts: 13196
Registered: 10-28-2008
Location: La Bocana, BCS
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what wonderful writing, Lori! Chance of a lifetime we who are not ocean vessel travelers are having....I am so relieved you are not seasick - I do
believe it is one of the WORST feelings around. Thanks so much for taking the time to share (((:
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Brief update:
As for timing: it will take months, possibly years, for full analysis of collected specimens. Sea-time aboard research vessels is expensive
($30K/day), collecting operations are labor intensive and time consuming, so lots of water, plankton, coral etc. gets collected and then is frozen or
refrigerated for future research.
We are now 200 miles offshore, sunny skies overhead, but clouds on horizon. They indicate a low pressure system heading our way, which explains the
rock & roll ocean and occasional strong rolling swells that knock items off shelves in the mess- only magazines, no damage done.
I'm grateful & a bit amazed that I feel as well as I do. On past cruises I haven't fared as well.
This morning the Captain asked for help on a computer program equation he developed in Excel, and I joined him on the bridge to try to work on his
calcuations. The bridge is the tallest point of the ship, where the movement is most pronounced. Between increasing swells and trying to wrap my brain
around some maritime vocabulary and mathematic conversions, well... for a few moments I worried my seasickness was returning, but not before helping
guide him to an answer to his perplexing problem.
Fortunately, it only took a few glances at the horizon, and a glimpse of a solo whale in the distance, to make me feel well enough to return below
decks and enjoy lunch with the others.
Note to self: do not tell people I teach Excel...
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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DianaT
Select Nomad
Posts: 10020
Registered: 12-17-2004
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Whale-ista
Brief update:
As for timing: it will take months, possibly years, for full analysis of collected specimens. Sea-time aboard research vessels is expensive
($30K/day), collecting operations are labor intensive and time consuming, so lots of water, plankton, coral etc. gets collected and then is frozen or
refrigerated for future research.
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Hopefully there will some preliminary findings that can be used in the her and now.
Sounds like a great research trip --- enjoy and keep writing, and you are taking photos, I hope?
And, while working, I hope you have some fun ---
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Mulegena
Super Nomad
Posts: 2412
Registered: 11-7-2006
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You're a good writer, Whale-ista, a painter of visuals and emotions with the brush your pen.
We're enjoying "seeing" your experience out there, the day the sun and whales as well as "feeling" your emotions and physical experience of handling
seasickness and the weather conditions.
"Raise your words, not your voice. It's rain that grows flowers, not thunder." ~Rumi
"It's the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." ~ Aristotle
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Taking lots of photos, no easy way to post right now. On board internet is limited, slow satellite connection.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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On board ship we operate on 2 time zones: Universal (Greenwich) time, 8 hours ahead of local (Pacific) time, used when entering all research data for
recording purposes, and California time for our work/sleep/eat schedule.
This can cause some confusion: the computers in the ship's science lab show the universal time. This where all the incoming data from the CTD is
received at 24 bits of Information per second once the device is lowered overboard, and we write down key data as the device is lowered and raised.
The computer clocks were changed to universal time, but after some late night confusion, I asked the technician to also set them to 24 hour clock.
This was done to make it easier to convert local time to international time on the recording logs since we found, after 10+ hours of work, math skills
tend to get a bit fuzzy. Plus, after 4 pm, we have to adjust our date as well as time as we record incoming information.
Adding to the timewarp is the sun: it is still warm and bright at 10 PM, before descending to colorful sunsets on the far, blue edge of the sea. Stars
are hard to see: the sun is only slightly below the curve of the earth, so while Polaris (North Star) makes an appearance, straight overhead (we are
around 50 degrees north), the other stars remain obscured from view by the glow of sunlight only a few degrees below the horizon.
Even when I stay up til 1 am, the stars remain elusive. My shift is 11:30 am- 11:30 pm, and I don't want to stay up too late and be tired next shift.
The odd end/start time was done to accomodate the meal schedule: breakfast at 7, lunch 11:30, dinner at 5 (1700). With this schedule each shift will
only miss one meal, or, if they choose, they can stay up "late" or wake up "early" (relative time) to eat with the rest of the crew.
Also, there are always leftovers in the cooler and helpful notes from the cook to tell the sleeping crew what's available for them when they awaken.
She will even label plates with names so everyone will have a good meal waiting for them- nice touch!
Once my team finishes work I enjoy taking photos, looking for whales (few and far away) and birds (many and near the ship), and talking with members
of the crew or the young researchers who are collecting data for their thesis or classes. Most are students who are excited to be at sea, and we stay
up late in the mess, enjoying the novel experience which will end in a few short days.
The crew is different. I approach conversations with them more cautiously since the captain, mates, engineers and cook are getting a little "crispy"
around the edges (the cook's description) after being at sea for several weeks. I've learned to give them their space, which is normally a premium on
a boat this size, although this cruise is a bit different: fewer researchers than usual.
We have only 15 people aboard, which is considered a skeleton crew- often there would be more researchers, sleeping 2 to a cabin (each cabin has 2
bunks) and working on opposite shifts. This time, we have the luxury of "private" cabins, with a head (shower and toilet) shared between 2 cabins, and
a sink in each cabin for handwashing, teethbrushing etc.
Sleeping quarters for students, technicians, engineers, cook and volunteers (only 2 this trip) are on the lower engine-level deck; I wear ear-plugs to
bed to dampen the engine noise. The Chief Scientist, Captain and mates are above the mess, just below the bridge. Quieter, but more ship movement up
higher.
On the "main" deck level, forward of midship, is the mess hall, library with books, magazines and DVDs. To the rear on the same level are the science
areas: the "dry" computer lab for collecting the streaming data from the CTD, and adjacent to that is the "wet" lab for filtering, organizing,
labelling and storing water and other specimens brought up by the equipment.
This cruise is working only with water samples, which are relatively easy and clean to collect and process. Another time I went out and collected
deep-water mud- a messy and smelly process.
Unfortunately for us, one of the previous research teams, collecting coral samples or some other living critters, left, well, something that used to
be alive behind. It is now decomposing and causing a stink in the wet lab. We have yet to find the source of this smell, so we avoid the wet lab
unless we have specimens to label/store.
The working outdoor wet deck with the CTD is immediately outside the labs, making control of the remote device easier, and transfer of samples from
CTD bottles to fridge/freezer pretty efficient, unless....whale!
(Short pause to grab binoculars, run to deck, climb to 2nd level and watch 2 or 3 sperm whales cruise past, off the port side. Beautiful!)
...unless they require absolutely "clean" handling, which entails two people holding collection equipment, one person wearing gloves and being careful
not to touch anything that might contaminate the collected seawater. The samples are single or double sealed in plastic bags and placed in
fridge/freezer (depending on what's been collected), and stored until we reach shore.
The first 36 hours we had research stations every 60-90 minutes, creating a very rapid pace with little time for rest. Now stations are 2-3 hours
apart, affording more time for whalewatching, reading...and updating these posts.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Fwd: News Release - Tiny marine organisms reflect ocean warming - Images
See: http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2006/forams-images.h...
FYI, this article/news release includes photos from my first volunteer ocean research voyage, in 1992, aboard a Scripps Institution of Oceanography
vessel in the Santa Barbara basin. We were using cores lowered deep into the ocean floor, looking at 1400 year old sediments.
This article was published a few years ago, based on research done by a graduate student who worked with the original researchers who did the
off-shore collection.
So when preserved and stored properly, the samples collected on these voyages can be used for various studies for years, even decades, after the
initial recovery is done.
That's good, since collecting them is labor intensive and expensive.
But storage is also expensive if it requires freezing or refrigeration. So...the cost of doing science continues to escalate, and often funding in the
US does not keep up.
The researcher who has asked for us to collect water for the cesium investigation is based out of Woods Hole, MA. He has received some funding from
the National Science Foundation, but also relies on crowd sourcing contributions from people who want to support his research.
Likewise, surfers in Santa Cruz collect and send him samples they collect offshore, near their surfing spots, and pay approximately $500 per specimen
for analysis, shipping etc.
"Crowd sourcing" to do science in the US is becoming a necessity, as the federal budget shrinks.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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wessongroup
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21152
Registered: 8-9-2009
Location: Mission Viejo
Member Is Offline
Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold
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Thanks .. 
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Whale-ista
Fwd: News Release - Tiny marine organisms reflect ocean warming - Images
See: http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2006/forams-images.h...
FYI, this article/news release includes photos from my first volunteer ocean research voyage, in 1992, aboard a Scripps Institution of Oceanography
vessel in the Santa Barbara basin. We were using cores lowered deep into the ocean floor, looking at 1400 year old sediments.
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This is really interesting. I was a member of a staff that did a very similar study by USC in the early 70's. I can remember lowering the core sampler
sometimes to over 5000' feet in some spots near Tanner Bank. The deep ones took an hour to hit bottom. The water was just above freezing down there
and when we brought them up the critters were really stressed by the warmer temps. Our labs were much more primitive than yours. Nothing was stored
and frozen. While the next core was being lowered we sifted all the inverts out of the mud and preserved them in formalin solutions.
Collecting was the best part of the work. The lab work back at USC was much less enjoyable. All criters had to be separated and identified. That took
days and weeks of microscope work.
We should get together and share stories some day.
[Edited on 8-1-2014 by Skipjack Joe]
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Cruise updates with photos available at...
http://sandiegofreepress.org/2014/08/north-pacific-dispatche...
They are running my notes/blogs and can add photos as I send them.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Hiroshima anniversary
Hiroshima was devastated by radiation on August 6 1945. I visited Hiroshima in 2010, 1 year before the earthquake and devastating tsunami destroyed so
many coastal towns in Japan.
Japan’s troubles with radiation continue to this day. Our research vessel, the Pt. Sur, is collecting deep ocean water in previously untested regions
in the north pacific, to look for cesium- a marker from the radiation leaking from ***ushima.
As I write this nearly 2 tons of ocean water has been collected and stored in 20 liter containers that now sit on the deck across from me. Im about
to collect another 3 samples, label them and add them to our storage boxes.
The samples are so heavy the captain has tranferred fuel away from the starboard tank to adjust for the added weight.
Despite the time, money and effort expended to gather and transport these samples no one questions the value of the information we will carry back, 20
liters at a time.
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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SFandH
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7084
Registered: 8-5-2011
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Whale-ista
Hiroshima was devastated by radiation on August 6 1945. I visited Hiroshima in 2010, 1 year before the earthquake and devastating tsunami destroyed so
many coastal towns in Japan.
Japan’s troubles with radiation continue to this day. Our research vessel, the Pt. Sur, is collecting deep ocean water in previously untested regions
in the north pacific, to look for cesium- a marker from the radiation leaking from ***ushima.
As I write this nearly 2 tons of ocean water has been collected and stored in 20 liter containers that now sit on the deck across from me. Im about
to collect another 3 samples, label them and add them to our storage boxes.
The samples are so heavy the captain has tranferred fuel away from the starboard tank to adjust for the added weight.
Despite the time, money and effort expended to gather and transport these samples no one questions the value of the information we will carry back, 20
liters at a time. |
Perhaps next time take a gamma ray spectrometer with you to test for Cs-137. Much better than hauling tons of water around in 20 liter bottles.
Just a thought.
[Edited on 8-7-2014 by SFandH]
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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The researcher doing the cesium studies is at Woods Hole in MA and wants Pacific water for additional work. So... No spectrometer/Geiger counter on
board.
Now...
Home from the sea. Docked this morning.
Exploring the lonely docks of Eureka after entering the harbor thru thick fog, surrounded by piles of cut trees. I was last here 24 years ago, during
"Redwood Summer." The logging industry has changed since then.
First steps on dry land in 12 days. My legs are still making small adjustments, so the ground seems to move and quake ever so slightly underfoot.
Ahh, terra firma...if only the neurons firing in my brain trusted the muscles stabilizing my feet.
And while we ate very well at sea, it was an alcohol-free voyage. Which means the glass of northern Californian Anderson Valley Pinot noir I just
consumed with a local organic veggie salad was all the more delicious.
Yes.... Good to be back. Now to rent a car and continue my southern migration...
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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danaeb
Senior Nomad
Posts: 991
Registered: 11-13-2006
Location: San Diego; El Centenario
Member Is Offline
Mood: groovy
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Great trip report. Thank you!
Experience enables you to recognize a mistake every time you repeat it.
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Farewell Pt. Sur! I enjoyed our time together. One last look before driving south thru the horrific fires of Humboldt and Mendocino counties.
Now at San Jose airport, awaiting final leg of travels to complete the San Diego -Seattle - anchorage- Dutch Harbor- North Pacific Ocean- eureka-
circuit. A long and full 2 weeks!
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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