A Research Cruise in 12 Animated Gifs

Hey everyone I went out on a research cruise in the Bering Sea!

Ship tracks!
Ship tracks!

We threw a lot of expensive shit in the ocean. Starting with this mooring. It was called Peggy.

Dropping Peggy in the drink.
Peggy was married to Oscar Dyson, whom our ship was named after. This is truly a case of “if you love someone set it free.”

Then we threw this drifter and its drogue into the sea. It follows all the currents.

The holey sock was procured from a dirty giant.
Oceanographers prefer their drogues to be off-colored holey socks procured from slovenly giants.

And for good measure, we chucked in this ARGO float. OK I lied, we gently placed it in.

Immediately after filming this I proceeded to have a mini heart attack because I didn’t know it was programmed to sink before it turns on. DAMN YOU CLEVER INVENTORS PRESSURE SWITCH!

And then it was SUR-SUR-SURVEY time. And we were all like….

At each stop in the survey, we had definite plan of sampling attack.

Step 1: Get your water from the Niskin bottles on the Rosette.

1...2...3...4...get your samples from the pour.
1…2…3…4…get your samples from the pour.

Step 2: FILTER ALL THE CHLOROPHYLLS!

All the phytoplankton were lovingly extracted from the sea water via suction.
The phytoplankton were lovingly extracted from the sea water via suction.

STEP 3: Capture the sea beasties zooplankton with our bongo nets.

All the hippies were jealous of our double bongos.
All the hippies were jealous of our double bongos.

STEP 4: Process the ensnared sea beasties.

Some pour soul will go through this entire jar and identify everything in it.
Some poor soul will go through this entire jar and identify everything in it.

STEP 5: Examine the rest under the embiggening machine (biologists call this a microscope).

SQUEE! Tiny Sea Beasties.
SQUEE! Tiny Sea Beasties.

STEP 6: Mandatory dance party.

10 days in. Everyone gets loopy.
10 days in. Everyone gets loopy.

But eventually it had to end. And we headed back into shore.

Dutch Harbor here we come!
Dutch Harbor here we come!

Because nothing is quite as nice after a two week cruise as having a beer and watching the trash eagles of Dutch Harbor.

Is this a metaphor?
Is this a metaphor?

I might have created this post because I love animated gifs. I might have created this post in response to this curmudgeonly post. In any case hope you enjoyed it.

This cruise was part of the EcoFOCI program, a joint program between NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center to study the physical and biological relationships in the marine ecosystem and the survival of commercial valuable fish in the eastern Bering Sea. 

4 Replies to “A Research Cruise in 12 Animated Gifs”

  1. Thanks for this! It’s great to see that FOCI is still going strong. I did this exactly track a couple of years in a row back in the mid 90s, and there wasn’t a single camera on board so I can finally show people what I did way back when. Great to see not much has changed. Not that I’d expect bongo nets and Niskin bottles to change much, but the computers look much nicer. :) Did you guys have any problems with fishermen blowing up your gear like we did back in the 90s?

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