For background on the EPR Chronicles, see this post. The expedition was also recorded online at the Field Museum during this time (before science blogs!) and includes dispatches, videos and photos!
Tuesday 11/04 10:45pm
There were 2 egrets outside today. A rather rare occurrence since they occur on shores & streams as wading birds. There were a couple of other wading birds also and we are quite far away from land now. There was a heron that has been on or around the ship for a couple days. It looks a little sickly. Someone said there were a school of tuna out this afternoon, but I wasn’t around to see it. All I ever see is flying fish. It is very difficult for me to do my Chemical Oceanography homework having never attended any lectures on the subject. The book is absolutely worthless also totally unreadable. Even the 1000+ page marine chemistry book in the ship’s library wasn’t any help either. I don’t want to ask Karen or Z too much either, because I don’t want to seem incompetent, lazy or just looking for answers.
Wednesday 11/05 9:40 pm
Well tomorrow is the big day. We should get on ite around 4-6 am and drop Alvin in at 8am. Jim & Todd are the 1st to go down. Jim has been down 3 times before & it is Todd’s 1st time. Bruce Strickrott is their pilot. I have to get up at 3 am to help process SeaBeam data in order to help them find a good spot to go to. No more fooling around now, we have 3 weeks of hard, but fun and interesting work ahead of us. I have pretty much given up on Chem. Ocean. homework. It is too difficult for me & work on it when I get home. All I want to do now is find some interesting critters! I love the ocean, it has been so serene and beautiful today. A turtle poked his head up today. Lots of flying fish as always. Peter has been making a net & plankton tow. I think he wants to capture a flying fish & make it as a photographic model. I love watching the swells. A slow up and down roll. It refracts light interestingly, I believe its the small capillary wafes from the wind on the surface. I believe I will have to stay on the coast wherever I go to grad school. It would be awesome to do a master’s at Moss Landing.
Today I played a lot of ping pong and fussball. I enjoy having conversations with the ship’s crew, I talked with Jerry today for a while. I am not sure what his position on the ship is, but he has been working on different various ships forever and was also with the navy for awhile. He is pretty nice and definitely sea-hardened. He spends 9 months a year at sea. I worked out this morning. 5 min on the rowing machine, inclined sit-ups, arm curls & 6 min. treadmill.
I had to grade lab reports while I was on the Bigelow, so I can definitely identify with reaching the point of saying “screw it” to other work while out in the field. It was the last thing I wanted to do after 12 hours of counting and opening up fish, and that may or may not have affected my students’ grades.