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!
Slow day today, spent all day after waking around 10am, grabbing pics off the computers for my own computer. The framegrabber takes a still picture of what ever you are filming at 30 second intervals. Sometimes it can capture real amazing footage but the quality is not great. There are also handheld digital cameras in Alvin that people generally forget to use often. Stepháne dove today with Pat and a pilot-in-training, Noel. They managed to catch a Grimpoteuthis in the suction sample. It is a small dumbo-looking octopus. Also, an interesting specimen was a transparent, large polychaete about 2-3 cm across & 10-12 cm in length lined with bristles about 1-2 cm ling each. The mouth looked radula-like but I didn’t g et a good look at it because it was seriously degrading so we had to get it into formalin ASAP.
The suction sampler also got a nice red shrimp specimen. I got a very brief look at it because Peter was backed up with his specimen photography & we never got a good look at it. He was keeping it in the cold room. I spent the majority of the night picking through buckets of slime looking for critters associated with the mucus. The mucus is probably a byproduct of bacteria that live in hydrothermal fissures.
