Blog guest post: Ofelia Morales Fadragas and Yoandry Montes Pérez, our Scientists from Cuba

In honor of our multi-lingual collaborations, we'd like to share this post about our special guest scientists in both English and Spanish! Scroll for your language of choice!

Spanish:

En este crucero los investigadores Ofelia y Yoandry fueron invitados a participar en la expedición del barco Nancy Foster con el objetivo de compartir con nosotros sus conocimentos sobre la hermosa isla de Cuba y de conocer las características hidrometeorológicas de los mares de Cuba y sus alrededores.

Above: Ofelia sorts through plankton on the microscope,
Below: processing samples for trophic studies

Una de las lineas de investigacion de este crucero oceanografico se relaciona con la abundancia y la conectividad de las especies marinas con las características físicas de la zona con los Estados Unidos, el Golfo de Mexico y el Caribe Occidental. Al mismo tiempo, el plan de muestreo se modifica segun las metas cientificas y las condiciones hidrodinamica de la zona, principalmente las corrientes marinas. 

MSc. Ofelia Morales Fadragas del Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras (CIP) que realiza evaluaciones biológicas-pesqueras de la langosta (P. argus), para el manejo y conservación del principal recurso pesquero de Cuba, y con gran interés en la evaluación de la conectividad de la especie en el Atlántico.

El Ing.Yoandry Montes Pérez de GEOCUBA Estudios Marinos (GEOEM) dedicado a la oceanografía física, que ha participado en cruceros realizados en el Norte y Sur Occidental de las costas de Cuba, Canal de Yucatan y Golfo de Mexíco. 

Yoandry on the back deck ready for the next station

Durante este crucero del Nancy Foster Yoandry nos comparte que: me he interesado y he ejecutado las mediciones del CTD, del ADCP de casco realizando mediciones datos en tiempo real, los ADCP colocados en la rosseta del CTD, los XBT y la batimetria hecha en el Bajo de San Antonio, de especial interes porque no se habia realizado nunca una batimetria en esa zona con Multibeam.

Esta expedición es una gran experiencia y sentimos gratitud de poder participar y compartir con el grupo cientifico y con la tripulacion en investigaciones marinas de conjunto con la NOAA, el departamento de CIMAS de la University of Miami, el Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) y ECOSUR de México.


English:

Ofelia and Yoandry were invited to participate in the research expedition aboard the Nancy Foster in order to share their knowledge regarding the beautiful island of Cuba and to gain a better understanding of the hydrological characteristics of the island and its surroundings.

One of the research objectives of the oceanographic survey is to examine the abundance and connectivity of marine species along with the corresponding physical characteristics of the region between the U.S., the Gulf of Mexico, and the Western Caribbean. In addition, the sampling strategy is adapted depending on the scientific question and the hydrodynamic conditions of the area, mainly real-time ocean currents.

Ofelia in the dry lab

Ofelia Morales Fadras (MSc) joins us from the Center for Fisheries Research (Centro de Investigaciones Pesqueras, CIP). This institute carries out Caribbean spiny lobster (P. argus) stock assessments with the goal of improving management and conservation of Cuba’s main fisheries resource. They are also very interested in assessing the connectivity of the Caribbean spiny lobster in the Atlantic with relation to Cuba.

Yoandry Montes Perez (Ing.) joins us from GEOCUBA Estudios Marinos (GEOCUBA Marine Studies). GEOCUBA is dedicated to physical oceanography in and around Cuba. Yoandry has participated in multiple surveys carried out both in the North and Southwestern Cuban coastline, in the Yucatan Channel, and in the Gulf of Mexico.

During the Nancy Foster survey, Yoandry shared with us: "I was very interested in the physical component of the research survey and I have been able to carry out CTD, real-time ADCP, LADCP (connected to the CTD rosette), XBTs, and observe the Multibeam mapping that took place in the Banco de San Antonio. This mapping was very special because it had never been carried out in this region."

This survey has been a great experience and we are grateful that we were able to participate along with NOAA, CIMAS (University of Miami), the Instituto Espanol de Oceanografia (IEO), and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), Mexico. We were able to share with the scientists and with the crew throughout the cruise.

(L-R): Scientist Leif, Sr. Survey Technician Samantha, and Guest Scientist Yoandry with the CTD on the back deck