Today on the blog: Kiana returns!

Kiana rinses the Bongo-90cm 

Today, one of our youngest scientists, Ms. Kiana Ford shares a brief post. This is Kiana’s second cruise aboard Nancy Foster and has been volunteering in our lab since January 2017. She is now a Senior at the University of Miami's RSMAS and got back from an amazing semester abroad with the UGalapagos & Isabella Oceanographic Institute in Ecuador just a few days before the ship started its journey.

Kiana makes friends with the locals in the Galapagos, Ecuador

Kiana shared with our blog “my goal for the cruise is to help find some bluefin tuna! I would also like to be comfortable jumping into any science role during the cruise, from deploying nets on the back deck to running the computer programs in the dry lab. My favorite experiences from participating in the oceanographic surveys is to get to know other scientists and crew members, and seeing how everyone contributes to some aspect of the expedition. My research goals when I return to land is to complete my senior thesis examining larval lobster populations collected in southern Cuba during NF-16-02-03. This summer I am eager to begin my internship with  Harbor Wildwatch, a non-profit organization in Gig Harbor, WA. They organize outreach events to educate the public on marine and environmental topics." 

Thanks Kiana! She disembarked during our port-stop in Pensacola, but we will see you soon in the NOAA FORCES Lab in the Fall semester.

NF1802! May the tuna be found today!

Fish eggs

Hello and welcome back to another year of our Nancy Foster Chronicles! This time we are well into Episode 2 of our NOAA RESTORE Project "Bluefin Tuna Ecology." Please check out last year's posts particularly the Return of the tuna!

Top: NOAA Shiptracker map of transit
around Florida
Bottom: Four NOAA Ships meet off the
Dry Tortugas!

Our survey started in Jacksonville, FL, and did a fun U-shaped track around the Florida Peninsula until we reached our study destination: the grand Gulf of Mexico. We even sailed past several other NOAA ships doing work in the area (NOAA Ship party!) to include the NOAA Ships Okeanos Explorer (EX), Oregon II (R2), and the Pisces (PI)! The NOAA Ships fleet support science in multiple fields including oceanographic, fisheries, and atmospheric research.

Join us for another adventure on NOAA Ship Nancy Foster!

It's been a week already, and we are now in the Northern Gulf of Mexico searching for the elusive bluefin tuna larvae. They have been hiding from us, but we are relentless and will keep searching! Our strategy is to target some favorable habitat which is usually in between oceanographic features.

I hope you learn something new during our journey and feel free to ask questions!

We are back home! Last post from the Chief Sci

Scientists and crew sign the NF1703/04 NOAA Corps flag 

First of all thank you for following our research expedition by reading our blog! My name is Estrella Malca and I was the chief scientist for this survey (NF1704) aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster. What does that mean? Each project has a designated person that takes a leading role on the logistical, scientific and reporting aspect of the entire survey. 

One last selfie!
Estrella (Chief Sci) and Samantha (Senior survey tech)

I love to figure out the 'tetris' of things, so this year's cruise has been challenging but fun! Why challenging? Well, usually we have 6 months+ to prepare for our surveys: buying equipment, supplies, assigning scientists and volunteers to participate, and most importantly, securing any relevant permits as well as communicating with the ship's officers and crew about the multiple operational aspects of our project at sea. However, because of our very recent NOAA RESTORE project selected for funding, we had just two months to get a brand new project planned, signed and delivered on time! Without the rest of the science team, there is no way we can come out here and successfully achieve all of our research goals and deliverables!


We had the pleasure to continue to collaborate with several of our partners and also obtained new research connections!

NF1704 Leg 1 scientists

NF1704 Leg 2 scientists

Estrella and Niki deploy our very last satellite tracked drifter

Here is a list of our NF1704 accomplishments!! We were quite busy this  past month as you can see!

ü  500++ Tunas collected, more than 600 specimens individually measured at sea

ü  90 CTD casts: Depths were (300m, 500m, 1500m, and 2500m). The sensors we used on the CTD included temperature, oxygen, salinity, chlorophyll-a and CDOM, conductivity, PAR.
ü  Continuous measurements of currents (ADCP) from Key West to Progreso and to Miami

ü  Continuous measurement of flow through (TSG) from Key West to Progreso and to Miami

ü  7 SVP Drifters were deployed

ü  546 Flow cytometry samples (phytoplankton, bacteria, water column abundance)

ü  72 Elemental Nitrogen (N₂)-fixing organism samples

ü  6 casts with PAR (Photosynthetically-Active Radiation) sensor

ü  207 Microbial Abundances and Biomass samples

ü  95 Sediment Trap Flux samples

ü  78 Thorium concentration profiles (dissolved + particulate)

ü  354 Primary Production and Nitrate Uptake

ü  226 Deckboard Incubations for nitrogen utilization rates

ü  120 Shipboard Nitrate Concentrations

ü  57 Deckboard Incubations for δ¹⁵N.

ü  130 Nutrient Profiles for NO₃^- + NO_2,^-PO₄^3- and isotope analyses (δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O)

ü  95 Mesozooplankton Biomass and Grazing

ü  48 Growth and Grazing Rate Profiles (8 experiments x 6 depths)

ü  279 Phytoplankton Pigments fluorometric Chla,

ü  210 High-performance liquid chromatography  samples

ü  19 ring net tows (100m)

ü  136 net tows (25m): 120 Bongo-90 (240 jars) & 16 Mini-bongo net tows

ü  16 Mesozooplankton and 16 microzooplankton samples

ü  120 Live-sorted plankton samples
ü  95 specimens selected for genetic analysis
*   40+ Open House attendees. Our outreach event welcomed our scientific counterparts, students, professors, and fishermen in Progresso, Mexico

We hope that our projects will fill in a lot of the gaps about the biogeochemical ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico as it relates to bluefin tuna research for the Western Atlantic stock. Our results will be shared with local and regional stakeholders like NOAA, ICCAT, among others. Soon, we will get started working up the data! Stay tuned and read our posts!

Group selfie, navigating into to the port of Miami

Featured today: LTJG Niki Norton

Today’s post features LTJG Nikita "Niki" Norton, and officially welcomes her to the FORCES Lab family! Niki is the current "Florida Bay Operations Officer," replacing LTJG Aras Zygas.  As a part of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, she operates sampling platforms to facilitate scientific research and provides logistical and administrative support to NOAA’s mission.  She shared with the blog: 

Niki  records the flowmeter data into our logsheets

"For the last three years, I was assigned to the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada out of Newport, Oregon, conducting fisheries surveys from Vancouver, Canada all the way down to San Diego, CA.  Along with the responsibilities of being Navigation Officer and Medical Person in Charge, my primary duty was to “drive” the 210’ Fisheries Survey Vessel every day for 200+ days a year

Niki and Loni on the back deck, waiting to deploy the CTD

"Many of the sampling techniques that are routinely performed by research groups on the West Coast to collect plankton are exactly the same as those conducted by the FORCES lab to collect larval fish! 

"This included Bongos, Neustons, MOCNESS, and CTDs on many of the projects.  We performed extensive mid-water stern trawls with a net the size of a football field to catch fish like Pacific hake and sardine. We followed and tagged endangered Resident Killer Whale pods and acoustically monitored beaked whales at 4000m depth.  The remainder of the year, the ship completed Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) transects and hydrographic missions in the Farallons and Channel Islands.

Niki and Estrella deploy a satellite tracked drifter

"While many of the operations may be the same, this new job with the Southeast Fisheries Science Center is quite different - as is the scenery!  Rather than the whipping cold wind of the Pacific Northwest, the hot sun in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico is one of my favorite parts of the job. With the FORCES Lab, I get to work "on deck" to deploy and recover gear, wash down nets, assist with station planning, and see the plankton and water samples we catch up close! 

NOAA Ship Nancy Foster, Brewers Bay, USVI

"When I am not underway as a scientist, I work in the office to ensure that the lab has everything they need logistically to sail each year by assisting with cruise planning and administrative budgeting.  Now that the first year of sampling has come to a close, I am very excited to see what new projects I will get to be a part of and hope to use my background in reef fish ecology and microbiology to explore new research with the FORCES lab – while getting ready for next year!"

Girl Power! The women behind the science in NF1703!
Top (L-R): Sarah H., Niki, Trika, Sarah P.
Bottom (L-R): Kristen, Vanessa, Jess, Alexis

Niki on the bridge

Featured scientist: Loni Mnich

We are wrapping up this year's survey!... but we still have a few more posts from our scientists and will give you the numbers (eventually!)!

Rinsing down the bongo net

Meet our newest UMiami RSMAS marine science graduate, Alanna (Loni) Mnich! Loni has been a volunteer at the FORCES Lab and she shares some of her experiences on her first research survey aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster.

Decked out with safety gear, ready for deployment

She shared with the blog: “My goal for this cruise is get my first at sea experience. I hope to gain a better understanding through practice of field research concepts and learn more about plankton and the early life stages of fish that I can then apply in the lab and in future studies. I am excited to see some cool organisms over the course of this cruise!

“I have been in the FORCES lab at NOAA for about a year and a half. My experience there began with sorting plankton that was collected on other oceanographic cruises, so I am excited to participate in the collection stage now. During the past months I have focused on cephalopod paralarvae as the subject of my undergraduate senior thesis, which I hope to expand into a publication.

Loni takes command of the Bongo and Ring net tows in the dry lab

"Over the course of this cruise I have gained significant hands on experience in plankton collection and processing, including deploying the bongo net, driving the bongo, fixing samples, as well as deploying the CTD. I will soon be able to apply these skills if I get an opportunity to participate in another cruise (hopefully in late July!). Through the rest of the summer, I will be back in the FORCES lab, likely sorting plankton from the cruise and continuing my previous work with cephalopods. In the future, I would like to gain more hands on lab and field experience and I also plan on attending graduate school to expand my studies."

Featured Scientist: Lucy Fitzgerald

Hi everyone, I'm Lucy Fitzgerald, a rising senior and a marine science/biology major at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. Though I've logged plenty of lab time, this is my first experience on a research vessel. This trip is the beginning of my NOAA Hollings internship at the SEFSC FORCES Lab in Miami. I've been on the night shift and am learning the ropes with tasks such as deploying nets and the CTD, logging data, and tracking the SVP drifter buoy. I have also gotten to see a lightning storm at night, fabulous sunrises, and tons of plankton!

My goal is to learn about the upstream process of collecting specimens before working with them in the lab this summer, looking at the age and growth of billfish. As an undergrad, I'm trying to figure out what field of research I want to go into before applying to graduate school.

Karen and Lucy send the CTD to 300m in the GOM

Lucy learns about the array recovery from Tom and Becca

I don't have a specific research focus yet but my research experience has been primarily with paralarval squid, Doryteuthis pealeii, and looking at the effects of hypoxia on the boundary layer of the egg capsules as well as hatching rates/cues last summer and winter at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. I have also looked at the population genetics of the brown Sargassum snail and bandtooth conger eel in the western Atlantic.

Being out in the open water where these species live brings a whole new perspective to my work in the lab!

Featured Scientist: Meet Jason!

Today's featured scientist is Jason Mostowy - read on for more about his cruise and future goals!

My name is Jason, I graduated from the University of  Miami in 2015 with a B.S. in Biology/Marine Science, and I've been working as a research tech in the FORCES Lab since 2013.

Larval lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles)
Image credit: FORCES

My main work for the lab involves processing the zooplankton samples we collect on cruises like this one - meticulously removing fish larvae and other target organisms, fitting the results into our considerable database, and dissecting larval fish for otoliths (earstones, used for ageing studies), gut contents, or genetic analysis projects. I'm also currently working on a project to characterize the larval distribution of the highly invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans/miles) in the tropical western Atlantic. Gaining a better understanding of the early life ecology of this harmful species will help scientists better predict levels of lionfish population replenishment, which in turn can be used to determine where and how often lionfish removal efforts should be performed.

Jason sorts through plankton search for tunas

Jason rinses down the Bongo-90 with
Sarah and Lulu during night shift

This is my third year sailing aboard the Foster. I love working in the field, especially the many perks that come with going to sea - the chances to practice and expand my scientific skill set, the opportunities to get to know other scientists from a variety of disciplines, the stewards rescuing me from my unfortunate cooking for a few weeks, etc. It's been a long cruise for me; I first embarked way back on April 13th, and by the time we reach port on June 2nd I'll have spend 35 of the last 48 days at sea!

This fall - after what I hope will be a commensurately long and relaxing stint on solid ground over the summer - I plan to start graduate school where I will continue to study the factors that mediate the distribution and survival of larval fish in the GOM and Caribbean.

Featured Scientist: Meet Lulu!

Our annual surveys would not be possible without our wonderful collaborators from around the world. We'll dedicate several future blog posts to highlight these individuals, so that you can learn more about them, their research, and the valuable contributions they make to the survey. You can find previous posts here. Today we feature Lourdes Vásquez Yeomans from ECOSUR!

Today’s blog features our long-time collaborator and friend Lourdes Vásquez Yeomans, or “Lulu,” who is one of our most enthusiastic colleagues from Mexico’s ECOSUR (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur) Chetumal campus. Lulu is an ichthyologist in the Zooplankton Laboratory in the Departamento de Sistemática y Ecología Marina.

Lulu sorts plankton samples in search of bluefin tuna larvae

“I work with coastal and oceanic ichthyoplankton (eggs and fish larvae) mainly from the Mesoamerican Reef System, with emphasis on the Mexican Caribbean. ECOSUR has one of the best collections of larval fishes in Mexico! I am also one of the curators of this collection, and always facilitating its expansion. Thousands of fishes in the museum have been archived from the multiple joint-oceanographic surveys carried out with NOAA in Mesoamerican waters, the Eastern Caribbean, Cuba, and the Gulf of Mexico. An added value of this collection is that more than 4,000 specimens so far have been analyzed for genetic ID, so we know with certainty which species it is. One of our partners in this endeavor is the MEXBOL network as well as the BOLD consortium.

L-R: Jason, Lulu, Sydney, and Sarah rinse down the Bongo net

Lulu and Chief Scientist Estrella model their cruise shirts

“On this survey, I am using my skills as a taxonomist to help the team identify bluefin tuna larvae and other resources of high commercial value such as dorado, marlin, grouper, and snapper. My main goal on this survey is to increase my country’s understanding of bluefin tuna spawning events in our territorial waters. Bluefin tuna is a resource of high commercial value that has suffered a significant decrease in its abundance, which is an alarming situation. Bluefin tuna are also a shared resource between USA and Mexico, so we have to make collaborative academic partnerships like our 10-year academic and research partnership between NOAA’s FORCES lab and my Larval Fish Lab in ECOSUR.

The Night Shift! L-R: Sydney, Lulu, Jason, and Sarah

“I hope that many young marine biology students are motivated by this field of research! I think that it is necessary to continue these efforts. I am happy to participate in this project, and I am grateful to Dr. John Lamkin for being part of his team and the Mexican authorities (SEMAR, DIGAOHM, INAPESCA, SRE) for understanding the importance of these investigations and granting our project the scientific permits to work in Mexican waters."

Return of the Tuna!

And....we're back! Back in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), on the hunt for larval bluefin tuna (BFT)! The next two legs of our survey will be focused on finding patches of bluefin larvae (Thunnus thynnus), and studying the biogeochemical habitat in which we find them. We are joined by some familiar collaborators from the University of Miami-RSMAS, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR), and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), as well as some new team members!

A glimpse of some of the new equipment we'll be using!

Why is this important? Well, you may know that BFT are one of the mostly highly sought after fish in the commercial industry, as they are large, delicious, and highly valuable. But this also means that they are being over exploited - which means that the levels at which they are currently fished are not sustainable long-term. Atlantic BFT are highly migratory species (HMS), distributed throughout the northern Atlantic Ocean. However, they migrate south to the GoM and the Mediterranean Sea to spawn only once a year during the summer months.

The FORCES lab studies the early life stages of tunas in order to tell their "origin story." Why do the adults travel miles and miles to this specific area? Are there certain oceanic features that provide a protective nursery habitat for the larvae and increase their chances for survival? Are there certain biochemical gradients in these waters that help the larvae grow faster or more fit for surviving the pelagic environment? How will forecasted changes in this environment affect larvae in the coming decades?

LOTS of water filtration will be involved!

We are incredibly excited to be embarking upon a brand new set of surveys with several new partners in order to start to answer some of these questions.  We even more thrilled that our new research team was selected as one of the few projects funded by the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program! This Science Program funds "research, observation, and monitoring to support long-term sustainability in the GoM ecosystem, including fish stocks, fish habitat, and fishing industries" (for more on the program, click here). The FORCES Lab at the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center teamed up with Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Florida State University, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa to examine the "Effects of nitrogen sources and plankton food web dynamics on habitat quality for larval BFT."  Together, we will use net tows, satellite data, oceanographic models, and drifters, to find patches of bluefin tuna larvae in the GoM and then we will follow these patches over the next few days. Every day we will sample (around the clock!) the in situ conditions and characteristics of the patch, in order to obtain a bottom-up understanding of BFT recruitment in the GoM. We will share with you more as we keep drifting with the tunas!

We can't wait to share this new journey with you!

Don't worry, we'll still show you loads of sunsets at sea

Outreach & Education in St. Croix

Students from St. Croix 7th Day Adventist School pose in front of the Nancy Foster in Frederiksted, St. Croix

One of our favorite parts of our annual surveys is being able to pull into port and welcome local students on board for a small glimpse into what we do at sea. We know this can be inspirational for many young people who may be interested in pursuing a marine science career, and we greatly value these events during our port visits. It isn't often your school field trip takes you on board a NOAA research vessel!

This year, we pulled into St. Croix, the southernmost of the U.S. Virgin Islands. We welcomed two groups on board, and, with the help of the Nancy Foster's NOAA Corps officers, shared what life and research is like at sea.

Students from the AZ Academy try their hand at sorting plankton under the microscope in the ship's wet lab

We were first visited by an all-female group of students from the AZ Academy, who are part of a community transfer project entitled "Diving for Debris," part of the "Pride in Our Seas, Pride in Ourselves" project at the University of the Virgin Islands, and funded by the NOAA Marine Debris Program. Two-thirds of our own science team was comprised of women - we truly value supporting young women who have an interest in science. These ladies have bright futures ahead of them! 

Students from the AZ Academy work together to match larval fish photos with their adult counterparts

Students from St. Croix 7th Day Adventist School check out plankton under the microscope

Our second group of students joined us from the St. Croix 7th Day Adventist School in Christiansted, who work with the outreach and education specialists at the VI-EPSCoR program. 22 students and 3 teachers toured the ship, visited the wet lab, and examined larval fish and plankton samples under the microscope. These middle and high school students were high-energy, and some wanted to stay on the ship and sail with us!

ENS Keith Hanson shows students from St. Croix 7th Day Adventist School the steering controls on the bridge

Featured Scientist: Meet Sennai!

Our annual surveys would not be possible without our wonderful collaborators from around the world. We'll dedicate several future blog posts to highlight these individuals, so that you can learn more about them, their research, and the valuable contributions they make to the survey. You can find previous posts here. Today we feature Sennai Habtes from the University of the Virgin Islands!

Sennai Habtes has been a longtime collaborator with the FORCES lab, since his days as a PhD student. We are always excited to get to sail with him each year! Sennai is a Research Assistant Professor of Biological Oceanography at the Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, University of the Virgin Islands.

"This year I am working with the scientists of the NOAA SEFSC, Dr. Dan Otis from the University of South Florida, and Dr. David Lindo from the City University of New York, to understand how physical oceanographic processes affect larval dispersal around spawning periods. We are particularly interested in two phenomena: where do grouper larvae go after they are spawned, and how the oceanographic conditions surrounding high biological productivity areas in the USVI and Puerto Rico have an impact. Myctoperca venenosa, or the Yellowfin Grouper, spawn approximately 8-10 days after the full moon from January until April, at spawning aggregations sites along the shelf surrounding the USVI (primarily along the Gramanik Bank, on the South Drop). Although we routinely sample for larval fish during the times of year when grouper are actively spawning around the USVI, we have very little luck catching these larvae. We believe this may because they target zones with particular currents that transport the larvae below the surface. During this cruise we are using specialized nets called a MOCNESS (Multiple Openning and Closing Net Environmental Sampling System) to sample the area surrounding the spawning aggregations. This will allow us to determine where in the water column these larvae are transported.

Grouper larva, ~5mm length
Photo credit: FORCES Lab

"Additionally, we are targeting Lang Bank on St. Croix, to determine how oceanographic conditions, which support a high biological region there, influence the transport of larval fish. Along with our traditional measurements of oceanographic conditions, and net sampling of zooplankton and ichthyoplankton (larval fish) we are also using satellite imagery to identify interesting features that may help in either transporting the larvae faster or retaining them in coastal areas surrounding the USVI. These are two smaller studies that we have implemented in this years cruise to help understand how the coastal oceanography around the USVI and PR affect larval recruitment (addition of new fish into adult populations) and connectivity (transport, ultimately allowing for better management of marine fish populations in the Eastern Caribbean."

Satellite image shows the oceanography of the US Virgin Islands, with tracks of the drifters deployed on NF-17-03.
Image courtesy of Dr. Dan Otis - Institute for Marine Remote Sensing USF-CMS

For more on Sennai’s research see his faculty webpage at UVI: http://www.uvi.edu/directory/profiles/staff/habtes-sennai-y.aspx
or this recent news post from the team at the VI-EPSCoR program about Sennai’s background and his research: https://www.viepscor.org/news/2017/4/12/drhabtes

Leading Off

This type of buoy will be attached to the mooring

The first event or "op" of the survey was deploying a mooring! Moorings are devices that are usually hooked up to stationary wire that is secured to the sea floor. This mooring will serve as an anchor for the University of the Virgin Island’s real-time oceanographic data buoy. This buoy is part of the larger CariCOOS System (Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System), which conducts operational oceanography and ocean observing.

This buoy will be positioned on the northwest shelf of St. Thomas, and will collect real time measurements of:

• air temperature
• wind speed & direction
• wave height & direction
• sea temperature 
• salinity
• density
• velocity of ocean currents
• turbidity
• chlorophyll
• dissolved oxygen 

Officers, crew, and scientists work together to deploy the mooring, chain, and floats.
The chain was snaked back and forth on deck to allow safe deployment. 

The floats will help divers attach the buoy to the chains.

With the crew of the Nancy Foster, we were able to deploy the 2,500-pound (1,134 kg) concrete anchor and 300-foot chain, which will be paired with the oceanographic buoy by local divers later this month. Deployments like these can be very dangerous, so the scientists, crew, and officers had several safety meetings to devise the safest technique for deployment. The anchor was deployed by one of the ship's cranes, and the chain was carefully arranged on deck so that it smoothly and safely fed into the water once the anchor was dropped. Each person involved had a specific role and position on deck. Check out a video of the deployment below!

You can find historic data collected by the buoy available at CariCOOS.org.

Welcome Aboard NF-17-03!

Welcome back to another exciting year at sea!

NOAA Ship Nancy Foster in Brewers Bay, St. Thomas, USVI

The FORCES Lab at the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) invites you to join us again as we board the Nancy Foster and experience the wonder of the marine world! The 2017 survey begins in the Caribbean Sea around the stunning islands of the US and British Virgin Islands. We will continue our historical sampling grid from previous years, collecting water and plankton samples.We will also seek out information about the cross-shelf transport of water and planktonic organisms around these islands, and hopefully capture spawning events of commercially valuable reef fish. We are pleased to be sailing with collaborators from NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), University of Miami (RSMAS), University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), City University of New York (CUNY), University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM), University of South Florida (USF), and USVI Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR). 

Later, the Foster will make her triumphant return to the Gulf of Mexico, going on the hunt for recently spawned patches of larval bluefin tuna! We have many new and exciting sampling schemes planned for this portion of our survey that we look forward to sharing. 

From L-R: Scientists Sarah (UVI), Giovanni (UPRM), Jason (RSMAS), Kristen (UVI),
Jess (CUNY), & Tanya (CUNY) enjoy the view as we set sail from Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Once again, we'd like to offer a glimpse into what life on a research vessel is like, as well as introduce our incredible collaborators, veteran researchers, and up-and-coming young scientists. We hope you'll join us!

Check out posts from last year's cruise blog!

Another Year Complete!

A post-storm sunset captured from the beach in St. Croix, while the Foster (far left) is docked in port

Another cruise is in the books! We can't believe it's over already! This year's cruise was defined by balancing new sampling techniques and research goals with familiar methods and regions.

We made history by becoming the first federal vessel to dock in Havana, Cuba, since the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, but also returned to the familiar U.S. Virgin Islands, where we sampled for the 7th year. We updated our usual pre-determined sampling plan in order to explore the dynamics of ever-changing mesoscale eddies, yet maintained the integrity of historical sampling sites. We welcomed new faces on board, including Cuban observers, and rekindled relationships with colleagues from years past.

Some final stats for Legs 1, 2, and 3 combined:

Sarah and Alexis rinse down the S25 net

• CTD casts = 121
• S10/S25 net tows = 105
• Bongo tows = 41
• Neuston tows = 17
• MOCNESS = 74
• mini-Bongo tows = 66
• drifters deployed = 13
• plankton samples collected = over 500!
• countries visited = 4 (U.S., Cuba, Mexico, Jamaica)
• collaborating countries = 7 (U.S., Mexico, Cuba, Japan, Spain, France, Dominican Republic)
• collaborating institutions = 15

We still have lots of work left to do - unloading the ship, unpacking, cleaning, and repairing all our gear, sorting over 500 plankton samples, identifying larval fish, processing CTD files, running chlorophyll and isotope samples, and more! While we get back to work, check out some of our final images and videos from the last leg of the cruise, and be sure to check back for more next year!

Thanks for reading and sharing in our NF-16-02 adventures!

Leg 3! L-R: Omar, Trika, Sennai, Dan, Alexis, Aras, Mara, Ryan, Alex, Kathryn, Sarah, Adrianne, Angela, LaTreese

Aras patiently filters the mini-Bongo sample through find mesh funnels

Time-lapse: MOCNESS retrieval! 

(Video by Mara Duke)

Time-lapse: S25 tow - this was in very shallow water so you can see the ocean floor!

(Video by Mara Duke)

Adrianne and Angela deploy the CTD while ST Nick directs the winch operator

Ryan takes water samples from the CTD rosette bottles (top), then treats them so the
oxygen concentration can be measured back in the lab (bottom).

Omar (L) rinses the S25 neuston net, while Adrianne and Kathryn hold it steady.
Safety first! Everyone wears hard hats and PFDs, and are tethered to the deck with a safety line.

Day Shift Rules! Mara, Sarah, Sennai, and Alexis take a selfie in their safety gear.

Night Shift makes you crazy! LaTreese, Adrianne, Alex, Omar, Angela, Aars, & Kathryn started work at midnight everyday!

We're done! See you next year!!