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!
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!
ü500++ Tunas collected, more than 600 specimens individually measured at sea
ü90 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. üContinuous measurements of currents (ADCP) from Key West to Progreso and to Miami
üContinuous measurement of flow through (TSG) from Key West to Progreso and to Miami
ü136 net tows (25m): 120 Bongo-90 (240 jars) & 16 Mini-bongo net tows
ü16 Mesozooplankton and 16 microzooplankton samples
ü120 Live-sorted plankton samples ü95 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
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
Before we return back to our corresponding labs, and start to process our samples, we have one more post from one of our collaborators! Dr. Bob Arnone was part of the land-support team which guided our survey with satellite updates and oceanographic analyses of daily conditions. The GOM is a very large and dynamic ecosystem and we can use all the help we can get! Bob and two post-doctoral researchers (Brooke Jones and Inia Soto) prepared a blog post to share some of their work at the University of Southern Mississippi. I hope you enjoy it and next year, we encourage our collaborators to do joint posts like this one to share their land based work as well!
Robert Arnone and Brooke Jones in the OWX showing the cruise track
of the Nancy Foster in the Gulf of Mexico and the daily ocean conditions
"We are Prof. Robert Arnone, Dr. Brooke Jones, and Dr. Inia Soto from the University of Southern Mississippi, Division of Marine Science, Stennis Space Center. Our Ocean Weather Laboratory (OWX) was able to work with the researchers aboard the Nancy Foster during the RESTORE Bluefin tuna survey (NF1704) this past May and early June 2017. We provided daily updates on relevant ocean conditions while we followed the ship's cruise track as well as abnormal conditions that might affect the research results. Many of the ocean products we provided are new, and working with the Foster cruise allowed us to compare the observations from our lab with ship observations. Our goal is to demonstrate that our daily ocean products can provide the Foster a better understanding of sampling for Bluefin tuna. We want to continue to work with the research group to optimize our products and the packages we provide.
"The OWX Laboratory was established to characterize the daily ocean conditions and abnormal events in the Gulf of Mexico. Our focus is to assemble products from satellite remote sensing ocean color data, sea surface temperature, and several physical ocean circulation models to define ongoing ocean activity. Our daily products include the ocean bio-optical properties of chlorophyll-a, turbidity, water clarity, phytoplankton absorption, and particle back-scattering and physical oceanographic conditions (temperature, salinity, currents, mixed layer depth). The OWX Laboratory research is focused on the understanding of the interactions between the oceanographic conditions and the ecosystem. New OWX products also include weekly dynamic "anomalies" which can help us identify abnormal physical or biological conditions that are occurring so possible bio-physical oceanographic events can be identified in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Ocean Weather Laboratory at USM with various screens visually monitoring ocean conditions using Google Earth
"The daily OWX Laboratory products provided locations to the Foster for adaptive sampling to help support optimum data collection and understand how Bluefin tuna are responding to changing bio-physical conditions, as well as identify events such as harmful algal blooms, flooding events, coral reef mortality, and others that may be occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The OWX Laboratory visually displays animated ocean properties in several monitors using Google Earth. These tools provide capability to integrate ship tracks and observed data with satellite and model data so we can coordinate with ship operations.
"The videos below show Google Earth animations of the OWX Lab's animated daily products of the nowcast bio-physical processes (Chlorophyll, currents, and salinity) and the dynamic abnormal ocean conditions with the ship track for the Nancy Foster Bluefin tuna survey for the week (May 22-27, 2017)."
We love to share our collaborators' research, especially when the OWX Lab's main focus is to provide new capabilities for ship sampling so that optimum data can be collected and related to the changing ocean conditions. We hope that the daily OWX products can be used for fisheries applications very soon!
Karen in the lab-van whispering to the flow cytometer!
Hello blog, today Dr. Karen Selph from the University of Hawaii at Manoa shares some of her expert insight into the nutrient-limited world! Karen shared with the blog just a few of the multiple experiments she carried out while on board the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster during NF1704 as part of our NOAA RESTORE project. Karen’s main focus was
collecting phytoplankton to analyze with a “flow cytometer” – a machine that
tells us how many phytoplankton are out there and gives us a rough idea of
their types.
In addition, she
measured water column light levels used for photosynthesis by phytoplankton
with a photosynthetically-active radiation (PAR) sensor that was
attached to the CTD rosette. Karen shared with the blog: "The 6 casts that we performed will yield invaluable information on
the light regime during the cruise."
"The nutrient limiting
phytoplankton growth in the Gulf of Mexico is nitrogen. Nitrogen has
many forms, and most phytoplankton can only use reduced inorganic forms (e.g.,
nitrate (NO3), ammonium (NH4)). However, some
phytoplankton can use nitrogen gas (N2), which is in abundant
supply. This is quite a trick, as the chemistry involved is
anaerobic (no or low oxygen) and phytoplankton produce oxygen!
Karen and Lucy carry out one of the PAR casts
On this cruise, we
collected many samples to figure out which of the larger nitrogen-fixing
organisms that might be present – in particular, Trichodesmium (usually
a bane to those who study zooplankton, as it can clog their nets!!).
Additionally, to assess the base line N-isotopic value for Trichodesmium,
we collected samples for stable nitrogen isotope analyses. We even
analyzed a sample of Sargassum to figure out its isotopic
signature with respect to the other nitrogen-fixing players in the GOM.
Once we get back to the lab, we will also examine our samples under the
microscope looking for the presence of other nitrogen-fixers – some diatoms and
other species harbor symbionts capable of this remarkable feat!"
The dynamic duo, Tom and Karen processed hundreds of samples during the survey
Shaun, Karen's travel companion, makes some new friends
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."
Hi everyone! Today we get to have a unique perspective! One of the crew of the Nancy Foster wanted to stop by and say hello! Meet Angie Fay Ullmann. Angie was our survey technician on the night watch (midnight to noon shift) and helped us safely deploy and recover countless equipment during her watch! She is a NOAA wage mariner, her official position is an “Able-bodied Seaman” and is part of the ‘deck’ department. The science party works closely with the crew members from the survey and deck department as they facilitate multiple and often difficult tasks that include deployment, recovery, set up, break down, winch operations, small boat operations, among many others.
Angie on the bow of the Foster leaving Key West, FL
Angie shared with our blog from her angle:
“I have worked for NOAA for 2.5 years now and have worked on 10 of the 16 ships in our fleet. I am required to do many different tasks on each assignment, but this last cruise really stands out from the rest. I got to work more closely with the scientists and asked more questions about what they were looking for and why. I really enjoyed being more involved and the crew I worked with was a lot of fun and made the days pass by quickly. I hope the data we collected helps contribute to a better future- it gives so much more purpose and satisfaction to my work- even if I don't directly do any science, I'm helping it happen! Before this cruise, I didn't realize the scarcity of bluefin tuna nor that so many scientists try to analyze its behavior in efforts to revitalize its population.”
Angie shows Lucy the ropes, he he
We truly enjoyed working with Angie and hope she will join us again in one of our next adventures on Nancy or another NOAA ship!
On this cruise, I am looking at the concentrations of nitrate, a nutrient required by primary producers, found in the upper 300 meters of the water column. Water samples are prepared using a colorimetric technique that will turn the water varying degrees of pink, depending on concentration, and analyzed at a certain wavelength. I am also collecting water samples from various depths ranging from a depth of 2500 meters and 3 meters below the surface. These samples will be taken back to FSU where we will look at the different nitrogen isotope signatures found in the water parcel.
Rachel examines nitrate concentrations
Think of an isotope signature as a fingerprint, where each source of nitrogen has its own unique fingerprint. By comparing the known signatures of each source to our water parcel, we will be able to determine where the nitrogen is coming from.
Collecting water from the CTD rosette
It is important to understand where these nutrients are coming from to fuel primary producers in order to better understand how changes in nutrient sources will affect the GOM productivity.
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 SEFSCFORCES 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 SVPdrifter 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!
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.
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.
The ship Nancy Foster arrived for the first time to Progreso
in Yucatán on May 19. On Saturday, May
20, we held an Open House event to explain the scientific research activities
we carried out in the Gulf of Mexico. On this occasion we were accompanied by
Dr. Mario González Espinosa, Director of ECOSUR, Dr. Magda Estela Domínguez
Machín, Assistant Director of Fisheries Resources in the Atlantic of INAPESCA, Dr. Josefina del Carmen Santos Valencia, Chief of CRIP Yucalpetén, and Dr.
Alvaro Hernández Flores, Professor-Researcher at MARISTA University, together
with Doctorate students in Fisheries and Aquaculture Bioeconomics at the university. The students of Marine Biology (UADY), led by Dr.
Alfonso Aguilar Perera, Professor-Researcher of UADY Marine Biology Faculty, were present as well as Mr. Manuel Sánchez González, President of
the Yucatán Shipowners Union.
Mike Stukel explains the sediment traps to local fishers
Student explores plankton in the microscope!
While everyone exploredthe ship, scientists explained the main activities carried out during
our campaign in the different laboratories. In the “wetlab,” everyone got an
opportunity to see the many organisms that make up the plankton using
microscopes.
The wetlab is also where each sample is carefully examined to search for tuna larvae and multiple filtrations of seawater take place. In the “dry lab” all the controls for deployment and recovery of of equipment take place. On the back deck, we saw the equipment used to ascertain nitrogen sources in relation to the plankton food-web dynamics in the habitats of the BFT.
Scientists examine specimens under the microscope
Chief Sci Estrella Malca discusses the project goals
This
is novel and exciting because, despite its importance, these research
activities are being conducted for the first time in the Gulf of Mexico!
Finally, on the bridge, the NOAA Corps officers showed us the state of the art
navigation equipment and instruments utilized to safely and accurately lead the
ship to and from our sampling locations.
Mexico and US collaborators
Students and researchers asked questions about our various activities
and were surprised by the great diversity of organisms observed in the
microscope and those captured on the computer screen during this survey. We
would like to thank everyone for participating and to all of the port agents,
the scientists, crew and officers for making this a fun and well organized
event!
Meet Sydney, who has been an undergraduate student intern at the SEFSC FORCES Lab since Fall 2016! Read about her goals for her first research cruise in her own words...
Sydney models our safety gear
My name is Sydney Harned and I'm a junior at the University of Miami. My goal for this cruise is to learn as
much as I can!
This is my first research cruise, so I'm here to gain
some real world experience in the marine biology field. It's been really
neat to see scientists specializing in different
research areas coming together to work on a project together.
Sydney is a pro at running the Bongo net!
Since I'm still an
undergrad I don't have a specific research focus yet, but I'm hoping to pursue
marine genetics in graduate school. For my senior
thesis, I'll be using genetics to determine presence/absence of Bluefin
Tuna eggs at different stations in the Gulf of Mexico from a previous
cruise!
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
