For the first time, Rasmus joins us on the blog!

Rasmus and Nancy

My name is Rasmus Swalethorp and I am a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. I am a biological oceanographer with a particular interest in the ecology of planktonic organisms. Up until now most of my research has been done in the Arctic and Antarctic and this was my first research cruise to the Gulf of Mexico.

Fishing for copepods in the sea ice in the Artic Ocean

Compared to the polar seas it was astounding to see the number of planktonic species that lived in the Gulf. While, I am used to only seeing about tens of different species of fish larvae or copepods (small planktonic crustaceans), in the Gulf I was amazed to see hundreds. This high species richness leads to very complex ecosystems that my colleagues and I are working hard to disentangle!

A lovely bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) larvae collected during our survey

This is the second cruise aimed at understanding what makes up a good habitat for larval Bluefin tuna (BFT) to survive and grow. We want to be able to tell where to find these habitats and how much will be available in the future ocean. Much of my research has focused on baby fishes, the larval period of a fish’s life. This is the time when fish, are the most vulnerable to starvation and predation. Therefore, it is also considered to be the period most critical to recruitment: which is the number of fish that make it to adulthood and reproduce themselves someday. Understanding what is needed for a larval fish to survive is of particularly importance to management of commercially exploited fish such as Bluefin tuna.

After all what would the world be without sushi?

That’s where my expertise comes at play. I study what they eat. The more the larvae eat, the faster they can grow to improve their hunting capabilities and to avoid being eaten themselves. So, how do we determine a good larval tuna habitat? First, we need to know how much food is available to the larvae, and then which sources of nutrients are sustaining the food chain sustaining the larvae.

Mike L. and Ramus recover and rinse the ring-net
that has sampled the zooplankton (prey of BFT)

You may imagine that these guys are just little eating machines consuming everything available around them. But despite being ferocious predators, we have found that they are actually quite picky with what they eat. So to determine the availability of larval tuna “food,” we first need to figure out what the larvae are actually eating. This is done through meticulously by dissecting the tiny stomach and intestine of the larvae under a microscope to analyze their diet. As many of the prey are crustaceans, they are difficult to digest, (imagine digesting a crab with its shell, ouch!), so we can identify the species and size based on the undigested remains. By comparing this diet information with what is collected in our zooplankton nets we can see which zooplankton the larvae prefer to eat and how much food is available to them.

We are also studying their feeding habits by looking at their Nitrogen (N) signature. What is a Nitrogen signature? We look at the two naturally occurring isotopes of N (that is different variants of N). This is done in specific amino acids, the building blocks of proteins that make up the body tissues of the fish larvae. The less common 15N isotope is heavier than the common 14N. This weight difference means that 15N assimilated from the food is moved around the larval body and ultimately excreted as waste products at a slower speed relative to 14N. As a result there is a buildup of 15N compared to 14N in the larvae relative to their food.

Nitrogen atoms

Because we know the amount of 15N in the prey, and that the buildup increases at a constant rate for each level of the food chain, from algae to herbivorous zooplankton to carnivorous fish, we can determine how high up the food chain the larvae are.

Some larger zooplankton collected by our ring net

This method gives information on what the larvae have been feeding on the past days to weeks, while looking at the stomach contents only tells us what they have eaten over the last few hours. Also this method gives us clues on other potential preys, such as smaller unicellular protozooplankton that have soft bodies and are rapidly digested and therefore cannot be seen in the stomachs analyzed under the microscope. By looking at 15N we can also tell from where the N is coming from that is taken up by the algae at the bottom of the food chain. We can see this by looking at certain amino acids in the larval tuna where there is no buildup of 15N. Therefore, these amino acids reflects the composition of the N taken up by the algae so if e.g., there is very little 15N compared to 14N it means that the plants are taking up N2 from the atmosphere, and if there is more it means they are taking up Nitrate brought up from the deep.
I am now back in the lab and I can’t wait to start analyzing all the tuna larvae we collected to unravel the secrets of their diet.

Featured Scientist: Michael Landry

As we wrap up this year's survey, the first of two annual research surveys in the Gulf of Mexico for the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program, we'd like you to get to know the PI from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Professor Mike Landry! Read on as he describes his research and our cruise goals in his own words!

"I am a biological oceanographer. I have been on many ocean research expeditions over the years (since the 1970s), but never on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, never on a NOAA ship and never with fisheries scientists trying to understand a specific fisheries-related problem. So this particular cruise is special and a new learning experience in many respects. At the same time, it is also familiar. What we have investigated on past expeditions is how plankton food webs in different areas of the oceans function under different environmental conditions in order to understand the “rules” of why systems vary and how they respond to change. Our hope in this project is to apply the techniques that we have developed and the results from past experiences to characterize the unique aspects of the Gulf of Mexico habitat that lead to rapid growth and success of larval bluefin tuna (why do momma tunas migrate vast distances to spawn in only few small places in the ocean?) so that fisheries scientists might be better able to predict how they might be affected by future ocean changes.

Above: Groups of water bottles to
be sent to different depths
Below: Our filtration set up -
6 bottles at once!

"In this project, we are taking two approaches to studying food-web relationship and rates. One is experimental, involving direct measurements of community composition, productivity and nutrient uptake by phytoplankton, the microscopic plants of the sea. We also measure the consumption (grazing) of phytoplankton by zooplankton, the slightly larger but still pretty small protozoa and small animals that comprise the first 2-3 steps of the ocean food web. This is the “what is there,” "what are they doing,” and “how fast are they doing it” part of the study. Phytoplankton often go through one or two generations (cell divisions) per day, and they get eaten almost as fast as as they divide, so the tricky part of these experiments is separating the two rates (production growth and grazing loss) that are going on at the same time. We have a technique for this, which involves dilution of the grazing impact (using filtered water, changing the encounter frequency of predators and prey) in some of our experimental bottles. It is also important that we run our experiments under natural conditions of underwater light and temperature, so all of our experimental bottles that contain the plankton that we collected at different depths are put in net bags and attached at same depth to a line underneath a free-floating drifter float that we track by satellite for a day before picking up and exchanging bottles for a new batch of experiments. After a lot of filtering, preservation or freezing, and later analysis in our lab on shore, we should have a pretty good picture of how productivity and nutrients are moving through various routes in the food web to get to the specific zooplankton prey that bluefin tuna larvae like to eat.

Tom (L) and Mike (R) attach bottles to the sediment trap array

Mike (L) and Aki (R) hunt for BFT using microscopes onboard

"In the second approach to this study, we will use the tuna larvae themselves to tell us where they reside in the food web and what is the main source of nutrients (nitrogen) for primary production. This information resides in the nitrogen isotopic composition of the amino acids that make up the proteins of the tuna larva muscle tissue, which varies with the source of nitrogen (N2 gas for nitrogen fixation versus nitrate from deep water upwelling) and the number of predator-prey steps that the nitrogen has taken to get to the larvae, starting from phytoplankton. This sounds complicated, but the isotope analysis is easier to do than all of the experiments that are needed to assemble the food-web picture. One of our goals is to see if results from these two approaches agree, which has never been done before for any system because the isotope approach is so new. If this works out, it would validate using the isotopes in future studies, or also to look at changes in food-web structure and nitrogen sources that may have already occurred with climate change, using the muscle tissues of fish samples that have been taken in the past and preserved in museum collections."

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."

Outreach & Education: Nancy Opens her doors during our Progreso Open House

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 explored the 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!

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 Kristen!

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 Kristen Ewen from the University of the Virgin Islands!

My name is Kristen Ewen, and I'm a first year Masters Student at the University of the Virgin Islands!

Kristen deploys a biodegradable drifter

My thesis project looks to model population connectivity of large bodied parrotfish of the genus Scarus within the USVI. The reason why we are focused on parrotfish is because they are one of the largest herbivores on Caribbean reefs. They remove excess algae which allows for coral dominated reefs. These fish are also delicious! Which makes them a huge staple in the artisanal fisheries of the territory. However, their populations have declined recently, primarily due to overfishing, reducing their contribution to these ecosystem services.  To better manage this genus, computer models can be developed to take larval fish found in the water column and trace them back to where they were born.  These sites where these fish are reproducing can then be protected to increase the chance of repopulating the surrounding reefs.

Kristen communicates from inside the wet lab with the winch operator, the back deck, and the bridge during a net tow

Since I am using the larval fish data collected on this cruise, I wanted to come aboard to really understand the collection process rather then just reading about it.  From this experience aboard the Nancy Foster I now have the complete story. I may have come for the sampling methods, but stayed for the cute baby parrotfish!

Beast mode! Kristen flexes her muscles on the back deck

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

Featured Scientist: Meet Vanessa!

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 Vanessa McKague from the University of the Virgin Islands!

Vanessa runs the CTD in the dry lab on Easter Sunday

Hi everyone! I'm Vanessa McKague, Oceanographic Technician from the University of the Virgin Islands! I am also a new mother of an 8 month old boy.  Having a child really changes so much in your life and most of all your priorities change dramatically.  But because I love my job and what I do, I wouldn't want to have to choose between them. I am learning as I go along but I am trying my best to be both a great mother and a productive scientist. I love being an Oceanographic Technician because I get to do all of the hands on science that I love. I work with many oceanographic instruments (i.e., CTDs, ADCPs) and perform calibrations and maintenance as well as program them for deployments and process the data. On this cruise I have been running the CTD rosette.  I work in the dry lab on the computer using Seasave software to view the ocean profile data in real time and to collect water samples in the niskin bottles at the surface and at the deep chlorophyll maximum.

Vanessa decked out in safety gear on the back deck.

At UVI, I work with Dr. Sennai Habtes (who is also on this cruise) in the Oceanography Laboratory.  One great opportunity that I recently had was to take a Larval Fish Identification Course.  I have not had previous experience doing this so it was such a great learning experience for me.  It was very hands on and we all had microscopes to look at all of the samples.  My favorite part of the course was taking an unknown sample and using the skills that we had gained to identify the larval fish species.

Colton helps Mom learn how to identify larval fish! 

What I want to get out of the cruise: Deploying the mooring for the relocation of the St. Thomas CariCOOS/VI-EPSCoR oceanographic buoy. The original location was south of St. Thomas, but now we will have real time oceanographic data northwest of St. Thomas.  It will be the first oceanographic buoy located north of the Virgin Islands in the Atlantic Ocean!  We successfully deployed the anchor and chain with surface buoy markers on the first day of the cruise.  We will then go back out on a calm day in a smaller vessel and use commercial divers to attach the buoy and inspect the site.

Secondly, I just want to be out to sea doing science!  This is one of the best parts of my job and I look forward to this opportunity.  It is a time to focus on collecting data and to talk to other scientists without interruptions of everyday life.  We are all living out here together so there are plenty opportunities to learn from each other and to come up with new ideas and projects for future work.

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!!