Representing the conventional 'top predators', Mitch Rider from the UM Shark Lab joins the #NF1802 blog

One of our graduate students, Mitch Rider, joins us for another post #ontheblog!

Mitch, John and Chief Survey Tech deploy the CTD  rosette

"My name is Mitchell Rider and I am currently a Master’s Student at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami, FL. I work as a Laboratory Technician in the FORCES Lab tracking eddies using satellite imagery supporting the MBON₁ project, while my graduate research investigates shark movement ecology in relation to urbanization. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to join the lab on this cruise.

Mitch discovers plankton!

My goals were to gain experience working in the open sea (since shark tagging trips last up to six hours) and to participate in the process of taking plankton samples. One of the most significant things I experienced was sorting through plankton samples collected from bongo and neuston nets. I was fascinated to find a plethora of organisms I have never seen before in addition to the larval forms of fish that I am very familiar with such as mahi-mahi, pufferfish, and lionfish. I was most excited in my newfound ability to identify larval bluefin tuna since that was one of the target species of this cruise. I would like to thank the FORCES Lab and the crew of the Nancy Foster for this opportunity to participate in the RESTORE NF1802 Cruise. This experience opened my eyes to a different field of study that is both fascinating and worth looking into for a future career as a marine scientist.

Zooplankton typically encountered in the Gulf of Mexico in May! Magnification is 10x

Sarah, Raul and Mitch with the plankton net

Survey track for leg 2 aboard NOAA Ship Nancy Foster #NF1802

Mitch in his Shark-Life. Image by M. Bernanke

"As I mentioned before, my work as a lab technician for the FORCES Lab consists of tracking and measuring the sizes of mesoscale and submesoscale eddies along the Florida Channel. This entails running through daily chlorophyll and sea surface temperature satellite imagery and identifying potential eddies. In addition, I am also pursuing my Master of Science degree at RSMAS where my research is investigating the relationship between shark movement and boat traffic. This is achieved
through analyzing the residency patterns of sharks detected on our acoustic receiver array in relation to boat passages that are recorded using passive acoustic hydrophones or ‘underwater listening stations'".

If you are interested in more shark-y research, check out the UM Shark Lab on FB!


₁"The National Marine Sanctuaries serve as sentinel sites for monitoring marine biodiversity of the nation’s coastal, shelf and deep-sea ecosystems. The Sanctuaries MBON project includes Monterey Bay, Flower Garden Banks and Florida Keys ecosystems to assess: 1) the deep sea (pelagic realm and seabed); 2) continental shelves; 3) estuaries and nearshore regions; and 4) coral reefs." (source: MBON website)

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: 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: Tom Kelly

Today we learn about Tom who shares his insights into the infamous sediment trap! Here is his blog post. (Read previous guest posts here!)

Tom and the incubation system

My name is Thomas Kelly and I am a PhD Candidate at Florida State University in the Plankton Ecology and Biogeochemistry Lab. One of the principal tools that I use in my research is called a sediment trap. A sediment trap collects marine particles and organisms as they sink through the water column. You can think of a sediment trap as an underwater rain gauge that collects sinking plankton instead of falling rain drops.

Since most of the biological growth occurs where light is plentiful (i.e. photosynthesis), the majority of marine organisms live within the surface layers of the oceans. But as these organisms die, get broken up, or defecate, particles settle out of the surface layer and into the deeper ocean. Our sediment traps are placed in between these layers and can tell us about what kind and how quickly carbon, nutrients, and other material leaves the surface ecosystem.

Tom and Mike deploy the sediment trap

The deployment of the sediment trap is really quite straightforward and will typically take a bit over an hour. The whole assembly consists of a long rope that extends from the surface all the way down to the depth of the last sediment trap frame (Pictured to the left), about 650 (210m) feet. At the bottom we place 60 lbs (27 kg) of weights and at the top a set of buoys. For the Bluefin Tuna Cruise the sediment trap frames are placed at approximately 150, 400, and 600ft (50, 120, and 200m) of water depth so that we can measure how the sinking of particles changes with depth.

Onto the frame we attach a set of tubes filled with extra salty seawater so that any particles that sink into them will stay in the tube rather than being mixed out again (the denser fluid will stay inside the tube just like a glass of water will stay inside a cup). Besides that, the tubes are also spiked with formaldehyde to kill anything that tries to eat the sinking material and a baffle at the top to reduce turbulence around the top of the tube.

Tom plots his next filtration experiment

After 3-5 days of drifting, the sediment trap is ready to come aboard and be processed. In general, each of the sampling tubes is filtered and frozen for later processing on land where we can look at such things as the carbon and nitrogen content. Some of the specialized aspects that we can look at from the sediment traps include the size classes of the particles collected, the source of the material collected, and the quantity of various metals and nutrients within the material. Ultimately the sediment trap provides invaluable information about how the ecosystem looses energy and material to the deeper water column.

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 Jennifer!

Today's featured scientist is a recent graduate from University of California - San Diego, Jennifer Beatty! She is a research assistant at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Read on to find out her goals for this survey in her own words!

Jennifer fixes a sample collected in the GOM

"The lab I'm involved with studies the interaction of phytoplankton and zooplankton, which are the lowest levels of marine food webs. Phytoplankton are essentially the plants of the sea, while zooplankton are the animal plankton that eat them. The way these two interact changes in different parts of the ocean, which impacts the dynamics of organisms further up the food web, including bluefin tuna larvae! During this cruise, we are hoping to get an idea of what is happening at these lower food web levels to illuminate what conditions are optimal for larval bluefin tuna.

Processing the ring net in the wetlab

"My primary goal for this cruise is to gain field experience at sea. I've worked with samples in the lab, but I wanted to see where they come from and how they are collected. Additionally, I wanted to taste what research at sea is like because I plan to pursue a graduate degree in marine science. Before I head there, I'd like to have a better idea if I prefer research dependent on field work or prefer to stay in the lab."

Featured Scientist: Meet Mike!

This year's voyage is the first of two annual research surveys in the Gulf of Mexico for the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program. Our project, "Research, observation, and monitoring to support long-term sustainability in the GoM ecosystem, including fish stocks, fish habitat, and fishing industries," is in collaboration with some new partners to the FORCES Lab. Read on and get introduced to the project's PI from Florida State University, Mike Stukel!

Mike prepares sample bottles to be loaded into the sediment trap

My name is Mike Stukel, and I am an assistant professor at Florida State University. I am a plankton ecologist and biogeochemist in the FSU Plankton Ecology and Biochemistry Lab. I study the role that some of the smallest organisms in the ocean play in the global carbon cycle and their role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. On this cruise, I am studying the role that different nutrients play in limiting the primary production of phytoplankton. These tiny algae are responsible for half of the world’s photosynthesis and half of the oxygen that you breathe. Their photosynthesis also supports the entire marine ecosystem of the open ocean Gulf of Mexico. One of my goals in this project is to quantify the food web pathways that partition this phytoplankton production between either the biological pump (which transports atmospheric CO2 into the deep ocean where it can be stored for centuries) or higher trophic levels including larval tuna. 

Mike and Tom (R) with their double-decker water filtrations!

My goal for this cruise is to understand the base of the food web that supports larval tuna.  In particular, I am interested in whether the algae responsible for photosynthesis are ultimately getting their nutrients from upwelling that brings nutrient-rich deep water into the sunlit surface zone or whether special phytoplankton (called Nitrogen-fixers) are creating their own nutrients from the nitrogen gas that is abundant in the atmosphere and ocean.  Answering this question is important to understanding whether or not total productivity in the Gulf of Mexico will decrease due to climate change.

Mike deploys the drifter array in the wee hours of the morning

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 Dan!

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 Dr. Dan Otis from the University of South Florida!

My name is Dr. Dan Otis, and I work at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science in the Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS). The primary focus of my work is using satellite measurements to study the color of the ocean. The color of the ocean as viewed from space can provide information about what is in the water. Three main things that I look for that change the color of the ocean are chlorophyll-a, colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and suspended sediments. Chlorophyll-a is a pigment that plants use to harvest light energy and carry out photosynthesis. In the ocean, this is done by algae called phytoplankton. Examining trends and patterns in the amount of chlorophyll-a in the ocean tells us where phytoplankton are most abundant and can allow us to track features in the surface waters of the ocean.

This is my third year on the USVI leg of this cruise and while I’m out here, I filter lots of water to measure phytoplankton and CDOM, and also use an instrument called a radiometer that measures the color of the ocean surface. I then compare what I see at the surface to what the satellite sees from space. This year, I have also been providing imagery from a several ocean color satellites to scientists on board, so we can see how phytoplankton is distributed in the waters of the USVI and how water movement may be affecting larval fish. Ocean color satellites generally collect one “scene” or picture of the ocean surface in a location every 1-2 days.  However, there are often clouds that get in the way, so we make composites of several daily scenes to remove clouds. The  image below is a composite of several images collected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor during the cruise. This is called a “false-color” image where different colors represent different concentrations of chlorophyll-a, which can be interpreted using the color bar to the right of the image. The units in this case are mg/m3.

Composite image of chlorophyll-a during cruise

Featured Scientist: Meet Sarah!

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 Sarah Heidmann from the University of the Virgin Islands!

Sarah (L) and Jess sort some live plankton samples on board!

My name is Sarah Heidmann, and I'm a second-year Masters student in Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Virgin Islands. I'm originally from California and completed my undergraduate degree at Oregon State, both of which shaped my interest in the ocean, marine science, and SCUBA diving. 

Giovanni (L) and Sarah deploy cod ends for the MOCNESS tow. Photo credit: LTJG Niki Norton

My time on this cruise is thanks to my committee member and mentor, Sennai Habtes. I'm excited to be immersed in living and working on the ocean, experiencing life on a ship and participating in oceanographic research. It's a nice change from my own work, which involves nearshore fishing and diving. I am using acoustic tracking technology to study the movements of mutton snapper in a bay on St. Thomas, as well as at a spawning aggregation on St. Croix. 

You can follow me on Twitter (@SarahLHeidmann) to get updates on my research!

The St. Thomas crew! L-R: Kristen, Sarah, Sennai, Vanessa, and Alexis! T-shirt design by Kat Dale

Coral Reef Fish in USVI: Where do they come from?

Figure showing the dominant flow modes a) cyclonic
 and b) anticyclonic flows around St. Croix
(Source: AMSEAS Model)

If you've ever been to the Caribbean, you've seen white sand beaches and clear blue waters - perfect for snorkeling and SCUBA diving to see the coral reef systems beneath the surface. These reefs demonstrate incredible diversity of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods, and many other organisms. As larval fish biologists and oceanographers, we are interested in where coral reef fish spawn, and the oceanographic processes that transport larvae to their ultimate settling location, the coral reefs.

Though the US Virgin Islands are relatively small, the oceanographic features surrounding them can be quite complex. The southern-most island, St. Croix, is geographically isolated 50km from the northern islands by a 4000m-deep trough, and we hypothesize
that its position affects how waters flow into and around the northern islands (St. Thomas and St. John).

We devised a sampling plan which should help us understand the flow near the shelf break south of St. Thomas and St. John, specifically if there is connectivity between inshore and offshore areas, or if there is a barrier between them.

L-R: Sennai, Jess, Tanya, and Dan throw SVP drifters off the stern.

Our stations are positioned at inshore, slope, and offshore locations:

A plankton sample!
Photo credit: LTJG Norton

• Oceanographic Eulerian data: ADCP, CTD, and XBTs will provide data on the temperature, salinity, and velocities of the water column being sampled. With water velocities we will be able to calculate potential vorticity, which will give us an idea of the ability of the flow to spin. These instruments sample from the surface to the ocean floor! Our Eulerian metrics are important to better understand the physical nature of the inshore and offshore environments where our fish larvae live. 
• Oceanographic Lagrangian data: SVP and biodegradable drifters will be deployed at each segment on the transects, and will transmit through satellite a time series of speed and direction of the currents. We are deploying the drifters in pairs to be able to compute relative dispersion, which is a measurement of the separation of two surface particles (e.g. larvae) drifting in the ocean. Our Lagrangian metrics are important to better understand the inshore and offshore transport of our fish larvae. 
• Biological data: Bongo plankton nets will be towed, sampling from the surface to the ocean floor. Fish larvae from these samples will give us an idea as to what species of reef fish are spawning in these areas. These biological metrics are also important to quantify how the nature and transport within inshore and offshore environments affect fish larvae.  
Oceanographic data: ADCP, CTD, and XBTs will provide data on the temperature, salinity, and potential vorticity of the water column being sampled. These instruments sample from the surface to the ocean floor!

The CTD is brought back on the ship by ST Stephanie
Photo credit: LTJG Norton

We are very excited to see the results of this study! Upon completion, we will be able to better understand the specific mechanisms which drive interactions between fisheries and the environment in the USVI, and hopefully be able to gauge the effectiveness of current fisheries management strategies, while developing methods for improvement. 

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.

Featured Scientist: Meet Giovanni!

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. Today we feature Giovanni Seijo-Ellis from the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez!

Giovanni successfully completes a 1500-meter CTD cast

Hi everyone! My name is Giovanni Seijo-Ellis, I'm a physics masters student at the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez, and I'm starting my PhD next fall at the City University of New York's Graduate Center with Dr. David Lindo.

I always knew that I wanted to work on something related to the oceans and as I grew up that interest grew bigger. When I found out as a young teenager that there is a field called physical oceanography, I felt I was born for it. Back in Puerto Rico there are no undergraduate programs in oceanography, so I decided to go into Theoretical Physics, took some advanced oceanography courses and complemented it with atmospheric dynamics courses. I worked for three and a half years for the Puerto Rico Seismic Network doing tsunami simulations and hazard assessments under a National Tsunami Hazard and Mitigation Program grant. 

Ready to launch the XBT!

Then I moved to work with the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CariCOOS), the Caribbean Component of NOAA's Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). There I work as an ocean modeler. I basically work with validation and development of ocean models for the Caribbean region in order to have better forecasts of ocean currents and I also prepare some operational products for the CariCOOS webpage users. Besides that, I also do storm surge simulation and mapping with special focus on energy distribution over coral reefs along the northern and eastern part of Puerto Rico. Every now and then I help in CariCOOS field work (which is probably my favorite thing to do), deploying CTDs, and deploying/recovering sea gliders or anything else that comes up. 

One of the homemade biodegradable
CariCOOS drifters

I met Dr. Lindo some months ago and we quickly noticed that we had many research interests in common, so I decided to apply to CUNY's Earth and Environmental Sciences program where we could work together and I could reach my goal of getting a PhD. A couple of weeks after, he called me to see if I was interested in participating on a research cruise...of course I was interested!!!! Our goal is to understand the cross-shelf exchange of waters between St. Thomas and St. Croix. Ocean circulation/currents in the Caribbean is not as easy to understand as one may think. The rapid variation of the bathymetry has a huge effect on ocean currents and waves which makes it a challenge to model accurately and many mesoscale features are also common in this region. So, does water from south of the shelf break cross to the shallower part north of the shelf break? Or does it move along the shelf break? Or do the shallow water cross into the deeper waters? How does this affect larval dispersal in the region? 

These are some of the questions that will help us understand what is happening in this part of the Caribbean and how it affects larval dispersal near the shelf break, especially on the Grammanik and Hind Banks. To accomplish this we will use data obtained from 8 SVP drifters, 4 Bio-degradable drifters (home-made by CariCOOS), 22 XBT launches, and CTD deployments. The use of plankton nets will allow us to collect fish larvae at different water depths and potentially trace back to their place of origin. 

It's away! Positioning the XBT launcher during deployment

So here I am, learning a lot and enjoying every second. So far it has been an amazing experience, the crew and the science team are wonderful. Everyone on the science team is just great, they are really open to hear any suggestions and really care for everyone to learn how to do everything around here. Doesn't matter if you're an undergrad or graduate student, with or without experience in the field, here you are a scientist and will be treated as one. We are all equal, and that makes it really comfortable for such a diverse group to work together successfully. 

While not working, I really enjoy sailing either on a Catalina 30 sailboat, racing on a J30 or J24 or just relaxing near a pond and sail my radio control sailboat. I also do cross-country mountain biking and ride my MTB to work at least once a week. I really hope and look forward to be able to come back on board the Nancy Foster with this amazing team in years to come!

Thanks!