What an Oceanographer Looks Like

Thank you to those who wrote in with what you envision as an “oceanographer”!

I’m pleased to report that not everyone believes we’re crusty visages of Gorton’s Fishermen, although a number of you do…

“An Oceanographer wears a bright yellow rain suit at all times because the seas are always angry and covered with rain storms.” – my brother*

Other popular ideas were:

windblown hair

leathery skin

salty

Jacques Cousteau

The good news is: you’re all right!

The bad news is: you’re all wrong!

Oceanographers looks so many different ways, it’s impossible to have 1 description. So here are some of us at work fitting (and not fitting) your visions. Many thanks to Brett Longworth (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Bettina Sohst (Old Dominion University), and Katlin Bowman (Wright State) for letting me use some of their photographs!

[Clockwise from 11:00] Cheryl Zurbrick (me! UC Santa Cruz) rigging lanyards on the carousel “Carlson”; Brian Peters (Stanford) getting ready to recover Rosie the rosette at night; Susan Becker (Ocean Data Facility/ Scripps) sampling seawater from Rosie; Marty Fleisher (Columbia / LDEO) recovering a “core” of seafloor sediment; Patrick (marine tech) and Rob Sherrell (Rutgers) deploying Carlson; Melissa Miller (ODF/Scripps) and others deploying Rosie; Greg Cutter (Old Dominion University) driving the winch in a squal; Brett Longworth (WHOI) taking care of his helium samples; and Saeed Roshan (RSMAS/U Miami) carrying a GoFlo bottle.

 

[left to right] Leo Pena and Marty Fleisher (both Columbia / LDEO) sampling water; Sara Rauschenberg (Bigelow) collecting oxygen-sensitive samples in a syringe; and Claire Parker [foreground] and Cheryl Zurbrick (me! both from UC Santa Cruz) collecting seawater.

 

[Clockwise from 12:00] Sara Rauschenberg (Bigelow) preparing plankton samples for viewing; Joe Resing (U Washington/NOAA PMEL) analyzing aluminum and manganese in the seawater; Brian Peters (Stanford) getting ready to take oxygen samples from the water; Rob Sherrell (Rutgers) photographs his plankton samples while Sarah Nicholas (U Minnesota) looks on; Gretchen Swarr (WHOI) analyzes mercury in the water and air; Maria Nielsdöttir (Old Dominion University) analyzes iodide and iodate; Cliff Buck (Skidaway) gets ready to leach aerosol samples; and Jim Happell (RSMAS/U Miami) analyzing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and inorganic carbon.

[left to right] Chris German (WHOI, Co-Chief Scientist) waiting to log data from Rosie’s seawater samples; Dan Ohnemus (WHOI/Bigelow), Erin Black (WHOI), and Chris German (WHOI) recording data from the CTD and deciding what depths to sample at; and Jim Happell (RSMAS/U Miami) and Melissa Miller (ODF/Scripps) enjoying the sunshine while waiting for their deck op to begin.

* My brother wins the prize for description that made me laugh the most – full text as follows:

An Oceanographer wears a bright yellow rain suit at all times because the seas are always angry and covered with rain storms. They speak normally, but the "r" in all words is drawn-out slightly. An homage to Blackbeard most likely. When not collecting samples of never before seen microbes and crabs that somehow live in the middle of the ocean, they film episodes of deadliest catch. The same crabs have been used in the last 3 seasons of the show because the oceanographers have trained them to go into their cages when the theme song to Mary Poppins plays and to come out when winked at. It is also a little known fact that the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World commercials are filmed during oceanography expeditions. No, not trips, not voyages...expeditions.

The Pumpers

Today we are completing the 4^th of 5 “super” stations, with 10 total stations remaining before we go to Tahiti.

Last week at station 22, we had a short power outage on the ship. Growing up in California during the 1990s energy debacle, I have grown used to blackouts on land. Here on the ship, it was a bit different. Sure, the lights weren’t on and none of the science equipment was usable, but the ship engines also lost power. When on station, the ship uses a considerable amount of energy to face into the waves and wind (which makes for a smoother ride). Without power, we veered towards the starboard side and things got a bit rough in the “trough” – the low point between waves. Instead of a gentle forward/aft rocking this is a much sharper port/starboard rocking.

As a result of veering to the starboard instead of the port, we “ran over” the wire that was currently deployed at 3,200 m with all 8 of the McLane pumps attached. With over $100,000 hanging on the line, you can imagine how stressful it was to watch helplessly as the ship’s side rocked and rubbed at the wire. Luckily, the wire held and the engineers managed to get power restored within a few minutes. Sadly, that’s all the time it took to damage the wire to the point that it can’t be trusted for use any further, so the 8 pumps were hauled back on board and the wire was cut off at the damaged spot. That’s around $30,000 of wire that was trimmed, so not an easy cut to make.

The captain (front left), and 3 ABs (Brian, back left; Michele, back right; Jason, front right) coiling the wire.

This is what ~3,000 m of wire looks like, coiled on our deck. Imagine uncoiling it and hanging it straight down – and that’s not even the deepest we go in the ocean! Previous stations have gone as deep at 5,000 m, and our typical depth on this side of the ridge is 4,000 m.

What exactly are these McLane pumps and what do they do?

These pumps manage to pull ~1,800 liters of water [each] across filters the size of a dessert plate. That’s the equivalent of 15,000+ sticks of melted butter! These filters have much smaller holes than a coffee filter, so it takes a strong force to get water across them.

From left to right: Spike (WHOI), Dan (WHOI/BIGELOW), and Sara (U. Minn) recover a pump and Niskin with water in it.

The deployment of these pumps takes ~1.5 hours to get them into place on deep casts (45 minutes on shallower ones), 3 hours to pump the water, and about the same time to recover as deploy. Once back on deck, Dan take the filters into a clean lab and photographs them, slices them up for the various groups who need them for analysis, and dries them to preserve them for tests back on land. The “bits” on the filters are analyzed for more elements on the periodic table than I can list here. If you can think of it, they probably measure it!

Dan pulls the filters out of their holders.

Why filter water?

These filters are used to collect “suspended particulate matter” in the water. By “suspended particulate matter” we mean small plankton, fecal pellets [excrement], and sediments in the water. These “bits” are so small you can’t see them individually without a microscope. When a bunch of these bits are on a filter together, they are much easier to see. For example, the white filters on the left in the photo are from deeper waters without much in them; the green filters on the right are from the surface where photosynthetic plankton live. Phytoplankton are the plants of our ocean and function similarly in the ocean as terrestrial plants do on land.

Filters left to dry in a clean hood.

Along with the particles, 30 liters of water is collected from each of the same depths. This is for researchers who want to study the differences between elements that are dissolved in the water versus stuck on to the “bits” in the water. Here, Erin and Virginie lift one of these very heavy (~150 lb) Niskin bottles into place for sampling. Erin is a Ph.D. student and one of the things she is looking at is thorium which helps tell us how long the “bits” are in the water; Virginie is also a Ph.D. student at LEGOS in France and she’s measuring radium for similar reasons.

Erin (WHOI, left) and Virginie (LEGOS, right) lift the heavy Niskin into place.

In other news, all our casts have been catching baby man-o-wars lately. Man-o-wars are known for their painful sting when you touch them, although the baby ones aren’t supposed to be as bad. I’m too chicken to actually find out for myself, so instead I got a (blurry) photo of one dangling from our GoFlo yesterday. They’re a beautiful dark blue color – just like the water!

Baby man-o-war; the float was the size of a quarter in diameter and had a ~4 foot long tail.

Thanksgiving at Sea

Here on the ship we are busy with ops at station 23 (of 36 – we added an impromptu station when we stumbled upon an underwater “volcano” last week). But fear not, I have forgone sleep in the name of the holiday spirit to craft decorations for the day. Several of my shipmates came better prepared with the store-bought kind, but here’s a quick look at what I’ve been up to:

Paper turkeys on the console for the GEOTRACES team

 

 One scientist’s wife sent foam turkeys for people to assemble, and after we got bored making them I decided to prank our night watch marine technician, Stephen, by sewing a foam “Picasso” turkey to his beanie.

 I made assorted toilet paper people for the tables in the mess

 

And the piece-du-resistance, our Halloween lanterns spray painted and converted into turkeys...

 … laying in wait at our day watch marine technician Patrick’s hammock. He says I’ll be in trouble if he finds any turkey poop in there. Too bad we ate all the raisins on board already! ;D

While it’s just another work day here on the ship, the atmosphere is festive and everyone is looking forward to a spectacular meal this evening. The cooks have been working overtime to make countless pies, side dishes, and prepare the various meats.

Today I am thankful for the opportunity to be an oceanographer, the sunny 80 degree weather, and our [fleeting] internet connection to receive email from loved ones. May your mashed potatoes be creamy, your gravy non-lumpy, and your turkey moist. Happy Thanksgiving, readers!

What does an oceanographer look like?

Despite the world’s slowest internet connection, I am going to attempt to make this blog a bit more interactive. That’s right – I’m asking each and every reader to write back to me. No fair reading and not writing in!

When you close your eyes and picture an oceanographer, what do you see?

Before I show you what I see, send me your vision. It can be a photo, a doodle, a written description, molded from rice crispy treats, etc. Get creative!

Rules:

1. Attachments must be 200 kb or smaller in size!

2. Send your response by December 6^th, 20:00 PST

3. Email it to me at sci23@thompson.ocean.washington.edu

4. See rule number 1.

The lighthouse we saw when leaving Manta’s port 33 days ago.