Oct 2 Adios!!

Summary of FloSEE II – Legs 1 and 2

John Reed, Chief Scientist & Research Professor, HBOI-FAU

Chief Scientist, John Reed, plans target dive sites using maps collected using Nancy Foster multibeam sonar (credit: CIOERT)

I entered this cruise with some trepidation, with worries about the potential for hurricanes as I described in my September 22, Leg 1 blog, and for the second leg, of operating on Pourtalès Terrace, in the axis of the Florida Current which could make ROV operations difficult to impossible.  However, we had the most incredible weather and some of the lowest currents that I have seen on the Pourtalès Terrace, allowing us to complete 26 ROV dives and without loss of any dives.

The main objectives of this research cruise were to survey and describe the various habitats on Pulley Ridge (Leg 1) and deep-water, hard bottom sites on Pourtalès Terrace off southern Florida (Leg 2).  Leg 1 was a great success and Leg 2 exceeded most expectations.  We were able to document new reefs and deep-water habitats that had never been surveyed before.  In the Pulley Ridge region, we now have ground-truthed new multibeam sonar maps which enabled us to find extensive essential fish habitat for various grouper, including snowy, Warsaw, and speckled hind.  On the next to the last day of the cruise, we discovered four unknown deep-water sinkholes that are surrounded by extensive hard-bottom habitat supporting dense and diverse populations of sponges, gorgonians, black coral, and hard coral.  And then we discovered a large deep-water Lophelia coral reef at the foot of Pourtalès Terrace in 1,800 ft of water.  This appears to be the southern-most living deep-water Lophelia reef in the continental U.S. waters.

While our cruise had made highlights focused on discovery of new reef habitat that support important fish and corals, the discovery of the southern-most living deep-water Lophelia reef in the continental U.S. waters was a great way to finish the cruise! (Photo Credit: CIOERT, taken from UCONN's K2)

We used various tools to sample and assess these ecosystems from the surface to the bottom.  Of course, the NOAA vessel Nancy Foster was the platform for these tools.  During the 19-day cruise we transited over 600 miles, and using the University of Connecticut’s Kraken II (K2) Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) we made 26 dives covering some 30 miles of bottom.  We documented the benthic habitat with nearly 100 hours of high definition videotapes and 5,700 digital photographs, and collected over 150 samples, including invertebrates, fish, and algae.  Each night the Nancy Foster’s sonar team conducted multibeam sonar surveys, covering nearly 140 square miles which provided detailed topographic maps of the bottom allowing us to target and discover new reef habitat.  In addition, we sampled the water column with daily CTD casts, which measure temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, fluorometry, and pH.  At night we made 11 MOCNESS net tows which sampled plankton in discrete layers of the water column.  And we still have the Bluefin glider, gliding up and down in the water column somewhere on Pulley Ridge, sampling the water column and sending its data via satellite back to Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.  These water column data will help us better understand the coupling of these deep-sea ecosystems with the pelagic ecosystem.

By using the K2 ROV to ground-truth new multibeam sonar maps made on this expedition by the NOAA ship Nancy Foster enabled us to find extensive essential fish habitat for various grouper, including snowy, Warsaw (pictured here), and speckled hind. (Photo Credit: CIOERT, taken from UCONN's K2)

And of course our team of scientists, students, ROV crew, MOCNESS crew, and ship’s crew made this an enjoyable and productive cruise.  My appreciation and thanks goes to them.  Special thanks go to the NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research and Technology and NOAA’s Deep Sea Coral Research Program for providing funding in part for this research expedition.

Want to know and see more?

See: http://flosee2.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/sep-22-day-11/ to read John Reed’s Leg 1 summary blog as part of our 2011 Florida Shelf Edge Exploration Expedition II (FLoSEE II).  For daily expedition images, visit CIOERT Flickr collection at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cioert/.

Oct 1 Day 20

Today’s Highlights

• Today the Leg 2 science party disembarked from the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster for various locations (for most, a 7-hour drive home to Harbor Branch), after completing a very successful expedition.  See the upcoming final blog by Chief Scientist John Reed that will summarize the whole cruise.

• For daily expedition images, visit CIOERT Flickr collection at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cioert/.

Immersion in Ocean Sciences

An important part of CIOERT’s mission is education.  Both legs of the FLoSEE Expedition II included graduate students, the second of a series of CIOERT “Ocean Discovery” cruises that will increase “hands-on”, at-sea, multi-disciplinary opportunities for university students in the CIOERT region, with each cruise focused on one or more of CIOERT’s themes.  The goal of this program is to facilitate students to become successful scientists through active participation and immersion in a multi-disciplinary ocean sciences research and monitoring cruise, followed by a rigorous, laboratory-based oceanographic research course.  This year’s cruise is a preface to a course, Immersion in Ocean Sciences, which is being taught this fall at HBOI-FAU, with Dr. Dennis Hanisak as the lead instructor.  Each student will do a project initiated on FLoSEE II, work with one or more of the CIOERT faculty as mentors, submit a written research paper, and present a scientific poster in our CIOERT Student Symposium in December.

What better way to learn about the expectations for this educational opportunity then to introduce this year’s six Immersion in Ocean Sciences students?

Jennifer Grima, M.S. Student, Department of Biological Sciences, FAU; Major Advisor: Dr. Shirley Pomponi, HBOI-FAU

Four FAU graduate students on Leg 1 of FLoSEE II (from left to right): Noelle Notarnicola, Drew Krupski, Jenny Grima, and Courtney Kehler. (Photo Credit: CIOERT)

I graduated from FAU in the summer of 2009 and began working as a lab technician for Dr. Shirley Pomponi at Harbor Branch.  As a lab tech, my main goal in my research was to enhance techniques for developing a continually diving sponge cell line.  Since I became a graduate student, I have been working on a project that still pertains to my main goal, but in a more concentrated area dealing with one specific sponge that produces a compound that has been found to have antitumor activity.  I was premed as an undergrad and have always been interested in the medical field.  It’s been motivating and humbling knowing that my work may be a stepping stone towards developing and enhancing the production of drugs used for cancer.  Besides working on my project, Dr. Pomponi has given me so many rare opportunities such as travelling to Spain and Panama for sponge workshops, I was able to be a part of the CIOERT cruise last year and went down in the submersible, and this year I was able to join the rest of the crew on FLoSEE II.  Being at sea is an experience like no other.  It gives you the chance to learn new techniques, meet new people, be a part of some really amazing projects, and add some more adventure to life!

Courtney Kehler, M.S. Student, Environmental Sciences Program, FAU; Major Advisor: Dr. Brian Lapointe, HBOI-FAU

I am a second year master’s student doing my thesis project on alkaline phosphatase activity in reef macroalgae of South Florida.  I am on board the FLoSEE cruise as part of my graduate class Immersion in Ocean Science.  This is my first research cruise.

Andrew Krupski, M.S. Student, Ocean Engineering, FAU; Major Advisor: Dr. James Van Zwieten, Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center

Three FAU graduate students on Leg 2 of FLoSEE II (from left to right): Richard Mulroy, Noelle Notarnicola, and Courtney Kehler. (Photo Credit: CIOERT)

I am working on my Master’s degree in Ocean Engineering.  On this cruise, my major responsibility was the deployment of a Bluefin Spray glider AUV.  Working with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) was the focus of my undergraduate studies at the University of Rhode Island, and I had been trying to get out on a research cruise for a long time, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity for me.  I became an Ocean Engineer because I love the ocean, so it’s been a great experience to get to see the living side of it, as opposed to the physical and engineering aspects I’ve been studying.  These types of hands-on operations are my favorite part of being an engineering student, but unfortunately sometimes they can be few and far between.  That is why I feel very fortunate that I was able to come on the FloSEE II cruise, and I’ll be the first to sign up the next time I get a chance to go to sea again.

Bethany Lieuwen, M.S. Student, Biological Sciences, FAU; Major Advisor: Dr. James Hartmann, Department of Biological Sciences

Being only a couple weeks into my Masters program at Florida Atlantic University, I was apprehensive doing a cruise like this.  I am relatively immature in my research and experience in research at sea; I don’t even know what my master’s thesis research is going to be on!  I chose to do a class like this for an experience I have never been presented with before.  This is my first research cruise and my first taste of real scientific research.  I am not quite sure what my research focus is going to be on this cruise, although I’m hoping it is going to be fish-focused.  I am kind of a nerd about fishes, although I haven’t had the opportunity to study them as thoroughly as I would like to.

Richard Mulroy, M.S. Biological Sciences Student, FAU; Major Advisor: Dr. Paul Wills, HBOI-FAU

I am currently a graduate student at FAU, researching aquaculture at HBOI.  I will be working with a team at HBOI on an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture system.  In this type of system, multiple species of organisms, feeding at different trophic levels, are raised in same system.  Species such as fish and shrimp are fed a prepared diet and other species, such as oysters and macroalgae, extract nutrients from the “waste” of the fed species.  I have taken many courses in aquaculture, marine biology, and marine science at HBOI.  This course, Immersion in Ocean Science, was a unique opportunity for adventure and education on-board a working research vessel.  Everything has been new and exciting, from viewing deep-sea coral habitats via the ROV to identifying sponges and gorgonians by viewing their spicules through a microscope.   My project for this course will be to compare data of the water quality at the sites we visit that was collected by the CTD.

Noelle Notarnicola, M.S. Biological Sciences Student, FAU; Major Advisor: Dr. Tammy Frank, NOVA Southeastern University

I am an FAU Master’s student working under the guidance of Dr. Tammy Frank of NOVA Southeastern University.  My Master’s project is a quantitative assessment of zooplankton in the Gulf of Mexico focusing on copepods, chaetognaths, and fish larvae.  I will be using the MOCNESS to collect plankton samples at various depths in the water column on this trip to use for my Master’s thesis.  I am also out on this cruise as a student in FAU-HBOI’s Immersion in Ocean Science graduate course. I am a former FAU-HBOI Semester By The Sea student and this is my fifth research cruise.

Want to know more about FLoSEE?

See: http://cioert.org/flosee/blog/immersion-in-ocean-sciences/ to read about our Immersion in Ocean Sciences students on our 2010 Florida Shelf Edge Exploration (FLoSEE).

Sep 30 Day 19

Today’s Highlights

• Our ROV dive today ran up a slope from about 250 to 195 m, spanning flat limestone pavements and rugged phosphoritic boulder fields and ledges.
• Fish highlights included a large goosefish and a Caribbean rough shark, possibly the first record of this species from Florida waters.
• We crossed a broad field of the ancient broken rib bones of an extinct dugong, a relative of the manatee.
• For daily expedition images, visit CIOERT Flickr collection at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cioert/.

You Don’t Have To Be A Marine Scientist To Love The Ocean

Georgios Kallifatidis, Postdoctoral Investigator, HBOI-FAU

As a cell biologist in the cell biology group of Dr. Esther Guzmán at HBOI, I study the potential of marine natural compounds as agents for the treatment of cancer.  My project focuses on the role of marine sponge extracts and their therapeutic potential to target diseases, such as pancreatic cancer.

The Leg 2 scientific party gathers in front of UCONN’s K2 ROV at the end of cruise, safely back in port at Key West and a job well done! Today’s blogger, Dr. Georgios Kallifatidis, is the second person on the right. (Photo Credit: CIOERT)

Even though I conduct my research at an oceanographic institute, the majority of my work is performed in the lab and does not include field work.  For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the ocean and by marine life.  I grew up in Greece near the sea, and since childhood I have explored the waters of Greece and many different parts of the world snorkeling and diving, where I observed, monitored, and photographed marine creatures.

When I learned that I was given the great opportunity to attend this research expedition and join the team of FLoSEE II, I was thrilled.  It always has been my wish to spend time on a research ship.  To get this opportunity was the best surprise I could think of.

Scientist Esther Guzmán enjoys her work! Here she is processing samples for use in HBOI’s drug discovery program. In the background, grad students Richard Mulroy, Noelle Notarnicola, and Courtney Kehler assist with processing samples from a K2 ROV dive. (Photo Credit: CIOERT)

The ocean contains so many secrets to be discovered and obtains thousands of organisms to be investigated for novel compounds to be used in drug discovery.  Being part of this expedition and to have the chance to observe the monitor for hours as the research team collects samples from the bottom of the sea, and processing them afterwards is a great experience.  I am very happy that during this trip I have the chance to combine my work/research interest with my love for the ocean and for marine life.  It is amazing to observe marine organisms, you normally only can see in books or documentaries, at a depth of up to 800 meters and I was very much impressed by the expert knowledge that Chief Scientist Dr. John Reed and Dr. Charles Messing have about each organism we observed.

Apart from collecting samples for my research and observing marine life, I am excited about the opportunity to get an insight into the life/work of marine biologists during their research expeditions.  Yesterday, Noelle Notarnicola and Richard Mulroy showed me how to operate the Multiple Opening and Closing Net Sampling System (MOCNESS), where plankton was sampled at depths up to 500 meters.  It is absolutely amazing, to observe all these luminescent organisms and fish larvae under the microscope.

This was my first research expedition in the ocean and hopefully not the last.  It really was one of the best experiences I ever had.  I am very thankful that I was given this great opportunity and that I had the chance to meet and work with all the wonderful people of our team.  Many thanks to all of you!

Want to know more about FLoSEE?

See: http://cioert.org/flosee/blog/the-search-for-a-cancer-treatment/ to read Dr. Esther Guzmán’s blog on her quest for a cancer cure as part of our 2010 Florida Shelf Edge Exploration Expedition (FLoSEE).

Sep 29 Day 18

Today’s Highlights

• On the morning dive, we visited completely different seafloor habitats than previously—along the rims of enormous deep sinkholes south of Marathon, about halfway along the Florida Keys.  Here, we encountered a few colonies—our first—of the two branching stony corals that form deep-water reefs elsewhere: Enallopsammia profunda and Lophelia pertusa.

• Although much of the seafloor around the sinkhole rims is flat limestone pavement, near the edges we found long thin, blackened limestone crusts, sometimes more than half a meter high, rising steeply up out of the pavement like eroded rocky fences.

• The afternoon dive brought one of the biggest surprises of the expedition.  We found the first known Lophelia pertusa coral-dominated mound on the Pourtalès Terrace (and the southernmost in the Strait of Florida).  Living colonies reached over a meter across, and, in many places, standing dead colonies and coral rubble carpeted the substrate.

• For daily expedition images, visit CIOERT Flickr collection at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cioert/.

Gene Expression Profiling of Deep-Water Invertebrates

Lisa Cohen, Biological Scientist, HBOI-FAU

As the yellow Kraken II (K2) ROV is lowered into the water, and I watch the video feed from the dry lab or from the navigation van, I definitely want to be down there myself, although a 700-ft scuba dive (our intended depth at this site) is impossible.  Instead, the K2 is allowing us to travel deep to document and sample on high- and low-relief hard-bottom sites with interesting ledges and geological features south of the Florida Keys.   This site is in the Deepwater Coral Habitat Area of Particular Concern (C-HAPC) just off the Florida Reef Tract.

Colonies of the deep-water reef-building coral, Lophelia pertusa, on a substrate of dead coral colonies with sponges and octocorals. (Photo Credit: CIOERT, taken from UCONN's K2)

I’m on this cruise to collect benthic invertebrates for Drs. Sara Edge and Josh Voss with the coral health and disease group of the Robertson Coral Reef program at HBOI.  Our lab group specializes in the development and use of molecular diagnostic tools for health assessments of scleractinian (stony) corals.  We can also expand our tools to analyze different taxa such as sponges (Porifera) and other Cnidarians (e.g., gorgonians, black coral, anemones, etc.).  Enlarging our datasets and profiles of a diversity of species increases the sensitivity of our diagnostic tools.  For example, one group of genes we look at represents specific metabolic pathways activated during a stress response, such as exposure to a toxin.  Another group is activated during normal cellular functions.  Closely-related organisms often have conserved gene sequences (e.g., those that have remained the same during evolution).  The recognition that a group of genes is consistently turned on or off across all taxa is useful for future diagnoses of whether organisms are stressed by toxins, disease, or other environmental factors based on fluctuations in baseline patterns.

A cluster of unknown "mushroom" sponges on dead coral rubble, with a feathery hydroid upstaging the scene. (Photo Credit: CIOERT, taken from UCONN's K2)

I was fortunate to accompany the 2010 FLOSEE cruise with the Johnson Sea-Link II  submersible when we visited sites in this same area and collected black coral (Antipatharia), sponges (specifically Hexactinellida and Leiodermatium sp.), gorgonians (Plexauridae), and lace corals (stylasterid hydrocorals).  This year, we are sampling these same taxa, collecting at least 3 individuals from each, to acquire genetic profiles.

Life at sea, and in the field in general, for me is really fun (as long as the seas don’t get too rough, which they haven’t on this trip thus far!).  Some of my favorite things, unique to being aboard ship, are going in and out of heavy fireproof ship doors that require turning a hand-wheel, the rooms with raised lips to step over when entering or leaving, getting used to running on a treadmill on a rocking boat (extra challenge!), and clear nights out on deck looking up at all the stars and the Milky Way, with no light pollution or land around and appreciating the vastness of the ocean.

One of the major highlights from this trip has been participating in dives with the K2 ROV.  After K2 gets in the water, we all watch the live video feeds for the 4-hr dives.  As the ROV pilot controls the ROV, an annotator (one of the science team) describes what is seen.  The robotic manipulator arm operator collects samples with a claw and a suction tube and delivers them into either buckets under the rear of the vehicle, or cylindrical quivers on a front-end movable tray that have to be capped with a large rubber plug after the specimen has been inserted.  I have been helping out as a data recorder, typing observations into the database and backing up data after the dives on hard disks.  The cruise thus far has generated about 50 Terabytes of data (mostly video).  I’ve been able to observe and appreciate the level of detail, precision and work required to operate an underwater vehicle like an ROV, and I’m very grateful for all the work the ROV crew and the ship’s crew have done to allow us to collect our samples so smoothly.  I feel really lucky to have seen these amazing organisms.

I am normally buried in our molecular lab at HBOI analyzing samples for most of the year, so I appreciate and enjoy the opportunity to get out in the field, collect samples and learn about the habitats where our samples originate.  I am very grateful not only for this opportunity to collect samples, but also for the experience of observing the habitat, and learning the taxonomic names and identifying features of corals, sponges, and other invertebrates.  Even though I can’t physically be in the water looking at the incredible organisms we have found on the 24 dives thus far, the experience of interacting with the ROV crew and logging data during the dives has been a fascinating and inspiring experience.

Want to know more about FLoSEE?

See: http://cioert.org/flosee/blog/sampling-for-coral-health-and-disease/ to read Lisa Cohen’s blog as part of our 2010 Florida Shelf Edge Exploration Expedition (FLoSEE).

Sep 28 Day 17

Today’s Highlights

• The highlight for our fish biologist Andy David today was a little Red Dory fish with outsized fan-shaped pelvic fins.
• The deep escarpment and rugged slopes harbored few large fishes, but there was more monofilament, steel leader, and braided line on the bottom than we have seen so far.
• We collected a small colony of the deep-water coral Madrepora oculata.  This species is widespread on deep-water reefs around the world, but our specimen, collected in 176 meters, may be the shallowest record for this species in the western Atlantic.
• The afternoon dive brought a comical little red dory with outsized pectoral fins, a black coral tree about 3 meters across, and our first feather stars, which appear to be a species previously found only once on this side of the Strait of Florida.
• For daily expedition images, visit CIOERT Flickr collection at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cioert/.

What We Don’t Know

Charles G. Messing, Professor, Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center

One of the most extraordinary things about this expedition has been repeated observations that, when we visit places that are not too far apart on similar seafloor topographies at similar depths, we often find very different communities of bottom-dwelling invertebrates.  One site may be dominated by stylasterid lace corals and sea anemones, while another supports a large population of stylasterids, sponges, and black cluster corals (Dendrophyllia).  (We find those lace corals almost everywhere on the Terrace, but more about that later.)

An isolated ledge of blackened phosphoritic limestone sits on a broad flat pavement. Its elevated surface provides a happy home for three Venus' flytrap anemones, tall brown feathery hydroids (upper left), a yellow feather star with curled arm tips, several sponges and a variety of other organisms, as well as shelter (sort of) for a big pale red roughy. (Photo Credit: CIOERT, taken from UCONN's K2)

Today, we worked our way up a slope and passed through a depth zone with large numbers of spider crabs, whereas we had seen almost none at that depth before.  Ditto for the black Dendrophyllia corals.  Another remarkable thing is that, on a smaller scale, we often run along the bottom and find abrupt changes in the bottom fauna, even where there is no discernable difference in depth, bottom type, or temperature.  All of a sudden, a dense meadow of delicate featherlike octocorals in the genus Plumarella appears and, sometimes just as abruptly a few tens of meters further on, they disappear again.  This particular species also grows on the Miami Terrace further north, but chiefly on the edges of prominent ledges and boulders where it is exposed to strong flow.  Here on the Pourtalès Terrace, great lawns of it may appear on smooth slopes. This afternoon, a field of small yellow octocoral fans quickly gave way to taller purple sea fans, with no apparent change in slope or depth.

In a few cases, we can trace changes to differences in some physical factor.  Part of today’s dives travelled over a series of low alternating ridges and shallow grooves that ran down the faces of steep slopes.  The lace corals congregated along the ridges where they were exposed to stronger flow, and their fans all grew lined up with the slope, telling us that the prevailing current runs parallel with the slope.  All fan-shaped suspension feeders, whether sponge, coral or gorgonian, will spread their growth at right angles to a one-way or back-and-forth bottom current.  However, near the top of one slope, the lace corals, which dominated here, developed bushy growth forms; a single colony often had multiple fans oriented in different directions, indicating a multidirectional bottom current.

This pair of so-far unidentified small fishes were part of a large school that sheltered under the ledge in the other photo, oblivious to both the big roughy and this sea urchin (Coelopleurus floridanus). (Photo Credit: CIOERT, taken from UCONN's K2)

I mentioned that lace corals dominate most of the hard substrates on the Pourtalès Terrace.  This represents a huge difference from the Miami Terrace.  Although the two terraces are not that far apart, are both under the influence of the Florida Current, are both composed of limestone and really represent different parts of the same extensive geological feature (separated where the shelf is buried by deep sediment south of Miami), their seafloor communities differ in several important ways.  In particular, although we find scattered chiefly tiny lace corals on the rugged projecting slabs and ledges of the Miami Terrace, there the dominant coral is the much more robust Lophelia pertusa, which lines the projecting outcrops with much larger colonies.  Further north, it is the primary architect of deep-water reefs that run from Jupiter to North Carolina and may reach over 500 ft tall.  We have no idea why we have never seen this coral on the Pourtalès Terrace.

And, just as with the organisms, the geology of the Pourtalès Terrace is filled with mysteries.  Our detailed multibeam sonar maps of seafloor features reveal what appear to be numerous similarly shaped and oriented bottom mounds, slopes, and ridges at similar depths.  But, when we drop down to see them with the ROV, we often find very different-looking geology.  In one area, the steep slopes are relatively smooth (although the detailed surface texture may be eroded and filled with cavities), whereas another reveals a succession of those downslope-oriented ridges and grooves.  On this afternoon’s dive, we were running along an almost flat pale brown limestone pavement and came upon a two-meter wide slab of limestone blackened by the mineral phosphorite.  This chemically altered form of limestone is characteristic of the Miami Terrace and makes its rugged features look like solidified lava slopes of Tolkien’s Mount Doom.  But, we have seen very little of it here.  How did this slab get here?  Is it the last remnant of an otherwise completely eroded overlying layer?

And, what environmental cues determine which organisms live where?  Perhaps their larvae respond to subtle differences that we cannot yet detect.  Perhaps their larvae settle much more broadly but cannot survive past a young stage in different places.  Every scientist knows that every answer discovered begets more questions.  The Pourtalès Terrace will have us asking for a long time!

Want to know more about FLoSEE?

See: http://cioert.org/flosee/blog/july-21-daily-blog/#more-263 to read a blog by HBOI scientist Dr. Priscilla Winder, who describes a submersible dive she made last year on Pourtalès Terrace as part of our 2010 Florida Shelf Edge Exploration Expedition (FLoSEE).

Sep 27 Day 16

Today’s Highlights

• Our afternoon dive was abbreviated because we had to travel 15 miles from the morning dive site, and because the new site lay in over 800 meters of water, far deeper than any of our previous dives on this leg, K2 took far longer to get to the seafloor and return to the surface.

• The dive planned to run up one of the steep escarpments along the outer southern margin of the Terrace.  However, the Florida Current had other plans, and we spent most of the dive running along the seafloor near the base of the slope rather than up it.

• Unlike our previous dives on this expedition, the seafloor was uniformly fine sediment, composed chiefly of the sand-grain-sized shells of near-surface zooplankton such as foraminiferans.

• The denizens were mostly few and far between, but included tripod fish, deep-sea prawns, eels, rattail fish, and deep-sea red crabs.

• For daily expedition images, visit CIOERT Flickr collection at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cioert/.

New Students Afloat (Blogs from two of our Immersion in Ocean Science students)

Richard Mulroy, MS Student, Biological Sciences, FAU

Greetings from the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster.  I am a graduate student researching aquaculture at HBOI.  I am working with a team led by Dr. Paul Wills on an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture system, in which multiple species, feeding at different trophic levels, are raised in the same system.  In our case, pompano and white shrimp are fed a prepared diet, whereas oysters and macroalgae extract nutrients from the waste of the fed species.  I have taken many courses in aquaculture, marine biology, and marine science at HBOI.  This course, Immersion in Ocean Science, offered a unique opportunity for adventure and education aboard a working research vessel.  Everything has been new and exciting, from viewing deep-sea coral habitats via the ROV, to identifying sponges and gorgonians by examining their spicules through a microscope, and seeing things that no one has seen before.

The most bizarre and amazing fish we have seen so far are longspine snipefish, which have an equally bizarre scientific name, Macrorhamphosus scolopax. We see them singly or in twos or threes, nose downward, usually hovering behind a sponge or black coral. (Credit: CIOERT and Univ. of Connecticut Kraken2 ROV)

My project for this course involves comparing the water quality data collected by the CTD among the sites we visit.  All of this has meant long days, up at 7:00 AM to watch the ROV explore the bottom and not to bed until all the plankton samples have been processed late at night.  It has all been worth it.  One of the best things about this expedition is seeing people from many disciplines working together.  Biologists, chemists, engineers, and the ship’s crew come together to learn about the ocean.  On-board everyone is willing to lend a hand to get the job done.  This experience will last a lifetime.  Even if I never set foot on a research vessel again, I know I have learned, had fun, and contributed, in a very small way, to our knowledge of the ocean.

Courtney Kehler, MS Student, Biological Sciences, FAU

Three FAU graduate students are on Leg 2 (from left to right): Richard Mulroy, Noelle Notarnicola, and Courtney Kehler. (Credit: CIOERT)

Today the seas are calm and the weather beautiful, but this is not how it has been the whole cruise.  On Day 3, we ran into a squall when arriving at the Alligator Humps, but science, like the post office continues rain or shine!  After approval from the bridge, we were allowed to conduct the MOCNESS tow.  Now most people think the MOCNESS is the worse the cruise could get … well, think again!  MOCNESS in the rain and lighting for two hours is not exactly what you would call a good time.  But we got through it and even pulled up some bioluminescence plankton!  Needless to say, doing the MOCNESS on Day 4 was a cinch since the weather was nice.

This cruise has had some of the best experiences and worse experiences of my life.  The fact that this is a class is amazing!  I love the hands on-experience and learning from top scientists what they really do in their research!  Dr. Guzmán, Dr. Messing, John Reed, Lisa Cohen, Stephanie Farrington, the ROV crew, and the crew of the ship have been more than willing to spend hours explaining what they do to us students and have even allowed us to perform some of their responsibilities.  Of course, everyone has joked since it is Immersion in Ocean Science that we will all be thrown overboard to get the full immersion experience!

I truly feel this class has allowed me to get a glimpse into what I could be doing when I obtain my Ph.D.  This has been one of the best classes I have ever taken and, if this class is offered again before I graduate, I would not hesitate to take it again.  I will also be recommending this class to all other graduate students at HBOI.

Want to know more about FLoSEE?

See: http://cioert.org/flosee/blog/undergraduate-research/ to read a blog by Dan Rowan, an FAU undergraduate student on our 2010 Florida Shelf Edge Exploration (FLoSEE).

Sep 26 Day 15

Today’s Highlights

• For daily expedition images, visit CIOERT Flickr collection at: http:/www.flickr.com/photos/cioert/.

My Zooplankton Journey

Noelle Notarnicola, MS Student, Biological Scientist, FAU

When most people hear that I am studying marine biology, they immediately think about fish, dolphins, or whales.   So when I tell them I am studying zooplankton, the question I get most often in response is … of all organisms in the ocean, why zooplankton?

To be honest, zooplankton is not what I always thought I would love to study as a kid, but the more I learn about it and see it firsthand, the more fascinated and captivated with it I become.  Not only are zooplankton an integral part of the marine food web and include the next generation of marine organisms in their larval form, but they are also extremely diverse, with more complex body structures and brilliant coloration than you would ever expect.  Peering into the microscope at a zooplankton sample straight out of the ocean is like having a window into a secret world.  This living part of the ocean is often overlooked by everyday people

Chaetognaths, also known as arrow worms, are voracious predators and have really menacing jaws! (Photo Credit: Noelle Notarnicola)

One of my personal favorites to see is chaetognaths, also known as arrow worms.  They are predatory worms and have these really menacing jaws!  Another favorite and a big hit with the science party and ship’s crew on this trip are the sapphirinids, which are a type of copepod, that shimmer purple, green, and blue and make the cod-ends of the net look like it is filled with glitter.  Many of the Calanoid copepods also have pretty pigmentation and it is always fun to see the various fish larvae that end up in the samples too.

A favorite of the scientific party in our MOCNESS samples are sapphirinids, a type of copepod that shimmers purple, green, and blue and make the cod-ends of the net look like it is filled with glitter. (Photo Credit: Noelle Notarnicola)

To collect this zooplankton, I have been using the Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System (MOCNESS).  My relationship with the MOCENSS is only 3 weeks old but it has been an interesting journey in such a short period of time.  I started Leg 1 with zero field experience with the MOCNESS and was nervous about getting it up and running and in the water successfully collecting samples.  The first deployment, towing, retrieval, and processing of samples took me about 6 hours!  Three weeks later and with 8 tows under my belt, I was able to do all of it with the help of the other FAU students onboard in 3.5 hours.  It was an interesting and quick switch from being the person who needed step-by-step instructions to turning around and going through the process on my own and instructing the other students on what to do and how to assist.  Thankfully Jim Lovin of the University of Miami is a wealth of knowledge (and very, very patient!!) or I would not have come so far so quickly.

It has been a strange sort of juggling act out here being both a student and the person in charge of the night shift and MOCNESS tows.  I was initially pretty intimidated by the task, but I jumped right in and now feel more comfortable with the MOCNESS and the decision-making than I thought possible.  I thought I was doing a decent job, then got confirmation during a random conversation with Andy David who is a Research Fisheries Biologist with NMFS, while on deck.  During this conversation, Andy asked me who the students were onboard.  I listed the 2 other students and then said myself.  He looked at me a bit taken aback and responded “You are a student?  I thought you were the person in charge!”  It was nice to know that my role transition from student to night operations lead was pretty seamless and I was not just running around like a clueless, crazy person!  But Andy was correct; I am the person in charge of the MOCNESS and the dual role playing has been an awesome, strange, stressful, and exciting experience!  I came in nervous and unsure, but think I have accomplished a lot more than I ever expected to and have some wonderful samples that I cannot wait to sort through back in the lab.

I have learned so much these past 3 weeks, and I know for sure that this trip will make me both a better student and scientist in the future.  I am so much more than grateful for this experience and opportunity and I hope to someday meet the MOCNESS again in the future!

Want to know more?

See: http://flosee2.wordpress.com/page/2/ to read Noelle’s blog from Leg 1 of our 2011 Florida Shelf Edge Exploration (FLoSEE II).