#3 Wheel House Reports from the Project Kaisei Science Team (PKST)
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Lat: 35° 51.3 N Lon: 125° 31.6’ W
Early Morning rise and shine at 6:30 am! Our unique team of scientists gathered, On board we have Principle Investigator Dr. Andrea Neal, Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, Co-Principle Investigator Dr. Michael Gonsior from University of California at Irvine, Dr. Margy Gassel from the California Environmental Protection Agency Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Heather Coleman from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at The University of California at Santa Barbara, Nicole Argyropoulos from Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society and Corinne Hume.
PKST started with a meeting to discuss the float plan, points of collection, and the specifics of the marine debris we are seeking. With our on board lab we will be able to collect and store samples of water and marine debris ranging from marco to nano-sized particulates. We will also be able to run experiments on oceanic health and carbon cycling as well as monitoring the very basics like water column profiles that show pH, salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a. All of these complex sampling and experiments can be one while sailing!
Captain Mike Smith spotted our first piece of marine debris today, located at 36˚21.29 north and 124˚50.220 west at 11:32 AM. The marine debris was a yellow buoy containing a microcosm of gooseneck barnacles and sea slugs. Plucked from their oceanic environment, the gooseneck barnacles, their long peduncles adhered to the buoy, repeatedly extended their cirri, or feeding appendages. We cleaned the buoy and retained it for future analysis. Tomorrow we will be doing our first manta trawl, which is a net that skims the surface gathering surface water for samples. The manta trawl’s main purpose for the science team is to collect marine debris to test in our on-ship lab.
No comments:
Post a Comment