Day 09 S/V Kaisei: Welcome Scientist

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

Lat: 34° 28’ N Lon: 141° 43′ W

Our midnight trawl revealed five more myctophids, one flying fish, and four pre-production pellets. Recently our night trawls have been showing less plastic marine debris than our daytime trawls. Since we are in the heart of the gyre and the apex of our sampling scheme, we have been working around the clock collecting data. At minimum, we have been trawling each afternoon and at midnight. Our crew has been on watch either aloft in the crow’s nest or on the bowsprit watching for debris fields. This extra help has been useful in gathering large pieces of marine debris that will later be used for educational outreach or analysis of surface properties. In our afternoon trawl, we found nine by-the-wind-sailors (Vellela vellela), part of a plastic bottle, one pre-production pellet, and numerous marine insects. The contents of our trawls reveal different items with each location, providing new insight into the nature of the North Pacific Gyre.

Dr. Heather Coleman

Today, one of our scientists, Heather Coleman, celebrated her 30th birthday. When Heather was a child, her brother, a UCLA marine biology major, used to take her tide pooling in Palos Verdes, California. An early introduction to marine life inspired her to start scuba diving in the eighth grade. She could not unglue herself from oceanic environments, never wanting to return to land. Thus was the birth of her muse, diving, and studying oceanic environments throughout high school and college. Heather received her undergraduate degree in marine biology from UCLA and through Northeastern University’s East/West Marine Biology Program. The program’s first stop was at the Friday Harbor Marine Laboratory in Washington. With only four students that year, Heather received an intensive research-oriented education. Her passion stayed strong for oceanic discovery, and despite the inability of her drysuit to keep out water, Heather could not contain herself from the bounty of the sea. The next venture in the East/West Program occurred in Discovery Bay, Jamaica. Heather started her first independent research project on behavioral interactions in invertebrate communities. The East/West Program continued in Nahant, Massachusetts, focusing on community ecology at the Marine Science Center. Heather continued her research in Jamaica the next year as a teaching assistant in

oceanography.

After another year at UCLA, Heather went to Akumal, Mexico to study nutrient input in coral reef systems. After graduating, she worked at Santa Monica Baykeeper leading the volunteer brigade in kelp restoration. To continue doing research, Heather began a doctoral program at the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Along the path of earning her Ph.D., she acquired a master’s degree in environmental economics. Heather was introduced to

Dr. Coleman Free Diving Around A Derelict Net

Dr. Andrea Neal, and together they have been on many dive adventures including a plethora of research dives to study the effects of oil pollution on sea urchins. Heather aspires to become involved with non-profit work in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, and to continue her new research focus on marine debris in our oceans.