Day 03 S/V Kaisei: Launching of the Manta Trawl

Thursday, 6 August 2009

Lat: 34° 20.7’ N Lon: 128° 01.5’ W

Manny The Manta Trawl

Stiffing winds allowed us to sail at seven knots and we were joined by two small pods of white-sided dolphins. At 10:41 AM, the science team released the first manta trawl on the port side for one hour of surface trawling. We found small bits of plastic and small silver fish in the mouths inside the underbelly of several by-the-wind-sailors (Vellela vellela) trapped in the manta trawl. The small plastic pieces were collected, placed in a solvent-rinsed vial, and frozen for future analysis in the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) laboratories. We also took our first surface water samples with a Nisken bottle to study carbon cycling events that we expect will change as we approach the Northwest Pacific gyre.