Monday, the conference opened, and schedules were determined. This was a very biology-heavy conference, as expected; it is really important to understand how specific organisms will react to Ocean Acidification (OA). However, my research deals in a tangential field (chlorophyll modeling), so I found I was available during sessions dominated by organism-specific topics or coral calcification.
Opening Ceremonies
Monday, therefore, I was attending some Industry Seminars at the Blue Ocean Film Festival, broken by organisms-specific light/chlorophyll interactions on the science side. The evening was spent watching a cute movie about sea otters, after listening to Jean-Michel Cousteau and Sylvia Earle speak.
Tuesday was mostly science. I learned about specific diatoms, multiple stresses (e.g. CO2 and Temperature), and gave my poster presentation. A lot of people were impressed with the length and breadth of data my lab had collected, and a few suggested some directions to take it.
Wednesday was split between the science and film. The science had a couple of really neat sessions on OA policy, while the festival had some self-help seminars on balancing work/life. A luncheon discussed OA monitoring off of California, and dinner was in the Monterey Bay Aquarium (future post for pics).
Alisha's Mom was in for the Film Festival
Thursday, I drove home to give a talk on Friday at the International Meeting for Students in Physical Oceanography (future post). The RAV4 performed admirably once more.
Fisherman's Wharf
Somethings Interesting:
--Each restaurant on Fisherman's Wharf is approximately the exact same place (moderately priced seafood). They offer free samples of clam chowder, drink deals, and free appetizers to draw in customers; still they're often found empty.
--I made some conference friends; people from other institutions who you create a connection the first day, stand with during coffee breaks, and sit with in sessions. They seemed pretty neat, especially a French Canadian dude named Robin, but I don't remember some of their first or any of their last names.
--This conference had a ticket system for providing beer; AGU and ASLO both just have beer until it runs dry.
I've got a good little car, here at my hotel
Mayor of Carmel, a position formerly held by Clint Eastwood
Jean-Michel Cousteau's sweet tie
Sylvia Earle
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Sylvia Earle
Scripps Folk
Plenary, day 2
Showing off my poster
Google Earth hooked up to five Giant Screens
Farmer's Market Strawberries
As of this posting, I'm hungry
Making slides about science while listening to science
I am reaching an
important point in my thesis. My lab measures light at the surface
and at depth; the amount of light absorption between the two sensors
can give chlorophyll concentrations. It seems like the method works,
but I don't know what to do with it; I am having trouble coming up
with that next step. I hope this conference will help me develop a
question to ask.
There's also a
Blue Ocean Film Festival this week. It's attracting a crowd devoted
to giving Ocean Science information to the public. I'm excited to
crash some of the workshops, they sound super neat.
Anyways, I grew up
between San Diego and Monterey, so I decided to drive here.
I made it home
Friday, and had my parents and a warm meal waiting for me. It was a
leisurely day on Saturday; some good news came in early, which
created levity. After that, my dad and I washed my car and we all
watched UCLA lose. Dolphins were going crazy when the sun went down.
Today, I drove the
coast road and listened to a Bill Bryson book on tape. I got booklets
to both conferences, and am creating my schedule now.
Something
Interesting:
--My hotel
internet doesn't work. It seems I'll be using the conference internet
all week.
--I get free
admission to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
--It felt great in
the RAV4, cruising the 500+ miles with ease.
Driving on Friday; this was my drive to and from High School
Sunset on Saturday
The parents, with the incorrect Sweatshirt
Dolphins going CRAZY
Sweet rocks
Sweet Birds
Coast road on Sunday.
It was foggy, but this added it's own Beauty. I know what this
drive looks like, it was neat to know what's there, and not be able to see it;
an interesting kind of power
My lab does moorings. Engineers design
and build huge floats that sit on the surface, or just beneath it.
The wire that holds these floats in place will extend to the heavy
anchor on the ocean floor, with a set of instruments often spanning
the entire depth. We deploy these at sea, and recover them
months/years later. The return is a time series of selected
oceanographic quantities, for the entire water column, in one
location.
Prepping the floats
A couple of weeks back, we deployed and
recovered a series of moorings for our CORC Project (more at
http://mooring.ucsd.edu). In 90 hours, we deployed a glider, two
bottom and two subsurface moorings, recovered one subsurface and two
bottom-mounted instrument, and had zero relaxing transit. I'll
describe the deployments here, and touch on the recovery process in a
future post.
Moorings
Surface and subsurface moorings have
different designs, but similar deployment processes. The trick is to
get the entire 1-4 km of cable, instruments, chain, floats, and
anchor off of moving/bouncing boat without getting anything tangled.
Sometimes you have to stand on stuff
To start, we angle the boat so it is
roughly steaming towards the desired location. The large float is the
first thing in the water. For surface moorings, this is a huge
surface buoy, while subsurface floats are smaller. Instruments start
on the main float itself, and continue along the cable in carefully
determined intervals.
At the end of the wire, a couple
lengths of chain, more flotation, and finally the anchor (normally
railroad wheels) are lifted over the ship's edge. We continue to
steam to the desired location, with sometimes trailing 4km of wire,
floats, and instruments. Once the Chief Scientist gives the signal,
the anchor is dropped and pulls all to rest vertically in the water
column.
Anyways, watch a couple timelapses and
check out a bunch of photos.
This is the beginning of the first deployment. It lasted over 6 hours, was in ~3800 meters of water, and had a subsurface float that rested at about 50 meters below the surface.
This is the end of the first deployment, the anchor is about to drop when the camera card fills.
This is the (almost) entirety of the Second Deployment. It lasted only about 2.5 hours, was in 800 meters of water, and again the SD Card filled up right before the anchor drop.
Somethings Interesting:
--Our instruments use magnets to induce
tiny electric pulses in the wire that holds them in place. Similar to
Morse Code, this process transmits all the data from each instrument
to a single modem. The surface modem will transfer the data via
satellite; the subsurface modem is acoustic, and will transmit the
data to a passing glider, which will bring the data to the surface
within reach of the satellite.
--Our deck leader is a salty German who
has the uncanny ability to tell you exactly which box (of over 20)
holds each wrench, bolt, and wire length. Rumor has it his toes are
made of steel, and has no need for steel toed boots.
--Our lab is playing a large role in
the OOI Project, where 4 moorings systems will be put in 4 of the
roughest waters, essentially on the corners North and South America.
The deployments and recoveries will be nothing short of exciting.
Port Hueneme, in Oxnard
A ship, bigger than ours
Fully loaded, ready to depart
Some first years earned their sea legs
Full moon!!
Paul caught a fish; lab BBQ a week later
Pre-Deployment meeting; Chief Scientist in sneakers, Deck Leader in Shorts and Boots
First Instrument; it's covered in Copper to keep off Bio-Fouling
Location of GoPro Camera
Last set of floats with release.
Deck Leader
Deployment 2, surface floats.
Deck Leader, rolling a Cig
That's me
Our Bottom Releases are acoustic and let go only to a particular set of frequencies.
