Daily Log - Day 7
Premature ending…
Weather set in last night and has put an early end to the cruise. Beautiful day for just about anything else but putting an AUV into the sea. We will try to save two days of time so we can come out again next year. A successful research expedition at sea is a little like a sports team. Champions are marked both by talent and chemistry. Working with the Liberty Star feels like a winning team. Thanks to the USA ship and AUV teams for the dedication and friendship.
Last night’s ROV dive accomplished many different objectives:
- first recordings of rock shrimp
- one of three night dives (which is likely why we saw rock shrimp)
- ground-truth of previous multi-beam survey in and around Chapman’s Reef; Amanda Maness is working on her Master’s Thesis and building a habitat map using a software program called QTC MultiView — the dive imagery fills in some important data gaps in this map.
We are fortunate to be working closely with the South Atlantic Fishery Council in all our Oculina efforts. Council staff help us in many ways, from setting survey and dive sites, to outreach and education programs. We are all working on the “Oculina Experimental Closed Area Evaluation Plan”, a plan of action for the next ten years for mapping, research, monitoring, enforcement and outreach. Our mapping efforts will contribute one more puzzle piece, and help develop a model plan for the recently designated Deep Sea Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern.
October 16th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Here the students had a four day weekend (teachers didn’t) and I am just getting around to typing up their questions. I know some of the questions have since been answered but these students did not have access to internet. Also many of my students are ESE or ESOL so I had fixed up some questions. I tried to keep them close to what they wanted to know. Some questions don’t have names because so may students were virtually asking the same thing. There are a couple more questions at school I will send when I get there.
Thanks,
Laura Gullotti, Northport K-8 6th grade Earth/Space Science, Saint Lucie
To: Aaron Alexander
From: Everyone
Why no picture? Has your picture been on America’s most wanted?
To: Jocelyn Karazsia
From: Valerie C 4th
To: Jeff Williams and Glenn Taylor
Could you explain the differences between the equipment you use?
To: Amanda Maness
From: Maria N. 4th
Are there any coral reefs that could kill you?
From: Suzette M 1st
To: Stacey Harter
From: Samantha F 4th
From: Saray O 2nd
To: Marta Ribera
From: Marc P 2nd
Why is the coral reef so special?
To: Lance Horn
To: Everyone who will answer
From: Wanda C 4th
To: Steve Brodet
From: Josue P 1st
To: Everyone who will answer
October 16th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Wow! Thanks for all the excellent questions! We will try our best to answer each and every one of them.
Since the cruise ended earlier than expected, a lot of the crew have already gone their separate ways across the country. Keep checking back here to see what questions have been answered!
Oh, and to answer the first question: Aaron Alexander doesn’t have a photo because he was too busy designing this site! He’ll have one posted very soon.
October 16th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Hello, Mr. Administrator, We are from Mrs. Gullotti’s sixth grade Science classes at Northport Middle School. We have questions and hear you are the man who can find answers.
From: Eli T 3rd
From: Joshua B.
Why are there so many girls on the ship this year?
From: Jessica H. 4th
Does coral change colors in different temperatures of water?
From: Tayla M 4th
Where and what kind of coral grows the fastest?
From: Patricia P 4th
Do sharks and other sea creatures hurt, kill,or eat coral reefs?
To: Lance Horn
It says you operate the ROV and AUV-Who designes and builds them?
From: Derrick C 3rd
How many years did it take to get to be a researcher? How long have you been there?
And others:
From: Cody C 4th
Can you estimate how many fish are in the whole ocean?
To: Jeff Williams
From: Austin S 4th
Does the monkey come with you on the expeditions?
October 16th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
I am pleased to be Everyone:
Since your job is at sea, if you could choose a State to visit which would you go to? Why?
Alaska — because it has beautiful coasts that I have never seen.
Where do you call home?
Wilmington, North Carolina
Who has been out to sea the most? How many times? What is the longest any one has stayed out to sea? How Long?
In our group, many of our operations team have been going to sea for decades. Our staff average over 100 days at sea each year (not all at once — trips are usually 7-10 days long). I am not sure what the longest time anyone has been at sea. In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl built a wooden raft called Kon Tiki and sailed it for 101 days across the Pacific. Oil field workers sometimes live aboard offshore oil platforms for up to six months. Aircraft carriers carry up to 6000 sailors and stay at-sea for up to 2 months. The limiting factor is how much food and water a vessel can carry for its passengers.
Are there any passengers and where do you keep them?
The ship we are on has a crew of 12 and our science crew for this mission was nine — there are berths (beds) for up to 12 visiting passengers.
Do you each get your own room or do you have to share?
We mostly share. Each room has two berths and a head (bathroom).
How old is the boat? How long will it last? What is special about it? How big is it? Who drives the ship? Who cooks and cleans?
The boat was built in 1997. Most ships have a lifespan of up to 30 years. It is 175 feet long. The Captain and two mates stand watch and are in charge of driving the vessel. The Chief Steward, Jimmy, cooks and cleans for us. The vessel Liberty Star and its sister ship Freedom Star are very special ships. Their normal job is to recover the booster rockets after each space shuttle launch. They are equipped with dynamic positioning which allows them to automtically hold position in one place (very helpful for robot dives). They have very large cranes that are used to recover booster rocket parachutes, and are essential for ROV and AUV operations. Most important, the crew is very talented and enable us to deploy our robots and coordinate witht hem in deep water and high currents we find off Florida’s coast.
Where and how do you keep the data? What will you do with it?
After each AUV dive, the multibeam data is downloaded onto a hard drive of a processing computer with special software. We process the raw data to correct it for many factors such as the tides, density of water (which affects sound travel and depth recording), and the attitude of the vehicle (pitch, roll, yaw). We then create final products such as tables of position and depth or graphical pictures (colored and shaded) of the bottom, put them on a mission hard drive and give this portable drive to the chief scientist.
In World Cultures we have been studying early civilizations — what would be your favorite historical boat or ship?
My favorite vessel is the Trieste — the only human occupied vessel to ever visit the deepest spot in the ocean in the Marinanas Trench. As far as older vessels, I wonder if Noah’s Ark exists and if it does, it is interests me the most.
What is most memorable about this expedition? any other expedition?
The AUV is a complicated, advanced piece of machinery that requires alot of techncial expertise and faith to put in the water. I will not forget the nerve-wracking waits to see if would finish its surveys and return to the planned spot after 24 hours. My most memorable expedition was a charting survey we did in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979. A hurricane chased us out of the Gulf and we had to run east through the Straits of Florida at night, in 15 foot seas, and a blinding rainstorm with hundreds of other vessels. We always had a vessel within a few hundred yards of us and could not see them except on radar. I felt lucky we made it around the Florida Keys to Miami without hitting anyone.
Please explain how you can tell if the coral is alive or dead?
Deep Oculina coral is white if alive. Oculina also grows shallow and has symbiotic algae in its skeletons, which give the shallow forms a red/brown/green color. The only way to be sure the coral is alive is to see if the skeleton is inhabited by the coral polyps.
Does people touching coral hurt it?
Yes — it is easy to damage coral as the polyps are delicate.
Is it “stealing” to take coral? What do you have to do to get permission to take some?
Yes — it is illegal to collect live coral. You have to apply to NOAA Fisheries for a permit to collect corals for scientific purposes only.
Why are there so many girls?
Marine science has an equal number of woman and men professionals, so our cruise actually slightly under-represents woman in the profession.
Do you all have to agree on hypothesis and conclusions?
If we follow scientific methods and properly test our hypothesis, then we should all agree on the conclusions. This cruise is not hypothesis driven– we are instead testing new technology that will produce high resolution maps that may allow us to test hypotheses, for example, about whether coral condition is better in the closed areas than in areas still being trawled.
October 17th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Do you think your job is the most important thing in your life? Do you ever feel like you want to go back home with your family?
October 17th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Why do they send robots down and not people? How heavy is the machine? why do people like to study the oculina? How is the coral reef so important?
October 17th, 2006 at 11:12 am
Austin S,
The “monkey” is actually a lemur, only found in and around Madagascar — did you see the movie? Well, that’s what a real lemur looks like. They are very friendly…especially if you have bananas!
Now, to answer your question, “Does the monkey come with you on your expeditions?”: No, it does not. I found the lemur on an island near Madagascar called Mayotte. He’s much happier being there than at-sea with me!
October 17th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Could you explain the differences between the equipment you use?
We’ve got two amazing vehicles on this mission, an “ROV” (Remotely Operated Vehicle) and an “AUV” (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. ROVs have been around for a while. They are connected to the surface by a “tether” that carries commands down to the vehicle (stop, turn, etc), and video and data (like depth and heading) up to the operator. They work by direct remote control, sort of like a video game. ROVs usually operate close to the bottom and are useful in taking videos and still photos.
The AUV is quite different. It is a true robot that sorts out what it should do based on an internal program and sensors that tell it about what is going on around it. For example, we program it to “fly” at a constant altitude above the bottom and it adjusts its depth to follow the bottom at that altitude. We track where it is from the surface vessel using sonar, but it can, and has done entire missions without any outside commands from us. AUVs usually stay well above the bottom and do broad survey work. If it becomes necessary, for example if the weather forecast turned really bad, we can send it commands to stop the mission, surface wherever it is, or go to another part of the survey.
I hope that explains the difference between ROVs and AUVs and why we use both.
October 17th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
It says you operate the ROV and AUV — Who designes and builds them?
The ROV was designed and built by Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc. and the AUV was designed and built by International Submarine Engineering.
October 17th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
What is the most important thing you have learned?
The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that we are using is a very complex tool. This is only the third cruise that we have done with this machine and we are in a very steep learning curve at this time (that was actually what was planned for these cruises — Test and Evaluation of the vehicle). Mechanically, the AUV is fairly reliable, we have some more difficult software and time syncronization issues that must be addressed before we return to sea. It may take a couple years to fine tune the vehicle and get staff trained enough to make the AUV an efficient scientific research tool.
Are you Santa Claus at Christmas time?
No, I’m not Santa Claus at Christmas. I’ve never been very good at wrangling reindeer. I’m going to let Santa take care of that, and hopefully, he will not need our AUV to do his deliveries.
Does the beard protect you from sun cancer?
It may protect against skin cancer on my face a very little bit, but we count on sun screen, hats, sunglasses, and long sleeves when we’re working offshore. Just about everybody I meet that has spent many years in the sun wish that they had not. A little sun is good — all in moderation, but take care of your skin, it’s the largest organ in your body.
October 17th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Maria N,
Are there any coral reefs that could kill you? The short answer to this question is NO. However, there are corals that could be deadly if you were to eat them, which people don’t do.
The most deadly things in a coral reef are the creatures that live there. Poisonous sea snakes, stone fish, and the blue ringed octopus are just a few inhabitants of coral reefs that can harm humans, but are rarely deadly with treatment. Sea snakes can administer poison with their fangs, and stone fish appear to look like a rock or part of the coral, but when stepped on they have spines that shoot poison into their aggressor.
Also, there is something called fire coral which isn’t actually coral, but is often growing on real coral reefs. It has stinging cells called nematocysts that will irritate you if you brush against it, much like a jellyfish sting. These are not deadly, just quite painful. Fire coral is most often yellow or brown with white tips so it’s important that you avoid touching it.
On the bright side, there have been many biomedical studies conducted on coral reefs to combat several diseases such as breast cancer and leukemia. There are far more beneficial things on coral reefs than deadly ones.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
To Ms. Gullotti’s class:
What is the deepest anyone of you all have dove?
I have been down to 2250 meters (7000 feet) in a submersible called Alvin (http://www.whoi.edu/marops/vehicles/alvin/). Alvin is Amercia’s deepest diving submersible and has a depth rating of 4500 meters- they are now upgrading her to reach 6500 meters (95% of ocean). The average depth of the oceans is 3800 m.
What kind of tools do you use? Where do you get the tools? Sears? Home Depot? Do any have a life-time guarentee against them being dropped overboard?
Regular tools for the most part and they do get dropped occasionally– no warantee on clumsiness. We do insure the big equipment such as the AUV in case it is lost. Only difference between us on ship and your workshop at home is our tools may rust more due to being in moist salt air.
Why are there so many girls on the ship this year?
As far as I am concerned, there were not enough. The ratio of our team did not even match the average number of women that are now entering the field of oceanography (about 50%).
From: Jessica H. 4th
Does coral change colors in different temperatures of water?
Shallow Oculina has symbiotic algae that live in the skeleton, help the coral grow its skeleton, and need sunlight to exist. The algae give the live coral a red-brown tinge. The deep live Oculina are white due to the lack of these algae (like shallow corals that bleach under stress and expel their algae). Cold temperatures can cause shallow corals to bleach and turn white, too.
From: Tayla M 4th
Where and what kind of coral grows the fastest?
Shallow tropical corals generally grow faster than deeper forms, such as Oculina. The growth rate of deep Oculina is generally about 1.5 cm per year, compared to 10-15 cm for a healthy staghorn or elkhorn coral colony. Learn more at http://www.coris.noaa.gov/about/biology/.
From: Patricia P 4th
Do sharks and other sea creatures hurt, kill,or eat coral reefs?
See Amanda’s nice reply to similar question on Oct. 17. Several species impact corals in different ways. For example, many species of fish graze corals, or feed on things that may grow on corals. Algae can overgrow and smother corals, or cut down on space needed for new coral to settle and grow on. Spiny sea urchins (Diadema) that used to be dominant in Caribbean reefs died off for several reasons in the 1980s and their loss severely impacted corals due to unchecked growth of algae and other attached species that the urchins used to eat. The reef is a delicately balanced ecosystem, and loss of a predator or producer can impact reef health in various ways . For more about these hazards and others that affect reefs go to http://www.coris.noaa.gov/about/hazards/.
From: Derrick C 3rd
How many years did it take to get to be a researcher? How long have you been there?
Being a researcher just requires school training in using science tools such as the equipment we use at sea, and the mathematical tools used to analyze data. I began doing research in college (35 years ago) on how tidal power plants in Maine were affecting intertidal populations (such as clams, lobsters and kelp). I was a research technician and identified the animals in our samples (taxonomy). In order to be a better researcher, I got a Master’s degree in Marine Science and learned how to do biometry (math statistics for biology). These math skills are critical in order to design experiments and test (prove or disprove) hypotheses– what science is all about.
What do you have to do to become a driver of the ROV and AUV?
Experience and training. Some companies like Oceaneering (www.oceaneering.com) have specialized training courses. Our ROV pilots learned by doing. The AUV is more complex in that it requires a team of people with different skills including computer programming, acoustic sonar technology, and mechancial and electrical engineering.
What’s the difference between being a team leader and being a worker?
Team leader, such as Chief Scientist for cruise, is responsible for creating the cruise plan, making decisions at sea regarding changes to the plan (such as equipment problems or bad weather as we had), and writing up results. My day at sea was generally from 7 in the morning to 9 at night. Other workers stand watches– 6 hours on and 12 hours off– in order to be sure we had a team available 24 hours each day to tend the AUV.
Do you like being the team leader?
Yes– it is very rewarding to find the money and resources to get a project going and follow it through to the papers and data needed by ocean managers to do their job.
Where is the deepest part of the ocean you’ve been too? How deep is the deepest?
See answer above. Deepest place is in the Marianas Trench (see http://www.extremescience.com/DeepestOcean.htm) at almost 11,000 meters (deeper than Mt. Everest is high).
What kind and how big was the biggest fish you’ve seen?
Biggest sea animal (mammal) was a humpback whale– over 70 ft. long that was attracted to our little robot. Biggest fish was a whale shark (actually a fish) that swam around our boat near the Flower Garden Banks off Texas– nearly 35 ft. long. Whale sharks actually eat same way as humpbacks by filtering small plankton out of the water, as opposed to carnivores like Great White sharks.
What is the most dangerous fish you’ve seen? In the whole ocean?
Sharks– several species. I have never seen a Great White which strikes me as being the most dangerous due to their size and penchant for eating prey that resemble people in the water (seals and sea lions).
From: Cody C 4th
Can you estimate how many fish are in the whole ocean?
The Census of Marine Life (www.coml.org) now (2005) has over 75,000 species of marine animals and plants in its database, including over 15,000 species of fish. The actual number of individuals is unknown– a school of sardines can have 100,000 fish. Over 100 million pacific cod were caught in 2004. I supect number is many many billions, most of which are not commercial species. NOAA Fisheries has the difficult job of trying to calculate how many fish commerical and recreational fishermen can catch and still sustain a healthy population. Landings data for federally managed fisheries can be accessed at http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/index.html.
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:41 am
Samantha F,
I love my job. I get to go out to sea every so often, work on a variety of projects, and help protect the ocean’s habitat and fish.
There wasn’t anything scary about starting my job. I work with a great group of people, most of which I already knew when I started because I had done an internship beforehand. I just wanted to make sure I pushed myself to do the best job I could do.
October 23rd, 2006 at 8:48 am
Valerie C,
You asked:
How long can you (anyone) have a career like this?
As long as one is physically able and continues to feel fulfilled from the work.
When do you plan to retire? from going out on the ships?
I may be eligible for retirement in 26 years! I hope to participate in as many research cruises as possible until then. I especially hope that we can get some Treasure Coast/Space Coast teachers to participate in an upcoming mission.
What will you do then?
I would like to be a yoga instructor and travel when I retire. I would also like to volunteer with education programs that focus of coral reef conservation and mentoring women and children.
Is it complicated or easy being part of a team that is floating out in the water?
It is easy when you have strong leadership and a good sense of humor. Good weather helps too.