Island Time: Bermuda on a boat

These last six days I have been on an oceanographic cruise all around the Bermuda triangle. These cruises are mainly used by people working on a program called BATS (Bermuda Atlantic Time Series), which monitors temperature, salinity, chlorophyll content, nutrient levels, eddy patterns, etc. at different locations in the deep ocean around Bermuda. I actually took a class at UC Santa Barbara learning about BATS. My professor showed a ton of pictures of the research vessel, called the Atlantic Explorer, that we used, and I learned all about their research methods. It was great to meet the people that I’d heard so much about and get firsthand view of an oceanographers lifestyle.

Other labs at BIOS and across the US have access to the Atlantic Explorer, which is how I was able to get on board. Before getting on, I knew another REU (Esra) and my roommate James, who is a math major from Cambridge modeling ocean currents with BATS. Side note about James- we got him to read the sorting hat song from Harry Potter with his lovely British accent in exchange for laundry quarters. I have it on tape.

For my project I needed to collect very clean seawater as a control for my project. I also helped collect dirt from the bottom of the ocean (5000 meters deep) for another project that my PI (primary investigator, aka the head honcho) is working on.

We got my clean water samples fairly easily, but the device we used to collect the soil takes four hours to get to the bottom of the ocean and back. This device is designed for use in water about 50 meters deep, and is essentially just a spring trap that is supposed to slam shut when it hits dirt. Unfortunately, because of the incredibly high pressure of the deep ocean, the first two times we sent it out, the device probably wasn’t moving with enough force to trigger the spring. On our third attempt, we strapped on about 300 lbs of extra lead weights to the sides of the scoop. To everyone’s surprise, the device was triggered and we managed to pull about 1 gram of dirt up from the bottom. Fortunately, that is all we need in order to run the trace metal tests that my PI needs to perform. It really felt like a miracle!

One thing I was really surprised about was the quality of the food. I don’t think I have ever eaten as well as I did on that ship. The all-Filipino crew had tons of exotic sauces and spices and the best ingredients you can keep on a ship. We had fresh guacamole, all-you-can-eat sushi, lionfish, hand-made croissants, and much more. At sea your life pretty much revolves around weather and food, so I guess its a necessary perk if you want to keep good staff around.

Overall this was a great experience, but I’m very glad to be back on land. While there was a lot of down time, a busy ship like this has casts going out 24 hours a day. That means having at least one 3am cast is pretty much expected for everyone. On average it took about three long naps for me to get all of my sleep in! I can’t wait to spend tonight on my non-swaying bed and to stay there for eight hours.