[CINC] Plankton Tow Trip

[Kevin Bailey]

Today I met the Shearwater Research Ship at 6:30am for a day of plankton research. There were 3 UCSB researchers and 4 other UCSB folks in varying stages of getting their advanced degrees. Captain Terrance took us to 6 PB stops where the researchers took water samples. PB7 (PB stands for Plumes and Blooms) is the closest to SRI but we skipped this stop today and stopped at PB6 a couple miles off SRI and each “station” spaced about 3 miles closer to shore until we were right off of USCB for our final PB1 stop. My job was to help as needed and take 2 samples at designated PB stations. Dennis Carlson showed me how to do the sampling at PB6 and then I was an official plankton catcher. Today was “run # 205”. I asked how many there will be total and was told “until the funding stops”; this is an ongoing project with multi-year efforts by many.

 

Since this was a research trip there were no stops for wildlife but I thought I would make note of what was seen. There were humpback spouts seen about 1 mile east of  PB6 and then a couple Blue spouts seen in the distance between PB6 and PB5. Dennis saw then – I can’t see that far! We also had 2 groups of Rissos pass us by as we were cruising between stations. They were very quick looks and I mainly saw the dorsal fins. We saw several small pods of Commons and several solos milling around the open sea. No mega pods, only mini pods. A couple groups passed us by as we were taking samples at designated PB stations. Mola Mola and Seal Lions were also seen cruising between stations.

 

To learn more Google “Plumes and Blooms UCSB” but here is one site to check out:

http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/GCMD_UCSB_ICESS_PNB_SATELLITEDATA.html

 

Kevin Bailey
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