June 2nd begins with the crew arriving at station 6, where surface sits over 1100 meters above the sea floor. Patches of sargassum float by as our instruments are prepared to tackle these depths.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Along with our niskin rosette, a bag full of styrofoam cups is attached. It takes roughly an hour to resurface.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

After eagerly waiting the hour-long deployment, our cups resurface, just this time they appear to have shrunken! At the 1100 meter depths, our cups undergone pressure that caused all air trapped in the styrofoam to escape and compress! Alongside cup collections, all other water measurements are acquired. Pictured above is researcher Fatemeh Ameri using a probe that measures pH.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

After water has been collected, the plankton crew consisting of Jess Shearer, Gena Leib, Matt Bues and not pictured Ellissa DeFeyter, are deploying and recovering their Bongo net for plankton collections. Samples will be used to assess for general zooplankton diversity, ichthyoplankton larvae and egg identifications and abundances, and Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in assemblages.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Additionally, Dr. Christian Briseño-Avena uses a smaller plankton net to collect and assess phytoplankton in surface water.

Photo courtesy by: Ata Suanda / UNCW

It’s a full lab in here!

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

While ongoing Plankton collections occur, back in the lab our scientists are busy at work filtering water samples. Above, Charlton Slader and Leila Ramirez from Dr. Winifred Johnson’s lab, are assuring water is filtered accordingly for osmolytes from assorted depths of the water column.

As analyses continue, The Cape Hatteras makes its way to our next station where the crew plans to collect only depth profiles and water samples.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

The above picture is featuring water sampling, but a little different compared to our previous stations. These manual sampling methods for station 5c were implemented as a means to replace our niskin rosette, due to lost communications as a result of flooding of the CTD at depth. Although quite troubling news to deal with, as this would mean benching our entire rosette set up for further collections, our team of intelligent, out-of-the-box thinkers were already prepared with backup plans. Moving forward, our water collections would consist of a back-up CTD and a single niskin bottle attached to collect bottom depth water, as well as surface water. At the start of this second Teal Ships Cruise, the running name was Double Trouble, however after witnessing some pretty “Troubling” things go wrong, this name became quite ironic.