After a night’s journey, our crew and researchers prepare for their first day of work at sea. On the morning of June 1st, the Mooring Buoy with an array of sensors is prepared for deployment. This instrument will spend a year at 250 meters below the water’s surface collecting data to inform scientists of the ocean’s currents through a depth profile.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

As we sit on the edge of our seats, and a nail-biting amount of time passes, the buoy finally sits in the water. Its weighted counterpart is soon dropped, and the buoy vanishes quickly into the depths. Below, oceanographers Sam Flounders and Ata Suanda celebrate the deployment of the Mooring Buoy!

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

After a successful start to Teal Ships 2, everyone jumps into their assigned roles, and an assortment of collections begins. Our first major station consisted of fish trawls, water sampling, and plankton tows.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

This was the deepest station for fish trawls, and therefore this sampling event took the longest amount of time. However, the outcome provided some rare / cryptic species that our fish crew, Tiana Degrande and Sam Sanders, were excited about! Species included frogfish, goosefish, and batfish.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

For our third event of this station, a CTD/ holographic plankton imaging system / niskin rosette is deployed in order to simultaneously collect abiotic conditions, in-situ images of plankton, and water across the depth profile. A water budget is created in order to assure each scientist is allotted their required amount of water per depth for their analysis.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Students and faculty can observe a live profile of the abiotic conditions through depth. This gives them an idea as to how the salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and chlorophyl are changing as depth changes.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Researchers gather around the niskin rosette like animals to a watering hole, collecting their designated amount of water and heading back to their lab stations. Graduate students Rachel Wood and Jess Shearer, pictured, collect water for their analyses of vitamins and nutrients.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Water samples collected are used to assess Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC), Particulate Organic Carbon (PIC), Particulate Inorganic Carbon (POC), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Nutrients, Vitamins, Isotopes, Archaea, Coccolithophores, and Osmolytes.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

Some analysis set ups are quite intricate, as seen above with Post Doc student Melanie Cohn observing live measurements of oxygen.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

While the research vessel lab setup kept us in close quarters, it was a collaborative and educational space for all as we observed analyses that we do not normally partake in. Allie Sells and Dr. Bradley Tolar working side by side as they filter water for Archaea DNA pictured above.

Photo courtesy by: Jeff Janowski / UNCW

To wrap up our first full day at sea, we partake in a research cruise tradition. Styrofoam cups are passed around along with a variety of markers. Everyone decorates their very own (normal-sized) cruise-cup! Come tomorrow, we will arrive at our deepest stations in the Gulf Stream, where these cups will travel with our instruments to the bottom!