So, I’ve talked a lot about the mission of this research
trip. However, I have not discussed any of the people who make it possible. The
entire ship’s company of this research vessel is 34 people. There are 12
scientists aboard along with over 20 people working on the boat.There is a chief officer (captain) and 3 watch-standing mates
who are all a part of the NOAA corps. They are assigned to vessels for a few
years and then move on to assignments onshore in various capacities. There are
also several folks who work on the deck. They deploy and retrieve all of the
research gear so that the scientists can work on data collections. A ship of
this size also has several engineers to maintain the generators, engines,
reverse osmosis system to make fresh water from the salt water around us, sewage
systems, freezers, etc. There are two people who deal with computers. The ship
is filled with computers that perform almost every job imaginable, in addition
to the wifi which keeps us connected to the outside world via satellites at all
times. There are 2 cooks who keep us all fed. One thing that I enjoy about
going to sea is that it tends to miniaturize my world. In the “real world” I
don’t know all of the people who maintain my electricity, keep the sewers from
backing up, prepare meals at the restaurants frequent, drives the bus,
maintains the cable & internet connections, etc. Aboard a ship, you know all
of these people, and you can see how each of their jobs matters. Being aboard a
ship constantly reminds me to stop & consider the monumental effort it
takes for modern life to be as comfortable as we have made it. It also makes me
mindful of each of the resources that I use.
I just spent some time talking to the chief engineer for
this cruise. His name is Victor & he is a very interesting guy as well. He
is originally from Portugal & has worked aboard tuna fishing boats and the
NOAA ship Bigelow in New England along
with this vessel. He is filling in as chief engineer for a few months on the Pisces while they find a permanent chief
engineer. His next assignment will be aboard a new
vessel that NOAA is building in connection with SCRIPPS. It will be stationed
in San Diego & do work off of the west coast. One thing I am constantly
impressed by about the crews of research ships is how interested they get in
the research taking place aboard their vessel. It would be easy to just do your
job & ignore the crazy scientists onboard. However, few people do that.
Victor asked me questions about my work, what we are hoping to gain from this
data (the numbers of groupers and snappers in the area), whether we are
comparing to a long time series (no. We have no long time series in this area),
and how the video reading works. He also told me about working aboard the Bigelow doing trawl surveys in the North
Atlantic. Then he described for me the trip they went on where the vessel was
doing deep water trawling. He couldn’t believe how far they had traveled to get
to the areas they were interested in sampling. He said that they made it almost
to the Azores. He was impressed by the large size of the nets they fished, the
small size of the mesh, and the diameter of cable needed to successfully fish
the trawl and get it back to the boat. He told me about how it took 3 hours to
bring the nets back onboard and how there were not many fish down that deep,
but that there were lots of different invertebrates. Many of these folks have
had very interesting experiences working at sea and have seen many things that
I can only imagine. It’s great to get to interact closely with so many
different people who have a single commonality, a love of the ocean.
By the way: you can follow our location at this website if you are so inclined. Under "Pick a ship" just select Pisces.
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