A research vessel is a little like a rental house. Of
course, the ship’s crew has all of their spaces where they keep their gear
& the ship’s gear. However, the science labs are largely empty & the
science crew brings all of their own research materials. Before the cruise, the
science crew must think ahead and plan for the most samples they think they
will collect. The must bring all of the tags, bags, markers, memory cards,
preservatives, etc. that they think they might need during the entire trip.
When leaving the ship, all of this gear must be packed away into containers,
prepared to be taken off of the ship, trucked back to home base, and stored for
the next cruise.
We completed three trap sets today. In those traps we caught
a whole bunch of black seabass, and a fair number of jellyfish. Red snapper
continue to be seen on camera, but not enter the traps. In between trap sets,
we washed all of the buckets, containers and most of the other gear. Once we
finished with the last fish, we packed away all of the sample containers, and
other equipment. We also scrubbed the wetlab clean. It is always amazing to see
how far the slime can fly when fish are flopping around being measured. It’s
also amazing to witness the extreme transformation of a space from dirty to
clean with the effort of just a few people. Cleaning and packing took us until dinner
time.
The evening was a low-key one. Folks were cleaning their
cabins, and the mates made cookies, so everyone had cookies and ice cream. There
are only a minimal number of people who need to work right now, so the ship is
pretty laid back. The science night crew is hanging around a little bit, trying
to get back on schedule. The ship’s crew is preparing the boat & themselves
to get back into port. We will be arriving back at our same dock space in the
Mayport Navy base by around 0730 tomorrow morning.
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