Lionfish Sampling Day 8: Weather

The field sampling for this project occurs  four times per year for two years for a total of eight visits to each of the twenty sites. Each sampling period has its own unique challenges. The project began in January when both the air and the water were in the 60s. This sounds like a nice, warm temperature. However, it is quite cool to be wet for twelve or more hours per day, During the May sampling period, it was very windy, and the samplers were only able to visit fourteen of the 20 sites. 

Our routine during this sampling trip has been for two divers to go down and do their surveys while the other two divers remain on the boat and watch their bubbles. The divers on the bottom do not bring a surface marker with them. The two people on the boat have to constantly watch their bubbles in order to not drift away from the spot where the divers are working. During that time, we also prepare all of our gear for the next dive. 

The weather in July has been really nice overall. There is relatively light wind in July, leading to seas less than two feet. Most days have been sunny, and we make sure to wear pleanty of sunscreen when on the boat.  However, summer also means squalls, rain, and thunderstorms. The squalls aren't too bad but they are a pain. They bring wind that whips the water into a froth, significantly reducing our ability to see our divers when we are on the boat, and changing the direction of the wind, making the boat quickly float away from the divers. Rain adds a level of difficulty. It reduces visibility even further, and makes the divers even more difficult to see. 

Thunderstorms are the worst. One lightning strike can fry all of the electronics on a boat and even severely shock a person who is holding onto metal on the boat. Being at sea on an open center-consoled boat in a thundstorm is no bueno. Yesterday Chris and Joe came up just before a rainstorm started moving toward us and building energy to become a thunderstorm. We turned on the radar, took a look at the direction it was moving, and started heading south as fast as possible.  We ran south around the edge of the storm, spending several tense minutes unsure if we would make it away from the thunder and lightning. When we got past the south edge of the storm, we were able to wait out the weather and get back to pick up a few graysby. The radar was a great help to us since we could watch where the thunderstorms were moving, and how far away they were. 

Today the weather seemed to be acting aproximately the same. However, when we watched the rain showers, there was no lightning, so we were relatively safe. The showers stayed close to land, and never made it out to where we were sampling. Once we finished our sites, we did have to run back to the park through pelting rain that seemed very cold after our day of sunny, humid conditions offshore, and our week of diving four hours every day. 

As long as all goes well, we will finish our last two sites tomorrow and be done with this project for the month of July. It has been a really fun experience. I have learned a lot, and had a good time. I'm excited to get to participate in some research this summer.