Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009 – ship log
On the ship with Kira Triebergs (North Bay and Lighthouse schools)
My day started in the early hours of the morning, around 1 am. When I finished my work, I went for a stroll on deck. Little did I know that I was in for a spectacular show… it was like watching blue planet in real life! Flying fish were zipping straight out of the water and sailing like birds over the waves. I was standing at the stern (back) of the ship, when all of a sudden a flying fish lunged toward me, followed by two dolphins! What followed was a fast paced chase that ended up in some very happy dolphins, full after a meal of delicious flying fish.
After a few hours sleep I woke up early to watch Kristina’s second submarine launch. The crew told me if I put on a life jacket, I could watch up close, so I got to see every detail of the launch. The A-frame raised the sub clear above our heads and into the clear blue water. It seemed so big when I was standing under it!
Following the launch I worked on my project, studying baby barnacle larvae that hatched from adults we found on the spines of a deep-sea urchin. Barnacles on urchin spines! We were curious if these deep-sea baby barnacles (nauplii), that have only one eye, can sense light! To study this, Marley and I set up a tiny nauplius-sized arena to test our question. In the dark, we placed a flashlight at one end of a petri dish, and a nauplius larva in the center. After 5 minutes we checked to see in which direction our nauplius was swimming. So far, we think that these baby barnacles can sense light, but we don’t know why they have this behavior. What do you think?
After lunch we deployed the MOCNESS plankton tow to look at the types of larvae found at different depths in the water column. When the MOCNESS is brought up, it is our job to sort through the ‘plankton soup’ to look for larvae of deep-sea animals. We have 8 nets to look through, so it is a big job! We signed up for shifts and spent the rest of the evening taking turns sorting plankton. My favorite plankton were the tiny baby sea cucumbers and baby sea stars.
Later, scientist Kelly G. got an email that her son Kai lost his first tooth. We are too far away to talk by cell phone, so small email messages are usually the only way to talk to friends and family. However, since it was such a special occasion, the captain let her use the satellite phone to speak to him. She sends her love and can’t wait to see it in person!