How many sleep in a room, and do you have a window?

There are four people to a room that is around 7X15 feet. There are no portholes in the rooms and they stay dark and really cold

Are you getting sea sick?
The ocean has actually been very calm. The gentle rocking has been more peaceful than anything else, but we haven’t been going very far. The first day (our roughest day) made a few people sick. A lot of people have been taking sea sickness medicine, so that has also been helping.

What are you learning?
Our class has been very interesting so far. We have learned a bit about the history of deep sea exploration, especially about how the first explorers thought that the deep sea didn’t have any animals in it at all! We’ve also been learning about the seasonality of the deep sea (which Ms. Matthews talks a little about in her blog). Today we talked about larval feeding and dispersal in some of the ephemeral habitats of the deep sea.

How do you like the warm water off Florida?
It’s great! We don’t even have to wear a wet-suit when we go snorkeling!

Have you been swimming? Do you use the pool?
We’ve been swimming in the ocean, but not really in the kiddie pool that we bought. The pool has been sitting up on deck, so now the water is more the temperature of a hot tub than a pool, which is nice for soaking feet in the evenings.

5/17/08

When you are finished studying samples form the sea under the microscope, hwat do you do with the samples? (by: Lochlan Kelsay)

Some of the samples we keep we return to the ocean. Most plankton samples we preserve using chemicals like ethanol or formalin so we can continue to study them when we go back home to our regular labs. Some adult animals we ship back to OIMB and keep them in cold recirculating tanks and spawn them there.

Have you seen any kind of shark in the dark zone or the twilight zone? (Lacy Wagner)

I have seen a nurse shark and a tiger shark on a previous deep sea cruise but I don’t think anyone has seen sharks down in the sub yet this trip. We did see a few nurse sharks while we were out snorkeling in shallow waters.

Why do squid, from the dark zone, lay their eggs in the shallow zone? (Andrew Mullenix)

I have not heard that deep sea squid come up to the shallows to lay their eggs. I believe squids, after mating in large swarms lay their eggs on the bottom and often die right after. I would guess that deep sea squid lay their eggs on the bottom deep and that more shallow water species lay theirs on the shallow bottom. There are some deep sea squid that actually brood their eggs on the surface of their body instead of laying them on the bottom.

How do the hatched babies in the shallow zone know to go down to the dark zone after they are born?

Some deep sea animals have babies that may swim up to the shallow waters to feed when they hatch. When these larvae (babies) are ready to turn into adults, some of them have geotaxis, meaning they can feel gravity or move downward. Others may become large enough from eating to sink more quickly. Often

How do the animals in the ocean, who live at the bottom below continental shelf, live without being being squished by the pressure of the ocean? (by: Danielle Tim).

Most animals found in the very deep sea are invertebrates like crabs, mussels, tubeworms, echinoderms (seastars and urchins) etc. These animals don’t have pockets filled with air that would be compressed or flattened at high pressures. Deep sea fish often have swim bladders filled with air, used to control buoyancy, that would be compressed if they changed their depths drastically. However, most fish may migrate a few hundred meters up from and down to depth but not thousands of meters that would cause a major change in the air in their air bladder. Some fish are able to control the amount of air in the air bladder as they move up and down in the water column. In general, these fish spend most of their lives in the deep sea and thus don’t experiences extreme changes in pressure.

Questions from MS Smith’s class, 3rd grade Hillcrest, North Bend

Answers from Ms. Austin, Millicoma Middle School GK12 fellow

Question #1 – Do you collect data when the sea is rough? Would that affect your results? High seas verse calm seas and position of plankton?

When the sea is rough we can’t launch the submarine or the CTD (which measures things like salinity and temperature at different depths in the water column) since the rough waters might damage these very expensive instruments. If this happened we would be unable to collect data that day and would thus have missing data for that specific site. TO avoid this, we usually stop our ship on the leeward side of the islands where it is calmer. So far, we have extremely calm seas with only 1-foot swells at times! Depending on how rough the seas are the position of the plankton would be affected in the surface waters. With high seas the plankton in deeper waters get affected more as opposed to calm seas. However, with the calm seas we have been accustomed to I doubt the position of plankton has been affected.

Question #2 – Are the bioluminescent animals different in the Atlantic Ocean verses the Pacific Ocean?

In the Atlantic Ocean we have the same groups of bioluminescent animals as you would find in the Pacific Ocean, but here we are seeing different species of organisms within those groups.

Question #3 – How do you keep your equipment, like microscopes, from moving around during high seas?

We have tied down our microscopes with rope onto the lab tables so that if the seas are rough they would stay in place and not break!

Question #4 – What are you using your Hula-hoops for? Are you using your Hula-hoops for exercise?

Are you doing any kind of exercise to keep in shape?

On the boat it is hard to get exercise, so we use our hula-hoops for exercise on the deck of the ship. We also walk around the deck of the ship in laps in addition to using a treadmill that is in a room near the berths where we sleep. Hauling buckets of seawater for the animals is also quite the workout! So yes, we are finding a number of ways to exercise on the ship!

Questions from Mrs. Ashcraft’s 6th grade class, Millicoma Middle School, Coos Bay. Answered by Katie Bennett:

Do you know what the larvae eat yet?

We aren’t sure yet. We have some experiments in progress and will report back soon.

How does the submersible pick up specimens?

It works in a couple of different ways. It has a “sucker hose,” (very technical name…) that pulls animals into bins using a clear hose. The sub can also use a claw to grab things. If the animal is fragile, the sub pilot can deftly maneuver the “bio box” (a clear, water-filled container) under it to scoop it up. eeeee I’ll try to get a video clip up soon on the website showing us collecting something.

What other animals have you dissected?

We have dissected urchins, salps and sea stars. The urchins and salps appear to have a parasite. The one in the salp is especially weird—I’m excited to learn more about them.

Do you get seasick anymore, or are you used to the movement of the boat?

The boat is like a cradle rocking me to sleep. No one has gotten sick since those first couple of days. I think the transition back to land will be hard—we’ll all be constantly swaying.

Questions from Ms. Yovino’s 5th grade class, Millicoma Middle School.

Answers by Annie Pollard.

Can you tell us more about the salp in Ms. Austin’s picture on the 5-18 log?

Salps are related to sea squirts. They are clear animals that swim in the water column. They use muscular contractions to jet propel themselves through the water. The particular salps Ms. Austin photographed are colonial, meaning they live in a colony. The colony is a long chain of cloned salps. They are genetically identical. This particular salp chain was 20 feet long! This is the largest colony anyone on the ship had ever seen. Each individual was about 10 inches long and 4 inches wide. The part of the salp that is not clear is the stomach, intestines, and gonads, which appear as a small ball inside each animal.

What is the most interesting thing you have found on the cruise?

This is a hard question to answer because we are finding sooo many interesting things on the cruise. Some highlights are the giant salp chain, the opaque red jellyfish seen in Ms. Keammerers’ dive, and the dumbo octopus seen earlier today. I think each person would answer this question differently.

Has anyone been bitten?

The day we spent in Florida many of us were bitten repeatedly by small insects. We’ve been scratching those bites ever since! Other than that, no one has any bites to report.

How many different types of plankton have been found?

There are too many to count! We found 10 species of snail larvae and four species of cucumber larvae in yesterday’s tow alone. I personally pulled out 15 different kinds of worm larvae last night between the hours of 11pm and 2am. And these are just the larval plankters. We’re not even counting holoplankton, which are the animals that spend their whole lives in the plankton, like copepods.

Can you explain what it is like going down in the sub?

At first, being in the sub is a little disorienting. There is a small window through which you can see your friends waving at you from the deck of the ship. Then, you experience a bit of rocking as the sub is hoisted from the ship into the water. Then the window looks like a washing machine with water and bubbles swirling all around. Soon, the descent is started and all you see is blue through the window. It steadily gets darker and darker. After a while it is completely dark. It takes over 20 minutes to reach the bottom. The ride is very smooth once you leave the surface.

Once you reach the bottom a light is turned on over the window, and you can see the sea floor slipping by as the submersible maneuvers across the bottom of the ocean. If you’re lucky you see all sorts of cool things swimming by like fish, jellyfish, salps, squid, and sharks. On the bottom there are sponges, sea stars, urchins, crabs, anemones, and sea squirts. You spend about 3 hours down there peering out the window. After a while, your neck starts to ache a bit and your legs are cramped, but you don’t care because you are exploring such an amazing, alien environment. You are very busy because you have to write down everything that is seen and collected, as well as what the temperature, depth, and salinity is. After 3 hours you leave the sea floor and begin your approach to the surface. The lights are turned off and you can see millions of bursts of light as the submersible startles small bioluminescent animals on the way to the surface. The light gradually increases, and finally you are at the surface and the window looks like a washing machine again. You feel the rolling of the waves as a swimmer jumps off the ship and attaches a rope to the submersible. Then you watch the water drop out from under the sub as you are gently lifted out of the water.

Are you homesick at all?

None of us are particularly homesick, but we all miss family and loved ones at home. It is hard to be homesick when there is so much going on all the time! We don’t have much time to think about home. Also, it is so lovely here. Some of us miss our pets a great deal. My lizard Metolius must be feeling quite abandoned right now!

What have most people considered the most exciting part of the trip?

DIVING IN THE SUBMERSIBLE!!!

How much sleep do people get since you have so much work?

It ranges from about 4 hours to 7 hours a night, depending on the person and the night. I don’t think anyone is getting as much sleep as they need, but there is so much exciting stuff to be done it is hard to unwind!

Questions from Ms. Edd’s 6th grade class, Millicoma Middle School

Answers by Paul Dunn

Was it scary when the waves were high crossing the Gulf Stream?

No, I don’t think anyone was afraid. We were all quite excited and being kept rather busy with orientations and safety drills. A few people had to lie down for a bit because they weren’t feeling well, but they felt better the next day.

How does in feel to be in the Bahamas ?

It’s great! The weather has been fantastic, with only a few days when it rained for a little while. Mostly we’ve just had loads of warm, sunny days. Add in the fact that we’re getting to go down into a submarine and study deep sea animals, and it’s pretty much paradise here.

Have you discovered any new animals at the bottom of the ocean?

We think that we may have discovered several different animals, although we have to check what other people have written about in the past to be sure. Most of what we’ve discovered that could be new species are things like worms that live inside sea urchins and little snails that eat anemone-like animals off sea urchin spines.

How many animals have you seen at the bottom of the ocean?

Wow. That’s a hard question. We’ve seen dozens, if not hundreds of different kinds of animals during our dives. Some animals are very rare (like squid and octopus), while others are quite common (like brittle stars and sea urchins).

Was it scary going in the submarine and going down to the bottom?

I guess you could say that it’s a little bit scary to go down to the bottom of the ocean. It is a very different place from what you are used to, and the submarine is all that stands between you and thousands of feet of water. But really, I think it’s far more exciting than scary. We’re on a voyage of discovery! We have seen so many amazing things already and hope to see even more over the next few days.
Questions from Mrs. Melton’s 4th grade class – Hillcrest Elementary

Answers from Wyatt Miller

Have you seen any shipwrecks or carcasses on the bottom of the sea? (Michael M.)
Unfortunately, no. A shipwreck would have been really cool to see, although scary.

Have you seen any camouflaged sea creatures? If so, how many? (Sadie B.)
We see a lot (too many to count) of camouflaged sea creatures. A lot of animals are either clear (see-through) or red. Red is a good camouflage color because red light does not reach the bottom of the ocean so animals that are red appear black.

Have you seen predatory creatures at prey? (Heath S. and Colton O.)
We did see a shark and a viperfish, although they were not hunting at the time.

Have you seen any human products (litter) at the bottom? (Haley M.)
Unfortunately human products do make their way to the bottom on the ocean. We saw bottles, fishing nets, cages, and even soda cans.

What is the biggest fish you’ve ever seen during your expedition? (Ariah H)
There was a 6-foot shark.
What is the smallest fish that you’ve seen? (Ethan S.)
I saw a fish larva, which is 2 millimeters. The smallest adult fish was a 2 centimeter lantern fish.

Have any animals run into the side of the submersible? (Michael M.)
Actually, a lot of drifting animals run into the sub. Some of them are bioluminescent and when they hit bursts of green light spin about or pop around the sub. You can compare it to a bug hitting a moving car.
How many different types of fish have you seen? (Tyler L.)
I have seen a lot of different fish, probably 20+.