Howdy-day!
Today closes our
first full day on the ship out at sea. While we may only be over
400m depth and just close enough to see the tall mountains in Oregon,
we have already finished calibrating all of the echo-sounder
equipment,
 |
| With the echo sounder readings we can determine where things are in the water column, how many organisms there are, and what they might be. Photo by Emily Markowitz |
taken two CTD casts,
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| Retrieving the Conductivity Temperature Depth sensor. The CTD creates a profile of the water column that is documented on a computer onboard. Bottles inside the cage can (though we aren’t using them this trip) be used to take water samples at different depths so further water quality measurements can be made. Photo by Emily Markowitz |
and three IKMT
net tows.
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| We are nearly done with sorting, titrating and documenting our latest catch! Photos by Emily Markowitz |
One of the goals of this cruise has been to
gain a better understanding of the differences of Target Strength
between squid and hake. Though we haven’t been able to catch any
of either yet, the net tows provide an interesting demographic of the
ocean’s water column and a welcome back-up plan in case we don’t
find enough of either organism to collect data with.
The weather here
is surprisingly calm and sunny despite the west coast’s
characteristic overcast. This has made it so much easier to drop our
bags off in the state rooms, learn our way around the vessel and basic data collection procedures. Nothing lasts forever
though - we still have a little over 2 weeks ahead of us and we’ve
been told it will become a little choppier after Monday!
Cheers,
Em
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