FeMO3 Dive Cruise 2008
Report Day 04 -- Thursday 25 September 2008 -- Another Conference with Sehome High School Students
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FeMO3 Dive Cruise 2008 |
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Early this morning we again made contact with Sehome High School students. I was joined by Katrina Edwards and Brian Midson. Dr. Edwards is a microbiologist from USC and specialist in microbes that make their food from chemical energy. Dr. Midson is the National Science Foundation’s program manager for deep submergence vehicles. We fielded questions from students about the FeMO research and Jason. Examples include: What kinds of research projects are being pursued? How do the bacteria get energy from iron? How long will the experiments last? Does Jason have military uses? How much water pressure can Jason survive? How many people are on the ship and what do they do in their spare time? Why is money being spent on research like this rather than addressing world problems such as the Darfur crisis? They were great questions and Katrina, Brian and I tried to answer them clearly and concisely. We really enjoyed the conversations and thinking about the questions.
The R/V Thompson had dedicated all its SeaNet internet capacity to the conferences; the tech Rob went so far as to manually unhook all other internet connections. But it wasn’t quite enough. We shut down our video feed in the hopes that we could maintain better audio contact, but even with audio only the conference was disconnected several times. Rob speculated that the disconnects were due to heavy use of the satellite by other research vessels. Apparently all U.S. research ships in the Pacific share a small channel (with a finite bandwidth) on the satellite. Even with audio only the call was dropped several times during the conferences making it difficult to understand questions and answers. Despite the disconnects and lack of video we were able to talk to at least 20 Sehome students during the conferences.
Shortly after the second conference was completed Jason finished loading the deep-sea elevator with samples and it was released from the bottom. A short time later it broke the surface. After sighting the R/V Thompson maneuvered close enough to hook the elevator and crane it aboard. The arrival of the elevator and samples on deck resulted in a flurry of activity to retrieve and preserve or process the samples before they warmed up or dried out. Suddenly the labs that had been set up with supplies and equipment were getting enthusiastic use.
Shortly after lunch a crewman rushed into the lab to tell us a whale shark had been sighted. Whale sharks are Earth’s largest fish. They are filter feeders, swimming slowly gathering plankton, yet they can grow to 45 feet in length. The whale shark we saw was much smaller, 15-20 feet. It milled about the aft end of the Thompson, once passing close enough to the stern to show its broad head and rows of white spots. The heterocercal tail and prominent pectoral fins could be seen. Occasionally the shark would swim so close to the surface that a fin would break through into the air. We all felt very fortunate to see this rare animal.
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