Day 17 -- 17 October 2009 -- Returning to port
Accomplishments abound! We have been out to sea for 18 days – a total of 408 hours. Jason went on eleven dives for a total of 174 hours – which means 174 hours of monitor time for the Jason pilots, crew, and scientists. In addition, our scientists spent 37 hours monitoring CTD hydrocasts, and 28 hours surveying the seafloor surveys and setting the transponders.
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Day 16 -- 16 October 2009 -- What’s cooking in the Galley?
I’m on watch again from midnight to 4:00 am. About halfway through the dive Jason is 1,116 meters below the surface and a big white octopus swims by - flapping its wings. Wings?!? It actually has two big, rounded wings! Emily tells me it’s called a Dumbo octopus because of its wings. I watch it swim by the camera in awe. We follow it with the Jason cameras until it swims out of view.
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Day 15 -- 15 October 2009 -- What’s in your freezer?
The labs are bustling with movement and eagerness to wrap up loose ends. The scientists are busy preserving and packing up their samples and specimens. I see boxes, pails, coolers, and plastic containers of every shape and form strewn in every corner of the labs.
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Day 14 -- 14 October 2009 -- Giant Bobbers!!
Early the next morning I look out my cabin window and see a gigantic yellow bobber being hauled on board. I think to myself -- That must be one enormous fish! Then I remember I’m on a scientific research vessel, not a fishing boat. I look again and see the Jason crew pursuing another giant bobber off in the distant waves. My curiosity is stronger than my desire to sleep.
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Day 13 -- 13 October 2009 -- “Captain on the Bridge”
My day began at midnight – another 12:00 to 4:00 am monitor watch. Jason is already on the bottom when I arrive at the van. We are back inside the Lo’ihi
crater. I ask Wendy where the hot water comes from that shoots out of
the vents of the crater. I am curious how the whole hydrothermal vent
system of these young, underwater volcanoes works.
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Day 12 -- 12 October 2009 -- Jason and His Crew
As I wake up and look out my cabin window I see Jason has just come on board. The crew is busy working on Jason and Medea. I wonder what they are doing so I decide to go down and check. I meet Will Sellers, one of the Jason pilots. He tells me that they are performing the post-dive inspection.
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Day 11 -- 11 October 2009 -- Mapping the Ocean Floor
I wake up at sunrise to the sound of the winch lowering the CTD into the water. It is a beautiful sunrise in the middle of the Pacific! After the CTD comes back up, Jason descends to the Lo’ihi crater. The goal of this dive is to map a small area of the crater. I discover that mapping involves moving Jason back and forth numerous times across an area.
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Day 10 -- 10 October 2009 -- A Major What?
Jason has been up and down and up and down and now the Kilo Moana is on the move again. With so many samples on board I decide to go down to the labs to see what the scientists are working on. Olivier and Sarah will conduct isotope analyses on the hydrothermal vent water samples that have been collected.
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Day 09 -- 09 October 2009 -- The Boys and Their Toys
What better time to start today’s daily report than at 12:01 Friday morning? I am working in the monitor room and Jason is back on the crater. He is taking temperature readings in the hydrothermal vents and collecting scoop and slurp samples. He is also collecting and distributing bacterial traps, shrimp traps, and slide traps. The traps are unique, diverse, and look hand-made.
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Day 08 -- 08 October 2009 -- It's all about the Cranes
I wake up early, walk out on the deck and begin to snap pictures. I am on the stern of the boat and snap photos from starboard to port. The first crane (the white one) is used to lower and raise the CTD. The second crane called an A-frame (the curved green one) is used to lower and raise Medea into the ocean.
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Day 07 -- 07 October 2009 -- Bacteria on Board
I wake up late, miss breakfast and almost miss lunch. My body has still not adjusted to being awake till 4:00 am and trying to operate on normal people time the next day. After lunch I learn that Jason is now exploring Big Lump and Little Lump, an area of FeMO deep that has not previously been visited.
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Day 06 -- 06 October 2009 -- Spending the Night on the Bottom of the Ocean
As Jason continues to work, 3,000 feet below the ocean surface, a shark appears in the camera’s view. A shark! 3,000 feet down! I didn’t know sharks lived that deep in the ocean. After being down on the ocean floor for nearly 36 hours Jason finally emerges at 8:00 Tuesday morning.
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Day 05 -- 05 October 2009 -- The Elevator Fiasco
Jason is still in the crater of Lo’ihi exploring and collecting samples. Jason cannot carry all of the rock, mud, and water samples as well as the bacterial and slide traps that were retrieved for the scientists back to the surface. So, late Sunday, the Jason crew sends down a large shelf with buoys on tops that they call the elevator.
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Day 04 -- 04 October 2009 -- Jason is Hard at Work
8:00 am bright and early, the sun is shining and the ocean is calmer. Jason is launched first and then Medea follows. A half hour is spent watching Jason descend from the surface of the ocean to the top of Lo’ihi where the crater is located. Jason spends the day traversing the crater of the young volcano.
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Day 03 -- 03 October 2009 -- The Weather Won’t Cooperate
Saturday is spent returning to the Lo’ihi Seamount. The waves are still rolling and the weather is still blustery. Everyone on board is feeling a bit queasy and grumpy due to the rolling waves and the inability to collect samples. The Kilo Moana costs $60,000 per day to run an oceanographic expedition. A lost day due to poor weather is more than a simple frustration.
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Day 02 -- 02 October 2009 -- The Science Begins
Friday morning, bright and early we arrive at Kealakekua Bay on the southeast side of Hawaii. A CTD – Niskin bottle rosette is launched into the water. The CTD continually measures the conductivity, temperature, depth, and oxygen concentration of the water as it descends towards the sea floor.
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Day 01 -- 01 October 2009 -- Final Loading and Leaving Port
Good morning! My name is Lisa Kohne and I’m on board the R/V Kilo Moana (R/V means Research Vessel) for a 17 day scientific research cruise off the coast of Hawaii. Every day I will post a daily report, photos, stories, and videos from our expedition.
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