Atmospheric phenomena above, squid below (9/2/09)

One of many photos taken of the beautiful skies we enjoyed this evening

Just about everything about the day has been dramatic -- fantastic skies, near-catastrophic accidents, and alien visitations. Ooh, and I ID'd a pomarine jaeger!

The biggest drama was hitting the mud with the CTD. We all were mortified, but luckily the damage was minimal. But the next cast? That one held everyone's attention completely. The tension in the room as the CTD approached the seafloor was off the charts, with everyone's eyes glued to the depth readout on the lcd monitor. I took a few pictures, but failed to capture the essence of the moment. Instead, I'll show you some pretty pictures!

Our deep-water stations sported the most lovely clear blue water (Missy the Floridian was unimpressed though). Several of us were conspiring ways to get ourselves in the water, but our good sense won out. Too bad.

I've particularly enjoyed the water along the La Push Hydroline. The water on the outer stations was gorgeous, and I finally saw some non-avian verts! Don't know what species they were, but we saw several sweet little fishies. A very happy fishy specimen was poking around a little clump of fucus that had broken off the rocks and floated to sea. Later tonight, while doing CTD deployments, I noticed 3 enormous jellyfish hovering just at the edge of the ship's lights, about 3 meters down. I could faintly make out big bells viewed from the side, with ~2 meter long clumps of tentacles hanging behind. I was a little puzzled to see the jellies turn a full 360 degrees in the span of about 3 seconds, and started to wonder if those beasties were what I thought they were. I also noticed that the ship was actually moving -- whatever was down there was swimming to keep up with us, perhaps with some interest in the CTD. Afterwards, I went to talk with the bridge crew (who had a much better view of water) to ask them what they saw, and they informed me that the ghostly forms haunting our operation were in fact humboldt squid! Yay! After that we saw a few more small groups of humboldts, zipping around the edge of the lights. It's was pretty amazing to see such big creatures moving so quickly through the water, but they were so frustratingly shy! Before the last CTD deployment I grabbed a tin of sardines thinking I might actually interest a few squid into coming a little closer -- and to satisfy that deep primal sense of connection you enjoy with other beings through the sharing of food (I ate a few myself). We saw a few more squid about, but the sardines didn't seem of much interest to anyone but the fulmars (and me). Finally, about midway through the CTD deployment, a gloriously huge humboldt casually siphoned up to the surface about 4 meters off the rail -- bright red and rolling, slowly somersaulting so that it's keels, eyes, and fins were clearly visible. I'm sorry to say that I didn't get a photo (I was too busy throwing smelly sardines at the guy), but I can post some older photos I took of an unfortunate netted squid. Tonight was my first experience with live and happy humboldt squid -- I'm a fan!

Michelle Maier, Pete Kahl, and Vikki Campbell playing Scrabble under the sun

Words have played an increasingly important role in the recreation of the science party. Between studying for the GRE, crossword puzzles, and Scrabble, latin roots, definitions, and synonyms are all the rage.

A tiny, faint moon sneaks up behind Sara Bender

Morgaine McKibben photographs the sunset

This evening was also made dramatic by the glassy smoothness of the sea and the amazing clouds rising up from the horizon. Everyone was out on deck snapping photos of the waxing gibbous moon rising through wisps of vapor.

And thanks to Adena, I have a photo of myself to share!

Tomorrow I'm going to actually talk about science! Should be fun...