Journal of Microbes in the Western Pacific Ocean

Learn about the Project | University of Hawaii | University of Tennessee

Journal Entries:

February 10 - This is a bittersweet day as it is the last full day at sea for this cruise. This afternoon we made visual contact with Australia. We are almost finished with packing up the scientific and personal supplies. The Australian pilot is set to board the Kilo Moana at 6AM tomorrow, and he will take over steering the boat for the final 50 miles into the bay and into port. Yesterday we let off a little steam by having a rowing machine (erg) relay competition, followed by a dance party in the staging bay, complete with a disco ball and Christmas tree lights. How those ended up on board is an interesting question, but were nevertheless put to good use. Check in tomorrow for our final journal entry and photos of our landfall in Brisbane. EZ and GL

Februay 8 - We've been told today by Captain Bryon that we will not be held in quarantine in Brisbane, but will be subject to the following rules: "1. No food, drink, or garbage of any kind is to go ashore, unless in a quarantine garbage receptacle, and 2. All departing personnel must have their personal effects inspected and cleared by Customs and Agriculture before it is allowed off the ship." We are also not allowed to bring wood onto their continent, and have been told we may be inspected for African giant snails. This is all to protect their country from invading non-native pests. Let's hope we don't have any of those snails! EZ

February 7- Sampling continued as usual today, but you can tell we are starting to near the end of our voyage. People are starting to breakdown experiments, pack up some equipment and make plans for sending things back to our respective labs in the U.S.A. This is no small undertaking! The tens of thousands (literally) of samples that we have collected are generally kept frozen (some are kept refrigerated) and they need to stay that way during shipment. This requires lots of overnight and and 2nd day shipping with lots of dry ice and cold packs. Additionally, there is all of our equipment that needs to be freighted back to home. The logistics are quite imposing and the shipping bills are sure to be quite large. GL

February 6- On our route to Brisbane we passed two islands, one called Ball's Pyramid, the other Lord Howe Island. Ball's Pyramid was an impressive, jagged vertical rock thrust out of the ocean (see the Photos link on the right). Lord Howe Island, a few miles away, is owned by Australia and is the site of luxury resorts, we are told. This island is also a nature reserve, and upon our arrival we were welcomed by a swarm of hundreds of birds of different species. This was a nice change of pace, as it was our first sight of land since we left New Caledonia on January 25th. We are all getting a bit anxious to reach Brisbane and dry land! EZ and GL

February 5 - Today ends a three day period of sampling on the same station. The idea here was to see what kind of day-to-day variation may exist at a given station. This variation could be due to a number of factors, including weather, but most often can be attributed to different water masses moving underneath the boat during this period. Fortunately, the weather was very nice the whole time here. We will finish this station at about 1AM local time and continue to head towards Brisbane. We expect to have some interesting island photos to show tomorrow! EZ

February 2 - Today was a warm, sunny day, and the waves were small. This was a very pleasant and easygoing day compared to the action we saw the previous two. Sometimes an uneventful day is a good one. This is one of those days. EZ and GL

February 1 - This afternoon we completed our second all-night diel experiment of the cruise. There are many tired faces today, but it was worth it. Last night, during the diel, we were visited by a cold front that brought heavy rain and lightning, which made it exciting for a while. While Gary, Ryan, and Kuhio got drenched retrieving the rosette, the rest of us watched safely under cover and had a good laugh at their expense. Since we don't get television reception out here, rosette retrieval is the closest thing to sports we get. This afternoon we began our northwest transect to Brisbane, which we will reach in 10 days. To Australia we go! EZ and GL

January 31- Sorry we didn't update the site yesterday, but the computer system was down and we were not able to upload any new information. Today we are doing a second diel experiment so we are really busy. We started at 4 AM and it continues until 10 AM the following morning. So far so good... we are having beautiful weather and we are right on schedule. We'll try and update the site as soon as we can after the experiment is over. Thanks! GL

January 29 - After a little creative writing exercise a few days ago, we are back to reality on the Kilo Moana. We are approaching 35S, and are in some rather heavy waves. For a couple days now we have been visited by an albatross and several petrals that likely have us mistaken for a fishing vessel. Today we were told the disappointing news that we will have to soon change our course of direction. The ship is experiencing some power problems, and we can no longer cruise at our normal speed of 12 knots. As a safety precaution, we have been instructed to head to our destination port of Brisbane, Australia after tomorrow's station. As tomorrow's station will be our southernmost station for this cruise, we hope to make it count! EZ and GL

 

January 27 - Today seemed like any other day on the cruise, when, at about 13:00, in the middle of our rosette cast, we were attacked by a giant squid. These mysterious creatures are rarely observed by man, as they prefer to hunt the ocean depths. Perhaps it was drawn to our twin-hull SWATH design. Whatever the reason, it made an attempt to eat the ship's bow.

 

Matters got very much worse when scientists working on the back deck saw a gigantic shark heading toward us, perhaps alerted to our presence by the squid. The shark swam incredibly fast in the water, and we barely had time to call out for help before it reached the ship.

Fortunately, all UNOLS vessels are equipped with emergency phones, and before it was too late we had Aquaman on the scene.

Using his supernatural powers to communicate with all sea creatures, he persuaded both the shark and squid to call off their attack and pursue their natural prey, the deep-sea manatee.

All were relieved, and we thanked Aquaman for his service with a shrimp barbeque. Other than that, it was a normal day. EZ
(Thanks to TV and LZII for on-site photography)

January 26: This morning kicked off the sampling for the second leg of the cruise. It was business as usual for the cruise veterans, while the folks we picked up on New Caledonia were busy getting their feet wet. The sea was incredibly calm today, and at times it was so smooth we could see the reflection of the clouds on the surface. More good news for us was that it was once again Friday, which meant pizza for dinner. EZ and GL

January 25: After a little rest and relaxation in Noumea, New Caledonia, we are back on on our way south. In town we said goodbye to Jim, Alison, and Annette, who are going back home, and picked up four new scientists, Eric Webb, Whitney, Tyler, and Andrew. We also had a visit from scientists at the IRD (Institute de rechereche pour le developpment) in Noumea, who were curious to see our ship. Later, Zack, Erik, and Jeff visited the IRD and Zack gave a brief presentation of our work to the scientists there. Afterward the science team and crew met up for dinner and a mid-cruise celebration. We departed Noumea today at 1 PM local time and are currently heading for our next station. We will be arriving there tomorrow morning in time for our daily 8AM CTD cast. Since leaving the warm pool, the sea surface temperature has dropped to 25.9 degrees Celsius (78.6 F). The lower water temperature has resulted in cooler days and evenings. It is much more pleasant to work on deck at these latitudes. EZ and GL

January 24: Today we are making a port call in New Caledonia. This is a chance for everyone to go ashore and stretch their legs. Port calls are also opportunities to pick up supplies and change personnel. We will be picking up some fresh vegetables while in port. We will also be changing some of the science party. Three scientists will be heading home and four others will be getting onboard. Check back tomorrow for some pictures of New Caledonia. GL

January 23: Today we performed small boat operations to sample water near the coast of two islands in the Vanuatu archipelago (of "Survivor" fame). These two islands were small, only a few miles in length, but had different characteristics. Aniwa, the first one, was low and relatively flat, and had a large lagoon on one side, which we sampled. The second island, Futuna, looked very much like a volcano surfacing out of the water; it was cone-shaped and over 1000 ft tall with very little flat land. Both were covered with tropical vegetation (palm trees, etc.), and we could see coconuts floating in the water as we approached. Both were inhabited, and while we waved to the people we saw, we did not land or in any other way communicate with them; to do so would have required special State Department clearance, and was not the objective for the day. The purpose of the coastal sampling was to compare the microbes found near the coast to those we have been sampling thus far in the open ocean. Often in science the best way to study a particular site or organism is to compare it with another, and this was our goal for today's work. Our "small boat" was a an inflatable zodiac craft that held three scientists and two able-bodied seamen. Its great for coastal work because it can go from station to station very fast, and its hull is not deep, which is great for when you are in shallow waters or above coral reefs. To launch the boat overboard, everyone gets in while its still on the port side of the main ship, and then it is lowered by winch about 20ft to get to the water surface. This was an exciting event for those of us doing it for the first time! EZ

January 20: We did not update the website over the past few days because we were in the midst of our intense sampling period. The sampling period lasted for 30 hours. The CTD rosette was deployed every 2 hours. This means that there were lots of samples to process thorughout the night. Many people did not get any sleep during this time period. We kept ourselves awake by listening to music and chatting with colleagues between sampling points. In all the intense sampling went very well thanks to the hard work of everyone on board. We wanted to perform an intense amount of sampling in one spot because we want to see how things change (biologically and chemically) at this location over the course of an entire day. GL

January 17: Today we have reached the warm pool center and have begun our large-scale sampling of the site.   Each day in the warm pool has been very hot and humid, with a combination of haze and well-defined clouds, and each night it has rained.   This morning Gary spotted several waterspouts at a (safe) distance (these are essentially tornadoes at sea).   Tonight we will perform a deep cast down to 4500 m deep, almost at the ocean floor.   It is a tradition on oceanographic cruises to perform an experiment with the high pressures that exist, using Styrofoam cups.   Tomorrow we should have photos of the results of that experiment. EZ

• Project Home Page
• Outreach Home Page
• Meet the Scientists
• Project Welcome
• Summary for Kids!
• Photos
• Journal
• Build a Kilo Moana!
• Past Questions of the Day
• Ask a Question!
• Contact Us