Journals 2004/2005

Catherine Roberts
Western Branch Middle School, Chesapeake, VA

"Study of frontal zones in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras" R/V Cape Henelopen July 31 - August 14, 2004

Journal Index: July 28/31 August 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9           10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14

Early AM challenges with the scanfish begin the day. After some wild antics in the water, it was brought on deck. A missing screw was discovered in one of the stabilizing wings. The repair was made and the scanfish redeployed.

Glen spends his morning deciding on and mapping a cruise plan that will give us the most productive data for the three days we have left. His predictions are good, giving us immediate data on the intrusion of the Shelf Break Current into the Gulf Stream.

Informal conversations between the marine mammal observers and oceanographers explore the possibilities of future proposals to more closely look at the correlation between current patterns and mammal distributions in the study areas.

The Atlantic remains calm and the scanfish continues its up and down undulations as we steam among a host of offshore fishing boats competing in a Tuna Tournament.

It is a good day to be an Oceanographer.

1600. We pulled in the southernmost ADCP and much to our surprise, two octopuses crawled out. Who knew it would be a great habitat. We returned them to the sea.