Journals 2006/2007

Peggy Deichstetter
St. Edward High School, Elgin, IL

"Arctic Kelp Bed Study" July 16 - August 3, 2006

Journal Index: July 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23        24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 August 1 - 2 - 3 Additional Resources

August 1, 2006
So much to do...so little time

They were out past midnight last night diving, and here they are in the lab this morning sorting organisms. These guys amaze me.

Brenda and algae. View full version pop-up.		Katrin and algae. View full version pop-up.

There is urgency in the lab...we are running out of time. So much still has to done and Brenda, Katrin and I are leaving the day after tomorrow. The dive team needs to make one more dive, but the weather is not cooperating once again. The winds are high, and the sea is filled with white caps. The dive has to be done today because Brenda and Katrin can't dive the day before they fly.

The bottles I washed out yesterday haven't dried yet, but I need to get them off the sink. I move them too my desk for further drying. Next, I need to label nutrient bottles for this Sunday's TSS sampling. While I'm labeling the bottles, I am also keeping an eye on the siphon that is taking water out of the aquarium. Ken brought clean water in from his dive last night. I use the water I siphoned from the fish tank to sieve the cores that where brought in from the dive last night.

Six filters from the July 22 TSS sampling had unusually high weights. Steve and I had not rinsed them with fresh water, so it was possible this weight was from salt. On July 30, after we finished doing the new samples, we washed the six samples from July 22. Today I weighed them and they lost a good deal of weight. After lunch, I will rinse the rest of the samples from July 22.

The filters from the July 30 dive have to be out of the drying oven before I can put the filters from July 22 into it. So, after lunch, I begin weighing Sunday's filters and recording them in the logbook. The numbers are looking good. Only one filter "seems" too heavy. There was one filter I forgot to rinse, so I ask Ken if I should put this filter in with the other filters to be rinsed. Ken says to rinse that one, but pick five other filters at random to rinse also to see if they also change.

Ken sets up the millipore filtering apparatus and I begin washing filters and putting them in the drying oven.

My next job is to enter all the data we have collected into the computer. Ken is currently using the computer, so I help Susan by making label for her specimens.

Ken hands off the computer to me around 4:00pm. He is going to take a nap. They will dive tonight if the wind calms down. I begin entering data. At 5:30 Ken is back, "The wind is down: we're diving." By 6:30 the boat is loaded and the dive team is gone for another late night.

Computer data and bottles. View full version pop-up.

Susan is still working on the samples the dive team brought in last night, and I still have lots of data to enter.