Journals 2006/2007

Mark Harris
Layton High School, Layton, UT

"Stenella Abundance Research Project (STAR)" July 23, 2006 - August 14, 2006

Journal Index: July 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29        30 - 31 August 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9            10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 Additional Resources

August 7, 2006
Cup Shrinking

Fish sampling

Today we spent the morning chasing Risso dolphins. These dolphins are very large and they look very beat up. The Risso dolphins are very aggressive with each other often inflicting wounds with their teeth. The scarring is very evident and they do remind me of mini whales.

The afternoon was spent catching tuna from the back deck. I always get excited when we go through a pod of dolphins; there is always tuna under them. Turtle sightings have been slow the last couple of days and the squid fishing has not been very good. My time is spent mainly fishing and taking the samples.

One week to go until we enter the port of Mazatlan. The crew and the scientists are starting to plan what they will be doing in port. The port stop is 3 days, it will be very weird stepping off of the ship onto land that is not moving.

We have a laundry in the bottom of the ship, 2 washers and 2 dryers. I did a quick load while waiting for the CTD to come back up. I sent 6 Styrofoam cups down 1000 meters with the CTD, they came back thimble size. The pressure at 1000 meters must be incredible; my students are going to love my mini cup. A big thank you to my oceanographer friend Candice Hall.