Journals 2007/2008

Beth Jewell
West Springfield High School, Springfield, VA

"Ecology of Upwelling in the Galápagos Marine Reserve" Darwin Research Station and the Queen Mabel January 5-22, 2008

Journal Index: January 5 - 6-8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14             15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 Additional Resources

January 14, 2008
The Research Begins

I came out on deck around 6:30 to find the divers preparing their tanks for the first dive. It is such a process. Wetsuits, skins, hoods, booties and gloves are all put on before any of the scuba equipment. One of my jobs was to stuff Jon Witman, the PI in his wetsuit. The tanks are prepared with their BCDs. The tanks along with fins, mask, snorkels, cameras, collection bags, clipboards with paper suited to write on underwater and measuring tape are all loaded onto the panga. The panga allows for better maneuverability and can get the divers closer to the dive sight. By the end of the day some of the divers will have completed 5 dives. The last diver was out of the water at 8pm.

Beth helping Jon zip up his wetsuit		A well loaded panga

One of the goals of the first dive was to collect some barnacles to be used for the time-lapse photography experiments. Between the first and second dive the barnacles were attached to acetate plates using an epoxy mixture. I counted the number of live barnacles on each plate and they were taken down on the second dive. A time lapse camera was set up and at the end of the day, the camera was brought up to see whom, if anyone, was eating the barnacles. The remaining barnacles are counted and a percent loss is calculated.

Acetate plate with barnacles epoxyed to it		Beth counting live barnacles on an acetate plate

Jon Witman's dive notes for the day:
Dive 1. Gardener- put in perm transects at 15 and 6m, photographed and collected barnacles to transplant.
Dive 2. Gardener- set up cameras, 1 in day mode on 5 rocks with barnacles on plates, other near perm transect at 6m with strobe in barnacle area, Franz did predator transacts, Jim observed bleached corals Tubastraea photos, Laura did fish transects in and out of barnacle zone
Dive 3. Los Cuevas- did perm transect, photos, first on deep wall, then shallow, Franz did predator transects, Jim did coral transects.
Dive 4. Los Cuevas- Jim and Jon did 2 coral transects, 2 CTD casts at Gardener and Los Cuevas
Dive 5. Gardener- pick up camera in the dark