Journals 2007/2008

Kimberly Pratt
Alvarado Elementary School, Union City, California

"Atlantic Northeast Shelf Ecosystem Monitoring Project NOAA, R/V Delaware II" August 15 - 29, 2007

Journal Index: August 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22            23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 Podcasts Additional Resources

August 16, 2007
Dolphins Today!

Latitude: 39° 42.14' N
Longitude: 72° 33.30' W
Sea Depth: 77 m
Wind Speed: 20 knots
Location: 95 miles, southeast of New York Harbor
Time: 1957

Greetings! This is the 2^nd day of testing and we have been busy. After a very rocky night - swells 8-10 ft high, we awoke to much better sea conditions and much better stomachs and heads! Our first cast was at 0500 with the second at 1200. We are still running conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) casts with our bongo net tows and occasionally sending a Niskin bottle down to collect water samples. Seeing the plankton in the sieves is really neat, and I look forward to calmer seas so we can set up the microscope and start identifying them. Travel to sampling sites can run up 7 hours. So, during our down time, I have been working on the next podcast, helping where I can, answering e-mail, reading and enjoying being on-board the deck. The weather has been slightly humid so it has not been cold. Today we had two spottings of dolphins, one group was spotted off in the distance and then we had a small pod of white sides come to the ship and bow ride. I love hearing them breathe as they jump 2 meters off the side of the ship. We look forward to seeing more marine mammals soon!

Amy cleaning bongo nets		Dolphin bow riding, courtesy of Holly Fearnbach, http://swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD/