Journals 2008/2009

John Karavias
Walt Whitman H.S. Huntington Station, NY

"Estimation of Primary Productivity and Particle Export Rates as a Function of Phytoplankton Community Structure in the Bering Sea" United States Coast Guard Cutter Healy, Icebreaker July 3 - July 28, 2008

Journal Index: July 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11        12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19        20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27        28 - 29 - 30 - 31

July 22, 2008
The Wall

Today, Pat hit the wall. He is one of the hardest workers of the science crew. He was up all night and finally could stay up no more. I was up until about 2:30 a.m. and had to call it quits. I woke right after breakfast to see Pat still tending to the radium barrels. He asked me to wake him when it was time to turn the pumps off. I did. Then we took another radium sample and asked me to keep an eye on it while he it the rack. I did again. I called him and told him the sample was complete. He was too tired to finish the procedure so he told me what to. I scolded him and stated he should have informed me of the procedure before hand so I would not have to wake him up. He laughed and hung up on me. Temperamental PIs!

Once I was done with the radium sample I made my way to the bridge and had a good conversation with Mark, who is one of the birders. The skies were fairly clear. A sight that has eluded us since July 6. The water was so clear that when the Murres dove to get away from the boat, I could see them swimming underwater for 20 yards.

Once I saw it was close to 11:00 p.m. I made my way to midrats where Pat resurfaced. He informed me we would be on station at 2:30 a.m. for a radium sample. I looked at him and said if I knew that I wouldn't have been on the bridge bird watching instead of sleeping!