10 July, 1997

Aloha!

We sampled the depths of the ocean again for interesting phenomena. Some of the water taken today was to determine the presence of hydogen peroxide. It can tell us about the some of the reactions going on in photosynthetic organisms. There were other sampling devices that recorded the levels of UV light penetrating different depths and of the amount of natural fluoresence in plankton.

As the rosette of niskin bottles goes down to the maximum depth (the test today was to 1000m) the dissolved oxygen, salinity, density, and temperature are also recorded on a graph. At about 200m to 300m, the lines indicating oxygen, temperature and salinity all took a sharp turn to the left on the screen. What would this be indicating? What happens at this depth to cause such different data to appear?

I've spent a lot of time labeling bottles and organizing the material before the niskin bottles come back up. It is important to have averything labeled correctly so that when it is analyzed back in the lab at the university, it doesn't get mixed up. So much happens so fast! Then there are long stretches when we just sit around and wait for the samples to be collected (sometimes a couple of hours).

Tomorrow is our last full day on the boat. Then we will head back to Oahu to run tests on all these samples we've collected.

Aloha!

Besse Dawson