Saturday, March 17, 2012

Post #20 - Camp SeaFET and our last day

Another crazy busy day today doing everything from cleaning out tanks to taking time-lapse photos of COT fertilization and early development to.....well, more on today later.  First, let's go back two days to Wednesday which we dubbed "Camp SeaFET Day."  Emily decided it would be interesting to take water samples at the SeaFET every hour and do water chemistry (pH and TA) to correlate these data with the information the SeaFET was collecting.  So, we got up at 5 a.m. and were out in two boats at the SeaFET site by 6 a.m., just as the sun was peeking over the horizon.  Emily snorkeled down to collect a water sample with a Niskin bottle.  (This picture here we took today when scuba diving over there to retrieve the SeaFET.  On Wednesday, we were too busy to take underwater pictures.)


Emily's right hand is about to squeeze the "trigger" that would cause the stoppers at the each end of the tubular Niskin to close.  She collected samples this way every hour on the hour from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.   Back in the boat she attached a tube to the white nipple at the right end of the Niskin and filled two glass bottles.  I came out in a separate boat every other hour to take the samples back to the lab to begin the water chemistry measurements.  Emily prepared well for staying out there, with life jackets for cushions, an umbrella for the sun or rain, towels and a book to read.  So when I returned to Camp SeaFET, this is what I found:




The weather turned really nasty in the morning, with rain and strong winds.  Emily hunkered down under her umbrella, peering out at the world.



Although to those of us from upstate New York this may look cold, the temperature wasn't too unpleasant.  Our final sample was taken just before the sun set, so we were back at the dock before dark.  However, running the TA samples continued late into the evening and all the next morning, when it was really POURING outside.  We had thought the weather on Wednesday was bad....

This morning (Friday) we took our Crown-of-Thorns back to where we collected them.  It was good to see them back in their natural environment.


What was really interesting is that as soon as they were on the bottom, several of the males started spawning, releasing strings of white sperm that dissipated into clouds of gametes!


I don't know if they were spawning because they were so excited to be home again, or because of the stress of being crammed into a cooler for the half an hour trip out from the lab.

On the way back, we just had to jump in the water at the spot where tour operators feed the sting rays and sharks.


After stopping briefly at the lab, we went back out to retrieve the SeaFET, loosening the clamps that held it to the sunken cement piling.


Emily carried this valuable piece of equipment back to the lab eager to see whether it had worked, collecting data on pH, temperature and salinity every hour since we deployed it back in January.


The SeaFET was opened, and indeed had a data file that was downloaded onto the laptop.
Here is what the insides look like:



Emily was super excited about this, for among other things it meant that all the data we collected Wednesday on water chemistry can be united with the SeaFET data.

Our days aren't always filled with exciting science, especially as we prepare to leave.   I had to disassemble an air compressor in preparation for storage, organize gear for packing, etc.   Later in the afternoon we donned scuba tanks again, but this time to scrub the undersides of the boat to remove the algae and invertebrates that had formed a thick layer over the hull.  Still, I made sure to periodically look around at the corals and the beautifully colorful fish.

When we finally went up the hill to clean up, we had to stop and watch the show that the final Moorean sunset we may ever see put on for us.

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