South Atlantic Gyre Research Expedition
Add some introductory text here before posting.
11-10-2010
By afternoon the seas had calmed down enough for our 1st deployment. Dr. Marcus Eriksen was setting up the flow meter, in front of the Manta Trawl. After one hour in the ocean we pulled the trawl up to see if there was plastic pollution. All eyes where on deck looking for what we all knew might be present. Sadly, there was plastic fragments in the sample. Several distinct pieces that looked as though they had out here a while.
As evening was approaching the decision was made to not set the trawl out again, more bad weather and rough seas coming.
11-11-2010
Thru the night we actually back tracked, as to not miss a sampling point. The objective is to take a sample every 50 miles as we trans-sect the Atlantic ocean.
This morning, again very rough seas. Daily activities take on a whole new challenge as we are bounced around. It’s like climbing on jungle jim that is moving and everything is work.
The shifts are 4 hours at night and 6 hours during the day
6 am-noon
noon-6pm
6pm-10pm
10pm-2am
2am-6am
With 3 teams, each one has named themselves and shifts rotates
Bay Watch; Marcus, Anna, Chelsea and Mike
Surf Watch; James, Mary O. and Jodie
Rolex Watch; Stiv, Mary Maxwell, Bonnie and Rich
The seas are suppose to calm down and we will be focusing more on the scientific research. The blogs will then be more about what we find.
11-12-2010
We are getting in the rhythm of setting the Manta Trawls out, bringing them in, logging the data and processing them for comparison later.
Jody set up a fishing pole yesterday, got a couple bites. But the big news to was he caught a plastic garbage can lid over 600 miles from land. What are the chances of this happening ?
We had a few visitors, birds; a small song bird, not sure how this guy made it this far, it may have been a stow away. A few albatross, they move on the wind so gracefully and without effort. They followed us for a few hours.
Life on a boat; cooking, the stove pivots and rocks with the boat. Showering, hot water is a nice luxury, but being in a closet that moves, holding on and lathering up is an interesting experience.