These monitors are in the main lab area and they control all of the science equipment on the boat. There is a camera view from the back of the ship where sediment coring and water sampling is done, a screen for meteorology, and another for mapping that tells which direction the boat is heading and how long until the next station.

There have been plenty of jellyfish floating alongside the boat today!

This is the inside of the clean lab (the outside is picture below) which is located on the back deck of the ship. The clean lab is sterile and has hepa filtered air so there are no particles floating around. To enter the clean lab, special shoes, gloves, head covers, and tyvex gowns must be worn to avoid contamination of any samples. Water sampling, filtration, and also zooplankton samples will be handled here.

Unloading and setting up lab spaces.

Will is bringing the incubation chambers to the upper deck.

Last day on land

Lisa, Will, and I are here in onboard the Endeavor, sitting in the main lab area. Surprisingly, we have wireless internet, which we were told would work throughout the duration of the cruise :) Sitting in the lab, you can feel that the boat is rocking, but we are still docked so it's nothing big. Sea sick...so far so good

Our journey began yesterday around 4am; Will picked us up and took us to the Dayton airport where we flew to Philadelphia, then connected to Providence, Rhode Island. Dr. Hammerschmidt left Thursday in the early morning hours with the trailer and Wright State Departmental van and was there at the airport to pick us up. We had lunch at a Rose Beach Cafe in a little historic town about an hour from the airport. Afterwards, we drove to where the Endeavor was docked to unload the van. When we first got out of the car, the ship was incredible. It was a lot larger than I expected. We got a tour and some quick ground rules for the ship, then spent the rest of the afternoon unloading and unpacking. Later on we went to the hotel and out to eat where Dr. Hammerschmidt and Lisa enjoyed some New England specialty South County clam chowder.

We got to the ship today around 9AM and have been busy setting everything up. Dr. Hammerschmidt and Will have been on the top deck securing the incubation chambers they built (pictures of those once they're complete!) and Lisa and I have been in the lab setting up our stations, and just helping out wherever needed. Everything on the ship has to be tied down or secured in some way. We can drill into our lab tables so a lot of stuff is screwed down, and more fragile things are tied with string. For the rest of the day, the plan is to get everything set up and maybe have time to go over our SOPs. SOP stands for standard operating procedure and includes detailed instructions and materials needed for our experiments. Tonight will be our first night sleeping on the ship, we set sail 8AM tomorrow!!!!

That's all for today!

-Katlin

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Today I hooked up the incubators for the water experiments and sediment cores spending a good portion of the morning in the sun. Unfortunately I forgot to put on some sun screen this morning and will be a little red tomorrow when we depart for station one. I am looking forward to tomorrow and beginning my set of experiments.

Brief discussion about the Incubators.

Dr. Hammerschmidt and I built three incubation chambers this summer. Two incubators for the water samples and one incubator for sediment cores. We had a little set back this morning with some minor damage to one of our incubators. One of the sediment incubator's corners was loose, but with a little duck tape and new sealant we we able to patch the side back together. The next repair to be completed on the incubator was to replace two legs on one of the shelves built to hold the sediment core upright. With a little ingenuity, we were able to screw wooden legs onto the shelf, but not before we broke a drill bit off in the old plastic leg while trying to fasten it to the shelf.

I don't know much about how the incubator works for the sediment cores since my experiments deal with the water column, but if you have any question feel free to ask and one of the science party will be able to explain more.

The incubators for water is where the 2 liter bottled of sea water spiked with Hg-200 and Hg-199 (labeled methyl mercury) will basically cook in the sun as sea water flows through the incubator. These samples will then be collected from the 2 liter bottles various times over the next 11 days, and then these samples will be frozen for further testing back at WSU. When we return to WSU the samples will be tested using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer.

-Will

Here is an image of our intended cruise path! There are a total of 16 stations, extending out along the continental shelf. The distance between each station ranges from about 50-100 miles.
~Katlin

Welcome!

This is the first official blog of our adventure and we have yet to embark on our trip! Let me fill you in on what exactly this research cruise is all about and who is involved. First of all, the purpose of this nearly 2 week excursion is to study the biogeochemistry of mercury in the oceans. Like many things about our oceans, not much is known about the behavior of mercury. Since the 1990s, a significant amount of research has been conducted on mercury and alot of progress has been made in perfecting sampling procedures, improving detection limits and increasing our understanding of its cycling in the environment. In fact, many freshwater ecosystems, the atmosphere above the Arctic, terrestrial systems, and some coastal environments have been studied. However, not much is known about mercury in the oceans. This is ironic, because, as most of you recognize, the main route of human exposure to mercury is via the consumption of fish and, yet, the majority of the fish we consume globally is derived from the oceans! Clearly, studying what happens to mercury in the oceans is an integral part of understanding potential human exposures to mercury.

Almost a dozen scientists and nearly the same number of crew members will be on board the University of Rhode Island's R/V Endeavor for the duration of our research cruise. We will be collecting water, zooplankton, and sediment samples for analysis. Those of us from Wright State University (WSU) include Dr. Chad Hammerscmidt, Katlin Bowman, Will Ehresman, and myself (Lisa Romas). Several other scientists will be joining us from various institutions, including UConn and Wesleyan University. Dr. Bill Fitzgerald (who was Dr. Hammerschmidt's graduate advisor) is the chief scientist. Many of us are novices so it should be an interesting trip. Nonetheless, it will surely be a huge learning experience!

As of lately, we have been packing hecticly for the cruise. Today at WSU, we packed a whole trailer (about 4' x 4' x 5' or so) full with supplies - everything from carboys (big plastic jugs with a spout for water, acids, etc.), incubators (we'll store water and sediment samples in them so we can control/maintain the proper conditions) and tools to I-Chem bottles, pipettes, clean Tyvek clothing and other supplies for various experiments. Katlin, Will and I have individual experiments that we will be carrying out while on board, which we will explain more once on board. For now, we have to finish tying up any loose ends and pack our own suitcases. Dr. Hammerschmidt will be driving the trailer to Univ. of RI this Thursday (Aug 14th) and Katlin, Will, and I take our flight from Dayton to Philly to RI on Friday (Aug 15th). Before we know it, we will be on board, ready to to start our journey! As you can imagine, the excitement is beginning to outweigh the anxiety! We'll be in touch.
If you would like to check out some stats on the R/V Endeavor, check out this webpage:
http://techserv.gso.uri.edu/
Enjoy!
~Lisa