Follow along as participants in the cruise provide updates and reflections on their experiences, the science, the technology, and other elements of the expedition.
August 4, 2019 | By Katrin Iken
Wait… the vehicle is settled… extend the arm… suction is on… slowly now… here he goes… HE IS IN!!!
Read moreAugust 3, 2019 | By Russ Hopcroft
This cruise we are using two different types of stratified plankton net systems to cover the large size range of zooplankton that exist in the ocean.
Read moreAugust 3, 2019 | By Sarah Hardy
I’ve been a scientist for a pretty long time now, and one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you actually know.
Read moreAugust 2, 2019 | By Dhugal Lindsay
Dhugal Lindsay introduces a couple of animals encountered while diving the remotely operated vehicle Global Explorer through the ocean's midwater zone during the expedition.
Read moreAugust 1, 2019 | By Eric Collins
When you imagine the ocean, you might picture a tropical paradise like Hawaii with deep, clear blue waters – but most of the ocean doesn’t look like that at all! Those clear waters are actually a result of nutrient depletion that limits the growth of phytoplankton, the “plants” of the sea.
Read moreJuly 31, 2019 | By Travis Kolbe
If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be on a boat in the Gulf of Alaska, working with scientists in July, diving at over a mile deep - I would have said “YA, RIGHT… I WISH”. Well, wishes come true now and then.
Read moreJuly 30, 2019 | By Eric Collins
Like plants on land, sunlight-powered phytoplankton in the sea produce oxygen as a byproduct of their photosynthetic metabolism. And, like animals on land, animals and other heterotrophs in the sea respire that oxygen by breathing.
Read moreJuly 29, 2019 | By Callie Gesmundo
Ahoy from the bird group (population on board: 1) aboard the R/V Sikuliaq! I’m Callie, the seabird observer on board.
Read moreJuly 27, 2019 | By Brittany Jones
It’s 11 o’clock at night, the sea is calm, the sky is foggy, but a beautiful shade of deep blue. Donned with hardhats and lifejackets, two scientists hold tag lags securing the box corer as the bosun and marine science tech guide the yellow frame off the deck and out over the water. We pull off the tag lines and watch the corer sink into the depths of the ocean. It’s our first station and our first deployment of the box corer, a device that samples sediment from the deep ocean.
Read moreJuly 26, 2019 | By Eric Collins
As the remotely operated vehicle Global Explorer sinks through the water column on its way to explore the Gulf of Alaska Seamounts, it passes through the sunlit zone where phytoplankton grow before heading into the inky darkness of the deep sea.
Read moreJuly 26, 2019 | By Kate Ariola
At first the Sikuliaq seemed like a daunting vessel to be on, what with all the cranes and moving parts that can knock you overboard, especially for my first time every being on a boat this large.
Read moreJuly 25, 2019 | By Katrin Iken
After what seems like a long time of preparing and transiting, but what in reality were only a couple days, we are finally taking our first samples.
Read moreJuly 24, 2019 | By Kelly Walker
When I was asked if I wanted to join on another ROV cruise, I jumped on the chance.
Read moreJuly 23, 2019 | By Katrin Iken
One of the most important things when being on a research vessel – or any vessel – is safety.
Read moreJuly 21, 2019 | By Katrin Iken
The beginning of a research cruise is like living in a beehive. A group of people, many of whom have not met before, meet together on a research vessel that many have not used before.
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