Just finished the Dixon Entrance Transect!

Photo 1: Screenshot of transect map. The red circle with the cross is our current position, and the red and yellow circle is our destination. The triangles in the box mark the stations we just completed on the Dixon Entrance Transect!

We just finished our first transect, the Dixon Entrance Transect! This was our chance to learn how to work together, figure out where everything was on the ship, & get into a routine. Fortunately it all went pretty smoothly. We hit the first station around 1730 PDT yesterday (2015/07/16), and finished the last one around 1400 PDT today (2015/07/17). There were 8 in total; we started off shore and headed inland. Fortunately the first few stations were relatively far apart, so we had time to work out our sampling routine and get into a groove before we started getting slammed. Now that we are done with the Dixon Entrance transect, we are headed to the Prince of Wales Transect about 5 hours northwest of us (see the map above for our predicted path). Below are some photos of what happens at a station, from the CTD cast to the sample collection. Enjoy!

--Katie

Photo 2: We saw whales on the way to the transect! Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 3: Our first CTD deployment! The CTD rosette is being stabilized by Mark Bradley (NOAA OMAO) and Morgan Ostendorf (PMEL/UW) as it descends, with Michael Lastinger (NOAA OMAO) assisting. Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 4: Inside the computer lab for the first CTD deployment. Wiley Evans (UAF/PMEL), Jessica Pretty (UAF), and Caitlin Smoot (UAF) are manning the screens. Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 5: The CTD coming out of the water! That hook will be used to attach one of two lines to the CTD to stabilize it as we bring it back on deck. Photo credit Kathryn Beaumont

Photo 6: Prepping the Bongo nets for deployment. Mark B. (NOAA OMAO), Max Schoenfeld (UAF), Michael L. (Ron Brown), Jennifer Questel (UAF), and Kadarius Jones (NOAA OMAO). Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 7: The bongo nets are being lowered into the water. The two little nets on top are 150nm mesh, and the two nets on the bottom are 505nm mesh. The instrument on the line above the nets tells us how deep the nets are as they get reeled out, and there are flow meters suspended in the center. Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 8: Morgan O. (PMEL) taking a DIC sample from a Niskin bottle. Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 9: Max S. (UAF) taking filtered nutrient samples. The water is drawn into the syringe directly from the Niskin bottle, and then is pushed through a filter attachment into the sample vial. Photo credit Jennifer Questel 

Photo 10: Caitlin S. (UAF) and Kathryn Beaumont (NOAA NMFS/UW) running the sample from the 505nm bongo net cod end through a coarse sieve. Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 11: Caitlin S. (UAF) holding a chaetognath (arrow worm) from the sieve. Photo credit Jennifer Questel

Photo 12: Night shift in the computer lab. Jenn Q. (UAF) is catching a quick nap between stations. The night shift is 12am - 12pm, and the day shift is 12pm - 12am. Photo credit Jessica Pretty