First cruise complete!

This past week, I had the pleasure of joining the last GISR (Gulf Integrate Spill Research Consortium) cruise aboard the R/V Pelican which surveyed around the GC600 megaplume seep located about 100 nautical miles south of the Louisiana coast. Along with helping out with CTD/rosette casts (used for collecting and measuring water at depth), I was able to collect my first three stations which included over 30 samples.

 

Waterspout, Photo by Lindsay Martin (c) 2015

The cruise started out with rough weather and ten foot swell but we were treated to a magnificent waterspout. As the weather and sea surface calmed, larger Sargassum clumps and windrows (rows of surface debris formed by interacting wind and surface currents) began to form. Within my samples I collected both S. natans and S. fluitans, along with Sargassum shrimp (Latreutes fucorum), juvenile and adult flying fish (Cheilopogon melanurus), Sargassum frogfish (Histrio histrio), pelagic crab (Planes minutus), and planehead filefish (Stephanolepis hispidus).

 

Juvenile flying fish, Photo by Lindsay Martin (c) 2015