Back on Land!

Hello All!


I hope everyone has been enjoying their summers!

The ANACONDAS project is still on my mind! It has been about one month since the R/V Knorr docked in port at Bridgetown, Barbados and dropped off 30 very tired scientists. The last few days onboard were extremely busy with each group putting the finishing touches on their experiments and packing up their lab equipment.


Since returning home to Maine, I have continued to work with the experiments we started near the Amazon Plume. I am currently runinng my CDOM samples through a fluorescence spectrophotometer at Bowdoin College while Helga runs QFT samples late into the night at Bigelow Labs in Boothbay Harbor. It is exciting to finally see some results from the samples we collected at sea!


I would like to send a huge thank you to everyone that made this trip possible for me. First I would like to thank the Maine Space Grant Consortium Fellowship Program for funding my research while onboard. Thank you also to Dr. Joaquim Goes and Dr. Helga do Rosario Gomes for providing me with this wonderful experience. Throughout our five weeks onboard the R/V Knorr you taught me new lessons on oceanography, research skills, and working in the field of science. Thank you for being such wonderful mentors and friends.


Thank you all for reading my blog and sharing this adventure with me!

POGO Phone Home!

The past week has really flown by with so many exciting events! On Monday everyone gathered early in the morning to watch the ship’s crew retrieve Joaquim’s Argo float that we have nicknamed POGO (Physical Oceanography Geochemical Observer). The float was deployed back at Station 2 on May 24th. Every day it sent the shore lab high resolution data on oxygen, conductivity and temperature as well as chlorophyll fluorescence and particle backscattering This information will help Joaquim to understand the life cycle of DDAs (Diatom-Diazotroph Associations). I was very impressed with the Crew’s ability to first identify POGO’s small black antennae bobbing in the ocean and then navigate the ship alongside the float for a quick retrieval! The look on Joaquim’s face upon getting POGO safely onboard was pure joy!


Early Tuesday morning a member of the science team, Joe Cope, unfortunately had a small accident while bringing up the CTD instrument from a 40m cast. We started to head towards Barbados to bring him to a hospital with an expected transit time of about one day. Fortunately, the Captain was able to speak with members of the French Navy who agreed to help us! At about 15:00 that afternoon everyone gathered on the top deck (the “beach”) to watch Joe get airlifted into a French Navy helicopter. It was an unbelievable sight – the helicopter hovered above the aft deck and lowered two men and a French doctor onto the ship who then safely helped bring our Joe up and into the helicopter. Meanwhile a French plane continuously circled the scene. Joe was very brave during the whole ordeal and really calmed everyone’s nerves. While leaving the main lab for the aft deck to prepare for evacuation he chanted “Do Great Science! Do Great Science!”


The PI working with Joe, Deb Steinberg updated us yesterday and said that Joe is at the hospital in Martinique and is doing fine. We wish him a quick recovery and sincerely thank the ship’s
Crew and French Navy members!

(Photo 1 by Joe Montoya. Photos 2, 3 by Brian Zielinski)

Team ANACONDAS

Group Photo

Marcelo, Helga, Me, Joaquim

Pictures courtesy of Brian Zielinski

Filter, Filter, Filter!

Today was another busy day aboard the R/V Knorr. We completed our 16th station and are currently in transit. Tomorrow our ship will station at an anchor buoy near Cayenne for a personnel transfer.

At each station, Joaquim, Helga and I take water samples from a CTD instrument that collects water at different depths from the surface to 200m. Here is a picture of me helping Rachel, Victoria, and a Crew member to safely deploy the CTD. After the water is collected we filter, filter, filter! Most of the samples are preserved in a deep freezer and will be taken back to the Bigelow Lab in Maine for processing.

I have added a few extra photos of life on the ship. Below is Jason Landrum, a research assistant in the Montoya lab at Georgia Tech. Jason is a great addition to the crew - in his free time he is often found helping the other research groups finish their work!

Below are pictures of the University of Southern California team deploying one of their three sediment traps (Particle Interceptor Traps – PITS). After lunch last Thursday everyone gathered on the aft deck with their cameras to capture the deployment and relax in the sun for a while. The PITS instrument stays in the water for about two days at a depth of 150m. When the traps are retrieved, the USC team studies the water captured in the twelve tubes to determine the flux of N, C and Si in the ocean. Some of us interns weren’t convinced that the ship would find those small buoys floating in this huge ocean – but sure enough, the satellite systems attached to the traps led us straight back to the fluorescent markers!

Tomorrow we are taking a group picture on the bow – stay tuned for a photo of the ANACONDAS team!

My ANACONDAS Adventure

Hello Everyone! This is the blog I will be using to report my life from aboard the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute R/V Knorr. I am with an amazing group of about 30 scientists from across the country collaborating on the ANACONDAS project in the Amazon River Plume. We are studying different components of this interesting environment where the Amazon River flows into the ocean. A detailed explanation of our research as well as photos and biographies of each scientist onboard are available on our website: http://www.amazoncontinuum.org

I am on this trip as an intern for Dr. Joaquim Goes and Dr. Helga Do Rosario Gomes from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. We are currently in our second of five weeks on the Knorr and have stopped at eight stations along the plume for sampling. I have finally gotten my sea-legs and am used to falling asleep with the rolling waves. One of my favorite places on the ship is the top deck which we all refer to as “the beach”. I love to relax with a good book and my ipod on the beach and simply enjoy the ocean I am surrounded by.

I hope everyone reading is enjoying their summer! Stay tuned for more posts and photos.