Hello from the first full night shift at the Endeavor! I'm Julia, a PhD Student at Duke University, and this is my first research cruise. All of us are excited to get to work after four days or so of transit and (for some of us) sea sickness.
Unfortunately, being on the night shift (6pm-6am) means we don't get to see a lot of sunlight, especially after daylight savings time set us back last night. Tonight we got to start doing some of the net tows we'll be doing at each station. We deployed the bongo net (named because it looks like, well, a bongo drum) and the IMKT net. You can see how happy I am to be doing science at last, holding the catch from the bongo!
Things got a bit damp when we were deploying the second IMKT tow. The bridge called down to us on deck to warn us we were about to get 'a bit of rain.' In less than 2 minutes it had gone from cloudy but rainless to full on storm, with pelting rain and tropical storm wind speeds. Fortunately, we got the net in the water and got inside before it got worse, and the weather eventually cleared up a little bit for the rest of the tow and its retrieval. We were all drenched, though.
Once all the nets are in, we sort, label, photograph, and save the animals! Hard work at 4 in the morning but worth it.
-Julia
