Written by Stephen Milea.

As the cruise draws to a close, we have begun to take the time to reflect upon what we have done and how we can improve for next time.  We have discussed changes to be made in certain protocols to ensure that our data will be organized and our equipment maintained.  After being on the night shift for the past three weeks, it has been nice to be awake during the day and to see the sun.  It has also been nice to see our friends on the day shift for more than a few minutes.    

Unfortunately, on one of our last trawls, our great and noble Sea-Gear MF315 Flowmeter made the ultimate sacrifice.  Our flowmeter, may it rest in peace, was tragically taken from us in its prime as it braved the ocean depths, valiantly collecting our flow data.  When we went to retrieve our twenty-first trawl, there was fishing line tangled around the wire, and the flowmeter had been ripped away from its expertly tied mounting.  Some say it is still collecting flow data to this very day.  

On the bright side, it survived the previous twenty net tows, and I was able to spend much more time than it should have taken me today to use that data to calculate the volume of water filtered by our net on each tow.  Knowing the volume of water that is filtered by the net each tow allows us to find out how much animal life we have collected relative to the amount of water we have filtered through.

On another positive note, we are finally able to see land today, and I look forward to getting my land legs back tomorrow when we reach Woods Hole.