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June 5 – Testing 1, 2 . . .

7:00 p.m. Japan Time 34 24N, 142 41E (100 nm west of Japan) Today was a test day, starting with the obligatory one long bell that signals all hands to muster at their emergency stations. For us in the science crew, that means we grab our life vests and survival suits and head to the…

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Dispatch 14 – Heavy Breathing

Lat: 47° N Long: 160° E Air temp: 12 °C, 53.6 °F Sea temp: 11.5°C, 52.8°F Sky: Foggy True wind : 13.5 knots Waves: Flat, 1-2 feet The most unexpected thing about the ocean is that it breathes…. heavily. How and why? Well that’s what we’re here to find out. Most of us have some…

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Dispatch 13 – A Needle in the haystack

Lat: 47° N Long: 160° E Air temp: 9.75 °C, 49.6 °F Sea temp: 10.366°C, 50.66°F Sky: Foggy True wind : 9.2 knots Waves: 2-5 feet We have a number of instruments on board the ship which when deployed are tethered to the ship or to surface moorings so we’re able to track them and…

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Dispatch 07 – What lies below?

Lat: 46° 59’N Long: 160° 58’E Air temp: 11.74 °C, 53.1°F Sea temp: 10.31 °C, 50.6°F Sky: cloudy and foggy True wind : 11.7 knots Waves: 1-2 feet We are holding position here in the far northwest Pacific (47°N, 160°E) under a white dome of sky. Little moves on the sea outside – a feather…

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Dispatch 05 – IONESS a Success

Lat: 47°N Long: 159°E Air temp: 10.009 °C, 50°F Sea temp: 10.83 °C, 51.5°F Sky: mostly cloudy True wind : 25 knots Waves: 5-7 feet Last year we used the MOCNESS (Multiple Opening and Closing Net Environmental Sampling System) on board the R/V Kilo Moana to sample zooplankton at discrete depths. This year, due to…

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Dispatch 14 – Mocness captures giant squid!

Never has and event caused so much stir amongst the scientific community so fast, as a giant squid being captured alive for the first time ever on the R/V Kilo Moana, July 1st, 2004. “Rarely do we see any organisms in a zooplankton net over 5cm in length,” said the stunned Robert Condon, a graduate…

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Dispatch 06 – The Mocness Monster Lives

One of the many tools used on board the RV Kilo Moana during this cruise is the MOCNESS zooplankton net. MOCNESS stands for Multiple Opening and Closing Net Environmental Sampling System. This net is used to collect tiny zooplankton species in discrete depths from the surface of the ocean to, in this case, 1000m. This…

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Dispatch 05 – Like a glazed doughnut…

Things just happen at sea. Rob Condon, a graduate student with Debbie Steinberg’s group, has been saying all week that “it’s ALL happening”. Many good things have happened and some not so good. And with lots of big machinery around and lots of moving parts, sometimes bad things happen. First, the good news. No one…

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