This is my first cruise of the hypoxia project. As in all the field experiments I have attached, I always become excited when we see different features from different kind of sensors. We have a lot of funs by just watching the data and predicting what it will look like at next station. We have also seen a lot of interesting things on board: jellyfish, dolphin and tornados. I called my wife and my 2-year-old daughter when we stopped by Galveston yesterday afternoon and my daughter asked me: "... Read more...

We are currently offshore of Pt. O'Conner Texas heading west. We have completed 14 of the planned survey lines. We have encounted hypoxic conditions all along the Texas coast from High Island, Crystal Beach, Galveston, Freeport, and Pt O'Conner. The weather has continued to hold favorably for us. This cruise has proven our ability to make quality high resolution observations on a fast vessel. The vessel crew have been excellent and have contributed greatly to the success of this scientific mi... Read more...

Life can be boring at sea; you are doing the same things repeatedly for days at a time, working 12 hour shifts. So who is the most important member of the crew? No, actually it's not the Captain or Chief Engineer, it's the cook. Everyone looks forward to mealtimes, as they are regular breaks in the routine, and as the cook can make or break the whole trip you need to be nice to him or her. Helping with the washing up is always appreciated. I've sailed with many cooks, some of whom wer... Read more...

Yuelu JiangPost doc at Texas A&M University, Galveston I am Yuelu Jiang, a postdoc working in the Phytoplankton Dynamics Lab of Texas A&M, Galveston now. This is my third cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and second cruise with Manta since I came to U.S. 5 months ago. My work is on the biological part of this cruise, looking at how phytoplankton changes correlating with the hypoxia. The Manta is really a beautiful and neat boat. First impression is that she... Read more...

I am Norman Guinasso, the Director of the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group, a university research center that grew out the Department of Oceanography. I came to Texas A&M as a graduate student in Oceanography in 1972. My first cruise was on the Texas A&M Department of Oceanography's R/V Alaminos when we ... Read more...

We have been at sea now for almost three full days. The weather is superb, calm seas, mostly sunny. These are excellent conditions for taking our measurements; unfortunately, they are also excellent conditions for hypoxia to develop. We are currently on Line L04 and heading north towards High Island, TX, there we will turn west towards Galveston and refuel. ... Read more...

We left the dock around 9 PM and made it to the sea buoy by 10 PM. Our first station was in about 20 m depth (~60 feet) and about 30 miles south of Galveston, Texas. We saw a lot of freshwater and the dissolved oxygen values dropped to just above hypoxic at 1.6 ml/l. As we transited to the east we did stations at about 1 hour int... Read more...

While one can do a lot of sampling of the main physical properties of seawater, such as temperature, salinity, or current speeds automatically, using sensors towed behind the ship or lowered on an instrument package, almost everything connected with chemistry or biology has to be done the hard way, by hand. My main interest on t... Read more...

Well, we are going to try again. Today we mobilize for the second hypoxia monitoring cruise aboard the NOAA Vessel Manta. I arrived at the vessel around 8:30 AM and the rest of the science party soon followed. The mobilization is long and the hot weather forces you to take water breaks often. The forecast is for good seas throughout the week so we are feeling like we have a good chance of accomplishing all of the cruise objectives. ... Read more...

What is it about best laid plans? As I write this, I am on shore. The ship experienced a mechanical breakdown early in the morning on Wednesday, which forced us to break our cruise plan and slowly return to port in Galveston. The problem happened at station A9 near 92.6W, 29 N. We were able to tow the Acrobat and take water samples back to port. ... Read more...

This is my first cruise, and it is quite an experience! The first night brought some rough seas, and my stomach did not handle it very well. But after a few days, I've finally got my sea legs. The weather is perfect and the waves are gentle. I'm working the graveyard shift, so I wake up before the sun comes up, and go to bed before the sun goes down. It is definitely a change from my normal routine. I collected water samples from the different stations and filter them into glass vials... Read more...

Oceanography vessels are not typically known for being fast, but the Manta is. On straight runs with no sampling equipment out she makes almost 30 knots. But fast or not, ships are expensive to operate so when we arrive at a station, day or night, someone must be ready to sample. We try to make every moment count. Our slogan is "Get on station, Get it done and then Go!" Ten to twenty wasted minutes per station doesn't sound like much but it adds up to 5-10 hours over the course of a week-l... Read more...

The sky is blue and the waters are calm. Perfect weather for a scientist that gets sea sick despite her love for the sea! Even more perfect for the phytoplankton! At the base of the food web, these microscopic single celled organisms rely on light and nutrients for photosynthesis and so for primary productivity. With a large plume of green water, we are likely to find that production will not be nutrient-limited but perhaps light-limited. To check this, we will collect water from three depths... Read more...

When you go to sea, you have to prepare for planned activities and anticipate potential problems. At first light we made to a small port in Louisiana to fuel up the ship for the eastern transects. After an hour, we headed out to sea and performed the first station. There we took many samples of the physical, biological, and chemical parameters of the ocean. The primary instrument for collecting these measurements is known as the CTD. The system descends on a wire to the bottom of the ... Read more...

Preparing to leave seems like the hardest part of the cruise. No matter what you bring, you always forget something. Hopefully, you remember the important items - your hygiene products, extra socks, and inside-only pair of tennis shoes. AND if you do not think you will be sea sick, you probably will be so take a motion sickness pill BEFORE ... Read more...

I arrived at the R/V Manta at 0900 to help prepare the instrumentation for the cruise. GERG technicians had arrived on 12 June and had loaded the instrumentation aboard the ship and were beginning to set up. There are four basic measurements that we plan to make on this cruise: (1) underway observations of temperature, salinity, ch... Read more...

Purpose: to conduct oceanographic research in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, in summer 2010, to estimate the areal extent and vertical distribution of dissolved oxygen concentration and hydrographic properties. Pictured below: the R/V Manta Dates of cruises: 14 - 19 June 2010, one-half day mobilization. ... Read more...