Programs Blog

November 10, 2024

Location: 27° 36.7’ S x 174° 34.6’ E

Weather: Partly Cloudy, 23.5°C, 17-21 kts of wind coming from ESE, Seas 4ft from ExS

Hi from the Robert C. Seamans. I write to you as we and the ship enter the long and final stretch of our journey! There will be no more land in sight for us until Auckland, New Zealand. We have started off this last leg with a bang – that bang coming from fourteen-foot waves hitting the deck. To fully set the scene for y’all imagine a pinball in a pinball machine being thrown all around – yeah that’s us on the Bobby C. We are that pinball. Morning watch as we faced the waves may have been my favorite watch on the boat. Suited up in my full foul weather gear for the first time, thick socks, rain boots, bib, and jacket, I helped command the deck as the second “shadow” (observing the watch officer) while getting a nice leg and core workout staying upright as well as the occasional saltwater shower. The deck was restricted, meaning to get up on deck you had to have your harness and shoes on, and the jacklines were rigged as Bobby C. and all of us crew faced the waves – and battled seasickness.

What I am here to tell you all about is what animals we’ve seen on our journey thus far and no, not the birds or marine mammals, but instead the fish and the smaller guys that often get overlooked. So, what fish have we seen? When anchored in Denarau (Fiji) we saw the occasional angelfish and needlefish; in Tuvalu we saw some mackerels, angelfish, and tuna swimming around the boat; and in Savusavu (Fiji) we saw some parrotfish. While out in the open ocean the only fish we’ve seen besides the ones we catch are flying fish – a record of over 60 flying fish were seen in less than an hour. Our pro fisher Avery has also been towing some lines behind the boat thus far, catching a barracuda, skipjack tuna, and a snapper, and Arthur also caught a wolffish. Bobby C. was feeling a bit left out and decided to catch a fish of her own by coercing a flying fish into the cofferdam [a sort of open deck box at midships].

Our neuston net is where, in my opinion, we catch the really cool guys. The neuston net is put into the water and towed by the boat for thirty minutes before it is taken out of the water and processed. There is a cod-end jar at the end of the net which collects everything that swam or was pushed into the net by the waves. When the net is taken out of the water, the cod-end jar is removed and emptied into a bucket labeled ‘pristine’ before being reattached. The net is then rinsed with saltwater, making sure any little guys that are still in the net are pushed into the cod-end jar before it is emptied into a rinse bucket. The reason we have two buckets (pristine and rinse) is because the pre-rinsed samples are still in one piece, whereas the ones that are rinsed are most often mushed together and a bit broken. Both buckets are used in measuring biomass but only the pristine bucket is used for the 100 count. 

So, what kinds of little creatures have we found in the neuston net, you might ask. The answer is too many things to count! (Not actually though, as each time the net is processed a 100 count is done to see what has been caught). The big guys that “Neusty” catches (>2cm) are biomassed but are not included in the 100 count, and that is most often myctophids and halibates. Some of the cool guys that we see in the 100 counts are crab larvae, shrimp larvae, copepods, porpitas, siphonophores, nudibranchs, pteropods, eel larvae, fish eggs—and my favorite thing that we have caught (and released): a juvenile cookie cutter shark. All these guys are within the range of what we had expected to find within the South Pacific. There has yet to be a creature of any kind that has made us say “what are you doing here?” or “someone’s lost” but there are certainly plenty of creatures (the shark, of course, included) that had us waking people up in the middle of the night to come up on to deck to join in on a chorus of “Woah’s” and “That’s so cool.” So, all in all we have seen some amazing things out here on the Bobby C.—and don’t worry, we have lots of photos of these amazing creatures.

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Sending love to everyone at home! Thank you so much mom and dad for always supporting me, and I can’t wait to see you in New Zealand mom and yes dad don’t worry I will tell you ALL about what I have learned on the boat so that you can gawk over it with me. I also want to send love to my boyfriend Nate as he will have to get used to my rantings about all the amazing things I’ve done on this trip (although probably mostly about how cute the cookie cutter shark was).

I also want to give a big shoutout to all the amazing people aboard the Bobby C. and of course to Bobby C. herself; she may be a bit of a brat when you are at the helm, but she is still always here for us when we need her. The crew and all my fellow students have made this trip unforgettable, and I can’t believe that it is already almost time to say goodbye. I love you all and just want to say that it has especially been such a pleasure to sail with our Chief Scientist Claudia as she is wonderful, and I happily nicknamed the Jib Tops’l after her cat Juniper. Also, last shout out I promise, I just want to give a big hello and thank you to Rocky’s mom – all of A watch dedicate our pin chase win to you!