March 26, 2001

Hawaii Cruise Logbook

March 26, 2001: Leg 1; Day 14

One of three fish like this that were observed on yesterday's bluewater dive.

A strange looking larval fish, we are not sure what this fish would look like as an adult.	A pteropod that used to be in the stomach of the ctenophore collected on the ROV dive.

A ctenophore collected
during yesterday's ROV dive
with a pteropod seemingly
stuck in its stomach. But
the pteropod was egested by
the time the ROV returned to the surface.

Deepstaria enigmatica, a large and beautiful medusa. Oddly enough, every single specimen ever observed or collected has had an isopod (Anuropus) living with it, and this one was no exception. The isopod was inside of the oral arms and crawled out while we were watching.

0015 WFT; 0215 PST

23�18.95'N, 155�59.88'W

Steaming at 12.5 knots towards Station Aloha

A long night of processing samples - the welcome problem when there is a productive day. Some of the samples collected yesterday include some strange and beautiful fish. The ROV dive went extremely well and we have a new record of Deepstaria in the Western Pacific (previously known from the Eastern Pacific). We collected a curious looking ctenophore (Hormiphora fusiformis) that turned out to have a pteropod in its gut.

Today we plan on being at Station Aloha around 0900 hours and Francisco Chavez's group will swing into action and Bruce Robison's group will start around 1100 hours or so. We only have 100 km to our next station (D9), so we can work later today than we have over the past few days.

En route to Station Aloha

0910 WFT; 1110 PST

Wind speed 13 knots

Darrell Palmer on watch up in the bridge while Francisco Chavez tries to reach a colleague on the cell phone. Reception is still pretty spotty, but we are close enough to the islands to pick up some carriers.

Peter Zerr doing a routine maintenance check on the crane in the moonpool area.

Our current location is just to the northeast of Station Aloha. The image up in the corner is the windspeed indicator on the bridge. Wind speed in meters/second is on the inside scale and speed in knots is on the outer scale.

We are still making 12.5 knots and almost at Station Aloha. We will stop and do a CTD station and put the bluewater divers into the water as well. After the CTD station and bluewater dive, we will launch the ROV and spend the rest of the day here with an extended ROV dive. Then, it's another 100 kilometers to Station D9 for another full day of science operations. Then to dock!

Chief Mate Darrell Palmer providing some Western Flyer wisdom to Second Mate Brian Ackerman.

The bluewater boys just prior
to getting into the boat (l to r: Kevin Raskoff, Rob Sherlock, Steve Haddock, and Kim Reisenbichler).

The Spare RHIB going over the side with the bluewater divers. Shawn Osborn is at the controls of the boat and Brian Ackerman is handling lines.

1124 hrs WFT; 1324 hours PST

22� 26.97' N, 158� 00.10' W

We are at Station Aloha and waiting the return of the bluewater divers. The CTD cast is at 1,000 meters and on its way back up. After than, Paul Chua will take his bongo net samples and then we will launch the ROV for an extended dive. The weather is beautiful - hot with about 15 knots of wind.

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