David Needham

The first day and a half of our cruise was busy and exciting. After an initial delay of six hours due to rough seas and strong winds, we had a successful deployment of the ROV Doc Ricketts aboard the R/V Western Flyer. With the help of the robotic arms of the ROV and the skilled hands of the ROV pilots aboard the ship, Rachel Clark and Maria Hamilton led studies to understand the fate of phytoplankton at the seafloor, 3,600 meters below the sea surface.

At the surface, we found that the waters near Monterey Bay were very rich in phytoplankton, as part of an ongoing spring bloom! Overnight, Mohammad “Monir” Moniruzzaman set up an incubation experiment to improve our understanding of how vitamins control the activity of phytoplankton.