Wednesday: June 5, 2013
Log Day 4
Dr. Risa Cohen
Associate Professor
Georgia Southern University
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Danny Gleason and Risa Cohen construct quadrat.
(Photo: Sarah Fangman) |
The best laid plans.
We just wrapped the third day of operations on the Nancy Foster in GRNMS. We spent the day sampling benthic invertebrates, the animals that live their lives attached to the bottom. Sampling involved diving to about 65 feet, putting a grid with a known area on the bottom and counting the number of squares occupied by each species. The diversity of animals was quite amazing, and even at that depth in dim light, were quite colorful.
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Jelly as viewed through quadrat.
(Photo: Brittany Poirson) |
Each night after dinner we gather for a meeting with all of the scientists who are working on this mission, and share what happened during the day. Then we discuss plans for the next day. No sooner had we made our new research plan, when we found out a tropical storm is headed our way. All scientific operations ceased immediately, and we are now en route to Port Canaveral to wait out the storm. Hopefully it will pass quickly and we can return to the sanctuary to continue our projects, but nature is completely unpredictable. All we can do is appreciate the time and successful data collection that we have had so far.
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Invertebrate team (L-R) Danny Gleason, Risa Cohen, Keenan Matterson, Alicia Reigel, Brittany Poirson ready for first dive of the day.
(Photo: Debbie Meeks) |
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