Some kind of magic

Aye!

It has been a while since we left the port of Immingham, UK. Currently the scientific programme at the RRS James Clark Ross is in full progress. Our zooplankton sampling takes place during the night (except Michelle’s copepod nauplii net). Living on a boat on the big Atlantic Ocean for several weeks is very different from everyday life on land. The ground underneath your feet is constantly moving back and forth. It took me little time to get used to it and I didn’t get seasick, but the sea has not yet been very rough. 

Bit by bit we are getting used to a new biorhythm. It is a bit like living twice a 12h day instead of one 24h day. It is again nothing like the relatively normal days on land. Because we sample zooplankton at night, we have to sleep during parts of the day and again soon after dinner. There is even a dress code for dinner, which was a surprise to me, but apparently dressing up for dinner is a tradition of BAS (British Antarctic Survey). I share a cabin with two others, Michelle and Laura. We don’t have identical schedules, so unfortunately I sometimes wake up by an alarm that isn’t mine. Few people have private rooms.

In the end the new routines all serve our goal of getting more insight in the biodiversity of the ocean’s zooplankton, just to reveal some more of her many secrets. We’ve had some trial and error with the sailing and net deployment speeds, but we are getting there. Being able to observe and photograph living zooplankton under a microscope has some kind of magic because it normally isn’t possible. It is like getting a surprise present from the ocean every night. Sometimes target species are absent, sometimes abundant. I haven’t found all too many sea butterflies (pteropods) yet, but I expect to find more in the subtropical and tropical regions.

Soon we will reach the Azores. The next time we will have land in sight will take a while – we will sail around South Georgia on our way towards the Falklands.

Cheers!