slurp, sunset & sentry
The first Alvin dive is tomorrow morning which means the instruments that are held on the front of Alvin (an area called the basket) must all be arranged, secured and tested. Amanda and I worked together to put together the slurp machine to literally slurp up any material from the surface of the corals. Quite a bit of time was spent outside tonight waiting for Sentry to be deployed. There was a nice sunset to distract us while we waited and the film crew buzzed around on a zodiak. We are 6 miles from the BP Deepwater Horizon spill, the wind has dropped, and you can see the glowing lights of the Deepwater platform and relief well in the distance. It’s an eerie feeling looking over the side of the boat at these distant lights, thinking about the events that took place this past summer, including the lives that were lost and the environmental impacts that followed. I am glad to be here to study this environment, but the reason I am here and the weight that this carries is not forgotten.
-
- Alvin crew members (Bottom – Top: Mark, Sean, Dave) help test the slurper
-
- oceanic sunsets are pretty great
-
- yup
-
- up and over
-
- dip in the ocean
-
- almost submerged
-
- submerged
-
- going
-
- gone
