Fieldwork

In my first foray into sea-going oceanography, I spent 41 days as a CTD Watchstander aboard the R/V Thomas G Thompson in February - March 2024 as part of the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP). We conducted a reoccupation of the hydrographic line Indian Ocean 8 South (IO8S) which tracks north from the Antarctic continental shelf near Prydz Bay to the central Indian Ocean west of Fremantle, Australia.

With my fellow day shift CTD Watchstanders (Tatsu Monkman and Maria Sanchez Urrea) I prepped the rossette, assisted with it's maintenance, and coordinated its transit to the seafloor and back. I also at various points conducted Niskin sampling for the majority of Level 1 variables (pH, Total Alkalinity, Dissolved Inorganic Carbon, and bottle Salinity), numerous Level 2 variables (C14 and Dissolved Organic Carbon), and a suite of Level 3 biology variables (HPLC pigments, Dimethylsulfide, eDNA, Particulate Organic Carbon...).

We faced some very challenging weather, resulting in transit delays and operation stoppages (we sampled 66 out of a planned 84 stations), but I was fortunate enough to not experience sea-sickness! I love being at sea, and look forward to more ocean going fieldwork in the future!

You can read a blog post I wrote about my experience onboard for the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC) project here.