Lepto research group doing some morphological IDs

It’s a beautiful day on the Cramer! The skies are mostly clear and we’re still in shorts/sandals weather. Along with slowly gaining my sea legs and shaking off seasickness, my science watches have been getting more and more exciting. Last night’s evening watch started out slow in lab, but at 2300 things picked up quickly. We deployed our first triple stack (two 1-meter nets at different depths and a neuston net at the surface) of the cruise!

The already complex process of getting the equipment and timing in place was made even more interesting in the dark. My handy red-light headlamp helped a lot with checking lines and finding my way around on deck, though I definitely had a few stumbles. The deployment was quite successful, and our hard work was rewarded with a boon of 10 leptocephali, which are eel larvae that my research group is studying. I’m so excited to have data to work with, and I had so much fun working with the science team on the deployment that by the end of watch at 0100, my seasickness-induced headache had completely disappeared. What an adrenaline rush!

I can’t wait to work on more deployments in the future, and I’m crossing my fingers for lots more leptos. We finally seem to be falling into a steady, yet ever-exciting routine here on the Cramer, and the science will only get better from here on out!

Fair Winds,
Marie 

P.S. Hello to my wonderful family! I promise that I’m applying sunscreen regularly and won’t be burnt when you see me in June. Also, an extra special shoutout to Kelly Lane from Kelsey. She says “Happy Birthday Papa!”