by Liz Baird, Museum Educator

What special tools do you use?

From North Ridge Elementary School, Raleigh, N.C.
Teacher: Jeff Maynard

WHAT SPECIAL TOOLS DO YOU USE?

We use lots of different types of nets. The plankton net samples the smallest plants and animals that float in the ocean right at the top. The Neuston net samples bigger things that float near the top like jellyfish, juvenile fish, sargassum, small crabs, young lobsters, and shrimp. The Tucker trawl (pictured here) samples stuff in the middle of the water like bigger shrimp and different kinds of fish. The otter trawl runs along the bottom and samples fish that live on or close to the bottom of the ocean. We also use a meter called a "YSI" that measures the dissolved oxygen, salinity and temperature of the water. The sub can sample organisms from top to bottom but it mainly focuses on things near the bottom. It has a robotic claw to pick stuff up, a vacuum tube to suck fish into special buckets with lids, a wire cage to carry things (like pieces of coral) to the surface, and tubes to plunge into the mud at the bottom to see what lives down there.

We also use a GPS system to keep track of the latitude and longitude of the ship at all times and to measure the depth everywhere we go. We have a dissecting scope on board to look closely at things like fish fins and immature lobsters, and a special set-up to take pictures of the animals and get their sizes. There are also six VCRs linked together to copy every tape the sub makes, plus other A.V. equipment.

From Northwoods Park Middle School, Jacksonsville, N.C.
Teacher: Wick Bode

DO YOU GET YOUR DRINKING WATER FROM THE OCEAN OR IS IT STORED ABOARD?

We have 39,000 gallons of drinking water aboard. We also have a reverse osmosis filter so that we can get drinking water from the ocean if needed.

WHAT IS AN "ABLE-BODIED SEAMAN"? WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THE CREW DOES AT SEA? DO THEY SWAB THE DECKS?

An able-bodied seaman is someone who has earned something called a "Z" card, spent 360 hours at sea, and passed a test of general seamanship including knot tying and chart reading. After you have 1,080 hours at sea you can become a higher-class seaman. The folks on the crew do everything from washing the linens to cleaning the decks on the inside of the vessel (they don’t really swab the outside decks), but they say their primary responsibility is to help the scientists have a successful mission. They are very resourceful and can do anything from reassembling a broken otter trawl to tying down everything so it doesn’t fall all over the decks. Plus, they are nice and funny to be around.

WHAT IS THE STRANGEST THING YOU HAVE WITNESSED ON YOUR TRIP?

One night we caught a batfish (pictured here). Imagine a cross between a fish and a frog. Its body was completely flat and the two fins along its side were modified so that they looked a bit like legs. Ours was about 3 inches wide and 2 inches long. Check it out in a book!

Plus there was a fishing boat … we were in radio contact with them and they were out of coffee. The captain offered to give them some, so they came alongside, and the captain tossed a well-wrapped (with plastic bags and duct tape) bag of coffee onto their boat. I guess there is a great deal of bartering out at sea. If we had not already been eating fresh fish, they would have tossed some fish filets back to us!

From 5th graders at Fox Road Elementary School, Raleigh, N.C.
Teacher: Cheryl Gourley

WHAT IS THE LOWEST DEPTH A MANNED SUBMERSIBLE CAN GO WITHOUT BEING CRUSHED BY WATER PRESSURE?

The lowest a manned submersible can go is 36,700 feet, the deepest part of the ocean. I think there are two subs capable of diving that deep. Scientists are finding that they do not have to go down in a sub to study the bottom. Robots are becoming so advanced that they are almost like an extension of the scientist's eyes, ears, and hands. Robots can pick up things, catch fish, videotape and photograph the bottom, and measure for depth, temperature, salinity, and other facts. The scientists can stay aboard the ship and watch the progress of the robot on a screen. It is truly amazing.

ARE THERE TROPICAL FISH IN THE CORAL REEFS OFF NORTH CAROLINA’S COAST?

Yes, there are tropical reef fish in the coral reefs off of North Carolina. There are some, like the butterfly fish, damselfish, angelfish, gobies, and wrasses that live here all year. They breed and reproduce in our waters much like they do in the tropics. We also find fish that have been pulled up by the Gulf Stream that will not make it to reproduce in our area. The scientists working out here have to use many different field guides and references to identify the fish they catch. Anne Marie has been studying the juvenile fish that come up in sargassum and she says she has seen many fish that really should be in the tropics. It is interesting to note that there are also fish found here that don't go any further south; their populations are mainly found north of us. We have an abundant biodiversity off of our coast.

From 3^rd graders, Level Cross Elementary School, Randleman, N.C.
Teacher: Renee Green

HAVE YOU SEEN AN OCTOPUS?

Yes! One day the sub came up with an octopus in the bucket. It was beautiful with golden eyes, a reddish body, and pink suction cups along its legs. It was about as long as my hand and very slimy. I have seen octopus in Belize (where Ms. Green went this year) and they are fascinating creatures. We have also caught squid (pictured here), including a tiny one about 1/4 an inch long. I recently learned that different kids of squid squirt out their ink in different shapes. Long skinny squid shoot out long skinny ink blobs and short round squid squirt out their ink in short round shapes. I guess this really helps confuse the predators into thinking that the squid is still where the ink is!

Yesterday we let out a big net that went to the bottom. It did not catch very much, but did bring up some worms that make long hard tubes to live in. The tubes look like soda straws that you get at McDonald’s but they can't bend. I have about 48 more hours on the ship, and there is still so much I want to see and learn. We have moved to a new location overnight that is further south. It is gray and rainy, but a great deal calmer than it was when we were steaming over last night.

From Northwoods Park Middle School, Jacksonville, N.C.
Teacher: Wick Bode

WHY IS THE OCEAN BEYOND THE CONTINENTAL SHELF REFERRED TO AS A "BIOLOGICAL DESERT"?

The deep ocean is referred to as a biological desert because it has very little biodiversity and biomass. It is cold and very dark so the things that survive are very few. We have been pulling a trawl for 30 minutes at a time and come up with less than a gallon of material. Last night it was mainly shrimp, but we did catch a few eels. One really cool critter was a larval eel-- about 4 inches long and completely clear except for its eyes.

From seniors at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Teacher: Aimee Lowe

DO ROVs OR HOVs CAUSE ANY DAMAGE? IF SO, WHICH ONE IS THE LEAST HARMFUL TO THE ENVIRONMENT? -- Sarah Adkins

Both ROVs and HOVs are capable of causing damage to the environment if they run into things such as coral heads. The general consensus is that ROVs cause more damage than HOVs. This is because the ROVs are tethered, and their lines and weights can drag against the bottom. Much of the damage can be avoided by having a really good pilot at the controls for both the HOV and the ROV. In any case, both HOVs and ROVs are much less damaging than other ways of looking at the ocean floor, such as trawls and dragging. Using an ROV or HOV to sample the bottom is much like using a blimp to find a particular tree in the forest. You just float above it without damaging anything around it. Some of the biggest threats to the environment at the bottom are boat anchors and some of the ways that we harvest foods from the sea.

WHY ARE SO MANY AQUATIC SPECIES ATTRACTED TO THE NORTH CAROLINA SHELF? -- Brian Murphy

Many species are attracted to the North Carolina shelf because it is an area with high productivity. The Gulf Stream moves northward along the coast and runs into the Virginia current, which is heading south. This creates a great deal of mixing in the water column. This is also an overlap in the range of temperate and tropical species. This means that this is as far north as some tropical species come, and as far south as some temperate species come. There is a complex oceanography out here which makes for very variable seas.

WHAT KIND OF PROBLEMS WITH WEATHER CAN AFFECT THE MISSION? --Danielle O'Leary

Weather can cause many problems with a mission. A calm day at sea is ideal. If it is rough, the scientists can be too sea sick to complete any work, or it may be too dangerous to take out the equipment. We can’t launch the sub if the seas are greater than 6-8 feet and we can’t launch the ROV if they are more than 8-10 feet. Strong currents undersea can make for hazardous "driving" conditions for the pilot. If it is very turbulent and the water has lots of turbidity, the pilot can’t see underwater very well. Strong winds can make retrieving the sub after a mission very challenging. Winds can blow the boat and sub apart, or move them too close together for an easy recovery.

From Bunn Middle School students, Louisburg, N.C.
Teacher: Mike Leonard

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ANIMALS YOU SEE AS YOU MOVE DOWN THE CONTINENTAL SLOPE?

When we look at the animals we see from the top of the water column at the slope, we find a wide variety of creatures. On and near the surface there are flying fish, turtles, whales, porpoise, plankton, juvenile fish (from almost every pelagic species), jacks, file fish, and trigger fish. Above 200 feet you also find most of the commercial fish such as seabass. As you go deeper you find squid, octopus, lots of arthropods, and some of the most amazing shrimp! I watched shrimp with bright orange thoraxes and antennae more than twice as long as their body move through the water. The first part of their antennae stuck out to the side, then the last 7/8th streamed iridescently alongside their bodies.

We saw comb jellies, too. When we got to the bottom we saw witch flounder, eelpouts, anemones, hagfish, crabs, stalked crinoids, and worm tubes. We did not go to the deepest part of The Point, but we certainly saw an amazing variety of things. On the way back up, we turned off all of the lights both inside and outside of the sub and watched the bioluminescence stream by. It was like watching a magic snowfall where things flickered, glowed, streaked, and streamed by with a green blue glow. I was mesmerized.

DO YOU EVER GET SCARED WHEN YOU GO DOWN FOR A DIVE?

I wasn’t scared when I went for my dive, but I asked the sub pilots if they ever get scared. They all said that they respect the ocean, and therefore, always have a bit of fear. One pilot said that he is nervous during the first minute when you have to make certain that all of the seals are tight and not leaking. He equated it to knowing that your parachute was open when you went sky-diving. They are experts in their field, and know how to handle any emergency during the mission.

Some of the people I talked with said they would never go down in the sub. Not that they did not like the ocean, but rather that they were claustrophobic and would not like to be in such a small space for any amount of time. The section of the sub I was in was about 7 or 8 feet long and 4 feet tall in the center. The interior sloped down to the sides, much like being inside a "sub" sandwich roll. There were two of us in there. I was an "observer" and the pilot was there in case of an emergency. He could control both sections of the sub from his spot. The front compartment held Anne Marie, a member of the science team, and the pilot. They get to sit upright, but have less room to change positions.

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