Being up at 8:30 am, I learned that the box core was already on its way down, while the scientific team was busy sorting through specimens of annelids, crustaceans, cnidarians etc. Successive casts of box cores came up empty; theories for this being the pitching of the boat, or the unclear topography of the bottom floor. These were not helping the box corer land straight on the bottom floor. Meanwhile, sea conditions being excellent and with the sun shining at its best, the crew spotted a floating log of wood surrounded by a pair of Dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi), which by default translates to fishing time!!! Casey, who is one of the deck hands, and two other crew members each caught one of the dolphin fish, while the other one swam away at lightning speed. The dolphin fish (Coryphaena hippurus) has bright turquoise, yellowish-green pattern, which fade as soon as the animal is dead.
Meanwhile, the latter part of the day was plagued with our epibenthic sled turning out empty...twice!!! With the cruise running out of time, the Chief Scientist decided to continue with box coring, a decision which resulted in two successful box cores being brought up with a ton of worms in tubes to sort through. Undergraduates Eric, Megan, and Laura have been doing an excellent job at sorting and sieving our precious sediments from the box cores and epibenthic sleds. Sorting and sieving plays a very crucial part in obtaining intact specimens, an expertise which can only be acquired through practice. The coming week will see a lot of exciting moments as the annelid cruise races against time to acquire as many sediment samples and specimens as possible. Good luck to us all.