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MISSION DISPATCH 1 August 17, 2007 Mark Schrope - @SEA Correspondent aboard the R/V SEWARD JOHNSON Calm Passage We cleared the jetties at Ft. Pierce today at about 1:00 p.m. Friday to find calm seas. Save for the occasional sea turtle sighting and scattered school of flying fish, the crossing was uneventful. That was fine with everyone, and much preferred over what we would have experienced had we left a day or two later once hurricane Dean begins to take effect. 
The scientists spent the day unpacking equipment and preparing for the first dive on Saturday aboard the Harbor Branch Johnson-Sea-Link II (JSLII) submersible. The dive will focus mainly on exploration to determine if it will be a good spot to hunker down for a couple of days. If interesting animals are collected, though, they will be collected for bioluminescence (the production and emission of light by living organisms) and other studies. The sub team will also try to deploy Tammy Frank's two shrimp and crab traps in hopes of capturing small bottom dwellers such as crabs to study the sensitivity of their eyes. Location, Location, Location After some discussion, a wall that plummets to 3,000 feet deep near Gouldings Cay, a tiny island just barely west of Nassau, was chosen as our first site. One key concern is finding a location that will have suitable flat space to deploy the Eye-in-the-Sea camera system. The challenge is that the deepwater cliffs we are targeting for research tend to have sandy bases that slope too sharply. Here in the Bahamas, as with most of the deep-sea areas of the planet, there is very little information available about the bottom topography, because so little has been explored and existing bathymetry maps are poorly detailed (Bathymetry is the study of water depth and the topography of the ocean floor.). The team consulted Harbor Branch's dive and bathymetry guru, John Reed, who has done extensive research on the region in preparation for and during past submersible expeditions here. Many of the potential sites the group identified with John's help and that of the submersible pilots are steep cliffs likely to have those sloping bases. But flat spaces are not normally needed, so even with their guidance we can't say for sure where we will find them. The area off Gouldings, though, has a stepwise cliff, and the hope is that one of those steps will be just right for the camera. Something wide enough that the system won't be knocked off, should some mammoth predator down there decide to tug too hard on the bait box, would also be helpful. 
Touch-and-Go
Tonight the sky has been mostly clear, but in the distance, there was a bank of clouds periodically lit by a web of lightning, an interesting sight, but we'll have to see what it means for tomorrow's weather. By about 11:00 p.m., and a little ahead of schedule, we arrived at a relatively quiet Freeport for a touch-and-go visit. A friendly customs agent was waiting for us. Getting our mandatory immigrations stamp took a little longer, but in relatively short order we were on our way to Gouldings, a 12-hour run. If all goes well, the submersible will be in the water by lunchtime Saturday. 
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