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DISPATCH 5: "Monster" - 6.04.2006 | Mark Carroll Everything aboard a research vessel has an acronym. Yesterday, for example, HBOI's R/V Seward Johnson launched the Johnson-Sea-Link to recover the EITS for a researcher from ORCA (please see yesterday's dispatch for a translation). Most of these names are fairly meaningless to outsiders. Descriptively speaking, they fall well short of functioning as real words. The notable exception aboard ship is MOCNESS. 
Short for Multiple Opening/Closing Net and Environmental Sensing System, the acronym itself hits
closer to the mark. MOCNESS is a beast of a device. Its steel frame measures 4-by-9 feet and
weighs well over 300 pounds. The unit is equipped with sensors capable of measuring a slew of
environmental conditions underwater like temperature, salinity and pressure (to name only a few).
But, MOCNESS's dominant feature is a series of 20-foot-long nets that open at depth like butterfly
catchers, scooping up plankton and other tiny open-water critters.
Although the premise is simple, MOCNESS is not just one of those things you toss in the ocean. Even in an ideal sea state, it takes a full complement of deck hands and a crane-operated winch to launch the contraption safely. For that reason, several qualified marine techs had come out to sea just to make sure everything went according to plan. It was midnight on slightly choppy seas when MOCNESS went overboard. It seemed appropriate that it slipped into the sea at night, almost at once disappearing into the inky black waters. Getting the device into the ocean was one thing. Successfully operating it on a towline behind the ship at 900 feet deep was another, especially over the Miami Terrace which sits smack in the middle of the powerful Gulf Stream. Currents here can be unruly at best. To further complicate matters, MOCNESS needed to be flown through the ocean like a kite in order to net plankton. Despite the challenges, operating under such conditions seemed to be something the team secretly relished. 
Back on deck, the researchers reeled in MOCNESS around 3:00am and began sifting through their capture. By daybreak, they had a pretty clear picture of what was happening in the water column. "There's vertical variation in both numbers and types of plankton," said Tammy Frank, the head of Visual Ecology at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, as she worked in one of the ship's labs. "It's a little surprising," she continued, "that there is variation because the currents are so strong around here. I would think everything would be mixed up." It appeared that copepods and ostracods, two types of ultra-small crustaceans, dominated the deepest waters just above the Miami Terrace itself. Frank speculated that that could be what is providing food for the crabs and smaller fishes found on the flourishing ridge of the terrace. They were, after all, just the right size. But, what about the deep-water corals? They too were living well on the ridge and had to be getting food from somewhere. On a boat full of scientists, it was not surprising that someone was on it... Blog 5: "Brunch" - 6.04.2006 The ship's cook fired up Sunday brunch this morning - eggs and biscuits, crepes, French toast (I had seconds). Amenities like that are nice out at sea. Aside from being delicious, they help give definition to days that otherwise have no real distinction from one another. As it turns out, Sunday's ocean looks remarkably like any given Tuesday's. 
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