I joined Andy Brierley's research group for the second week of a cruise in the Irish Sea to sample jellyfish and plankton, for a grant we got together.
Click on photos for detail
Ready to go to meet the ship at Holyhead |
In Holyhead Emily and I leave our stuff at the B&B |
And head into Holyhead |
To have dinner at a Chinese resturant |
The next morning our first sight of the ship |
We climb on board |
Our home for the next week: The Prince Madog |
Andy, Mags, and Our Martin work on fixing the sonar |
Katy fixes the ring net |
Then we're on our way |
We get a good view of the Holyhead bridge |
The ship: Starting from the main floor |
Straight through you first pass the galley |
And then enter the mess |
The other way past our gear |
Is the wet lab (that's Other Martin and Young Andy) |
And the deck (that's me in my deck gear) |
From the deck you can see upstairs and the bridge |
Up one floor is the dry lab (with Other Martin, Emily, and Martha) |
Around the side of the wetlab |
We come to the bow (notice Andy's bike behind me) |
Going down stairs from the main floor |
Is the hall with our berths |
One task is jelly spotting out the bow |
We count jellyfish in 20 minute shifts |
Anne jelly spotting |
Somes there are rainbows in the spray |
Or dolphins riding the bow wave |
When it's wet we need to put on rain gear |
Young Andy and Emily put out the ring net |
Emily sifts the ringnet catch |
We also put out the otter trawl |
Bringing in the otter (no one could say why it was called that) |
It catches a nice Rhizostoma |
And once many Aurelia |
Many, many Aurelia |
Other Anne puts out the the CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) |
Emily working in the mess |
But it's not all work: here's Emily juggling |
And Andy cycling |
The cook writes our meals on the board |
And in the evenings we watch TV |
We're stuck due to storms and so calibrate the sonar |
Andy plans our route |
The early morning sun shines over the sea |
I see many birds: Gannets |
Guillemonts |
Kittiwakes |
The kittiwakes found something |
Kittiwakes like to fly behind the ship (play movie) |
One day there was really heavy fog |
This movie shows us sailing through a circle of white |
Later that day the fog sunk down so we could see the sky |
The water in the air made a halo around the bow |
Watch the halo and the sunlight sparkle in the water (play movie) |
Enoying the sun: Emily, Other Martin, and Young Andy |
Young Andy takes a nap |
We cross over to Ireland |
And pass the Dublin-Liverpool Ferry which pulls the Continuous Plankton Recorder |
Before heading back to port we calibrate the sonar again |
The goal is to centre the dot in crosshairs on the lower left |
Coming in to port we gather in the bow (here's Marsha & Other Martin) |
And Our Martin, Andy, and Young Andy |
We approach Menai Bridge See the bridge! |
Here's our dock |
We then pack up all our stuff |
Here's everything ready to go |
A little cart brings it up |
And we put it in the van |
On the last morning I go bird watching: an egret |
A duck with ducklings including an albino |
A shelduck |
And I get a nice view of Menai Bridge |
And also the Prince Madog |
The computer has kept a record of our journey |