Friday, May 2, 2008

How to Collect Samples


This is a video of Dr. Krest, Leslie, and Erik launching the CTD, with the help of a crane this morning.  Our hose is attached to the rim of the CTD.  This is how we get it to the appropriate depth for sampling.  The CTD can also measure salinity, temperature, and depth, among other things.
Dr. Krest, Leslie, and Erik are feeding the hose, as the CTD nears the bottom.  This picture is about 22 miles offshore of Louisiana.  After the CTD, with our hose attached to it, reaches the appropriate depth, we record salinity for that depth, and begin drawing water up to the surface with the high-volume pump.
This is the high-volume pump.  Depending on what we are testing for or what kind of experiment we are performing, we will then empty the water into either a canister or a barrel.  Once the water is in a container, we take subsamples.  We test these subsamples for suspended sediment and salinity.

Dr. Krest and Leslie filling canisters with water from the Mississippi River. 
Dr. Krest is mixing canisters of water with different salinities together for a mixing experiment last night.  After most of us had gone to sleep, Dr. Krest and Erik stayed up with crew to fish.

Dr. Krest displaying his catch.

Erik displaying his catch.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you're making good use of your time out in the big blue Erik!

Hope the weather gets better for you guys! Best of luck and stay safe!

Miss ya!
- Olive

Anonymous said...

Nice fish! Glad to see the weather is calmer for you.

Anonymous said...

You guys are doing some really cool stuff! Glad you are finding some down time for fishing! Great photos, and video.
- Melanie

Anonymous said...

Nice work, nice catch!
Where are the girl's catch?

Just kidding.
Bob