Long Cali trip update
Well, my trip was awesome. Kind of long! But still amazing. There were 3 legs of the trip: July 2nd-11th, July 12th-19th, and July 22nd-Aug 3rd. The first 2 legs were abundance survey oriented, where the main goal was to determine populations of sharks in these southern California waters which are mostly nursery areas for young makos and blue sharks. The third leg was a study comparing 2 different types of hooks to see how they affect the catch rates and to see which ones were safer for the sharks. All throughout the trip a number of different scientific samples were also collected from the sharks. I was taking blood samples so that I can study certain blood proteins for my thesis research.
Things were pretty similar on a day to day basis, 7 days a week, in terms of the schedule. We were divided into teams so that you only had to set out the gear early every other day, so that was nice. We slept in til 8:30 every other morning, nice. And all throughout the day I was processing samples and doing incubation experiments on my blood if it had been a good collecting day.
5:30am-wake up
6-7am set out longline gear for the morning set
7-10am- sleep, eat, (do breathing treatments, etc.)
10am-11 or noon- Haul back the gear and tag/take samples from any sharks
Lunch
1:30-2:30pm- set out longline gear for afternoon set
Free time
5-5:30pm- dinner
6pm-7:30pm haul back gear and tag/take samples
We mostly caught mako sharks and blue sharks. We also caught a few pelagic stingrays which were kept alive onboard the ship and then transferred to a lab at Catalina Island for a study on behavior, and one mola mola, which was so cool. A lot of the sharks were 50-80cm babies, so cute!! But we also had some 6-7ft big guys, which were awesome to see. It was so cool to see the sharks swimming in the ocean, they are so pretty! And the blue sharks really are very blue, it was so neat.
We did have a few sharks come up dead, or injured and they were used as much as possible. Tons of people collected samples from the dead sharks and at least lots of data was able to be obtained from them that will go towards lots of shark research. Some of the samples that were taken were- muscle, heart, vertebrae, brain, eye/eye muscle, jaws, pancreas, stomach/stomach contents.
It was fun to be around lots of shark scientists and fellow shark lovers who agree that baby sharks are adorable :-) Everyone on the boat was really nice and it was cool to meet so many people in the field and make new marine bio dork friends. I was kind of sad that all of the people I was meeting are west coast scientists and I have absolutely no desire to ever move out there because a lot of them would be really cool to work with one day, but I’m glad I got to meet them. We also had the opportunity to work with our advisor’s PhD advisor on the 3rd leg, which was cool. Our grand-advisor!
It was great that everyone was so nice because for most of the time out at sea we didn’t have cell phone reception and couldn’t talk to anyone at home unless we were in port :-( We did have special ship email, but no regular internet access. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about much except just shark fishing, but I was glad that I could email a few people that were privileged enough to get my ship email address! Poor Steve, both his mom and grandma had surgery during leg 3 and I wish I could have been here for him, but I knew he could handle it and I am pleased to say that both are home and doing very well :-)
During the 2 breaks between legs we were in port in San Diego to refuel, get more supplies and swap out scientists. (Other than the senior scientist, we were the only 2 to be aboard for the whole trip, and also the only 2 from the east coast, represent!). The first time we came in was just for one night, so we spent the night on the boat, but Heather’s brother came down from LA and took us down to wander around San Diego a bit and just get off the ship for a while. That was a really fun night and it was great to finally meet him :-) The second time we came in was for 3 days and we decided we just had to get off of the ship! (It was great, but still a small space to spend that much time cooped up on). It just so happened that not only were Heather’s parents in town that weekend to visit her brother, but my dad was also in town that weekend visiting his side of the family! Such coincidence that we both had so much family in town. So for the first night/day/night I stayed with Heather’s fam at her bro’s house in Hollywood. So good to meet the moms too! We mostly walked/drove around and saw a few touristy things. Then on the next day I met up with a bunch of my dad’s side of the family at my grandma’s house. That was such a nice visit. I hadn’t been out to California in probably 15yrs and everything in grandma’s house looked so much smaller! Haha. It was great to see her and my aunt and my cousin and my dad all at once, and I was so happy to get to show them some of my shark fishing pics :-) Then my dad drove us back down to San Diego and I got to show him the ship before he left back for LA, which was nice. It was definitely a good break from the ordinary routine of the boat and it got us recharged for the 3rd leg.
Speaking of breaks from fishing, there were 2 times when we got to go ashore on Catalina Island which was cool too. It was so pretty there!
We finished up on August 3rd, but didn’t fly out until the night of the 4th. Luckily, one of our new friends offered to let us stay at his house so we could finally not have to sleep in our little bunks anymore, and we got to hang out in San Diego with some of the people from the boat until we had to leave for the airport. Then it was time for the red-eye back to Boston.
We arrived home at 6:30am on my birthday. The whole trip was an amazing experience, but coming home to Steve after being gone for 5 weeks was the best birthday present :-D So I spent my birthday pretty much sleeping half the day, but then we went out for a nice dinner and I had a steak and a blue margarita, yum.
Things were pretty similar on a day to day basis, 7 days a week, in terms of the schedule. We were divided into teams so that you only had to set out the gear early every other day, so that was nice. We slept in til 8:30 every other morning, nice. And all throughout the day I was processing samples and doing incubation experiments on my blood if it had been a good collecting day.
5:30am-wake up
6-7am set out longline gear for the morning set
7-10am- sleep, eat, (do breathing treatments, etc.)
10am-11 or noon- Haul back the gear and tag/take samples from any sharks
Lunch
1:30-2:30pm- set out longline gear for afternoon set
Free time
5-5:30pm- dinner
6pm-7:30pm haul back gear and tag/take samples
We mostly caught mako sharks and blue sharks. We also caught a few pelagic stingrays which were kept alive onboard the ship and then transferred to a lab at Catalina Island for a study on behavior, and one mola mola, which was so cool. A lot of the sharks were 50-80cm babies, so cute!! But we also had some 6-7ft big guys, which were awesome to see. It was so cool to see the sharks swimming in the ocean, they are so pretty! And the blue sharks really are very blue, it was so neat.
We did have a few sharks come up dead, or injured and they were used as much as possible. Tons of people collected samples from the dead sharks and at least lots of data was able to be obtained from them that will go towards lots of shark research. Some of the samples that were taken were- muscle, heart, vertebrae, brain, eye/eye muscle, jaws, pancreas, stomach/stomach contents.
It was fun to be around lots of shark scientists and fellow shark lovers who agree that baby sharks are adorable :-) Everyone on the boat was really nice and it was cool to meet so many people in the field and make new marine bio dork friends. I was kind of sad that all of the people I was meeting are west coast scientists and I have absolutely no desire to ever move out there because a lot of them would be really cool to work with one day, but I’m glad I got to meet them. We also had the opportunity to work with our advisor’s PhD advisor on the 3rd leg, which was cool. Our grand-advisor!
It was great that everyone was so nice because for most of the time out at sea we didn’t have cell phone reception and couldn’t talk to anyone at home unless we were in port :-( We did have special ship email, but no regular internet access. It was kind of nice to not have to worry about much except just shark fishing, but I was glad that I could email a few people that were privileged enough to get my ship email address! Poor Steve, both his mom and grandma had surgery during leg 3 and I wish I could have been here for him, but I knew he could handle it and I am pleased to say that both are home and doing very well :-)
During the 2 breaks between legs we were in port in San Diego to refuel, get more supplies and swap out scientists. (Other than the senior scientist, we were the only 2 to be aboard for the whole trip, and also the only 2 from the east coast, represent!). The first time we came in was just for one night, so we spent the night on the boat, but Heather’s brother came down from LA and took us down to wander around San Diego a bit and just get off the ship for a while. That was a really fun night and it was great to finally meet him :-) The second time we came in was for 3 days and we decided we just had to get off of the ship! (It was great, but still a small space to spend that much time cooped up on). It just so happened that not only were Heather’s parents in town that weekend to visit her brother, but my dad was also in town that weekend visiting his side of the family! Such coincidence that we both had so much family in town. So for the first night/day/night I stayed with Heather’s fam at her bro’s house in Hollywood. So good to meet the moms too! We mostly walked/drove around and saw a few touristy things. Then on the next day I met up with a bunch of my dad’s side of the family at my grandma’s house. That was such a nice visit. I hadn’t been out to California in probably 15yrs and everything in grandma’s house looked so much smaller! Haha. It was great to see her and my aunt and my cousin and my dad all at once, and I was so happy to get to show them some of my shark fishing pics :-) Then my dad drove us back down to San Diego and I got to show him the ship before he left back for LA, which was nice. It was definitely a good break from the ordinary routine of the boat and it got us recharged for the 3rd leg.
Speaking of breaks from fishing, there were 2 times when we got to go ashore on Catalina Island which was cool too. It was so pretty there!
We finished up on August 3rd, but didn’t fly out until the night of the 4th. Luckily, one of our new friends offered to let us stay at his house so we could finally not have to sleep in our little bunks anymore, and we got to hang out in San Diego with some of the people from the boat until we had to leave for the airport. Then it was time for the red-eye back to Boston.
We arrived home at 6:30am on my birthday. The whole trip was an amazing experience, but coming home to Steve after being gone for 5 weeks was the best birthday present :-D So I spent my birthday pretty much sleeping half the day, but then we went out for a nice dinner and I had a steak and a blue margarita, yum.