Day -1

Tropical Wave #3 becomes Tropical Depression #3, Tropical Depression Bonnie, Tropical Storm Bonnie, Tropical Depression Bonnie, and crosses southern Florida into the Gulf of Mexico headed at a rapid speed to the Mississippi River delta, but not gaining in strength.

At the Marine Center in Cocodrie and the BP Command Center, evacuation was the mode primarily because of the expected coastal flooding. Everything was moving north, including cranes needed to place the radiation van on the back deck of the Pelican. The ship was loaded as much as possible without exposing visiting scientists and their equipment to flood waters, which eventually did not occur. Midnight departure did not occur, participants were recommended to stay well north of Cocodrie, and we waited out the storm and crane to the next day.

DAY 0

Tropical Depression Bonnie approached the Mississippi River but did not bring flood waters into the LUMCON marina, the crane arrived to place the radiation van on the deck of the Pelican, and the remaining cruise participants arrived to unload gear.

Departure from the dock at midnight. Into the storm. What a whimp!

Day 1

Rather than start at the Mississippi River delta as in other years, the Pelican headed west from Terrebonne Bay to the Atchafalaya River transect F.  TS Bonnie had mixed up the oxygen on the eastern part of the study area. Station 9 is in 15 m off Caminada Pass; Station 6 is in 20 m off Terrebonne Bay.

Bottom water dissolved oxygen concentrations prior to cruise departure. Horizontal dashed red line delineates hypoxia (< 2 mg/L).

We chose to sample the western area first and allow mixed waters closer to the Mississippi River to settle into more typical conditions for July.

0930    Arrive at F0, sunny, calm, began operations, usual beginning-of-cruise settle-down period, winches, cables.

1130    F1, oxygen decreasing as move into deeper water.

Day 2

0900    Rainbows worked. Good box cores for Jenn’s foraminiferal work.  Not sufficient for paleoindicator work          
            (limited sediment accumulation) over hard clay. Many worm tubes to depth in the clay. 

1000    Long run to offshore end of trans H.

1300    Begin survey of trans H from southern, deeper end to nearshore.

1900    No oxygen concentrations below 3 mg/L on trans H, continue to nearshore.

 2030    Pea Green water at H1, 9% transmission, oxygen down to 2.3 mg/L

 2100    Enroute to trans I, inshore, shallow end

 2300    Station I1, high chlorophyll biomass, low transmission, oxygen below 3 mg/L

Day 3

0000    Continue heading offshore along trans I, winds and waves picking up. Some rain. Saw several sharks along the transect, dashing into and lurking just outside the light on the starboard side. Jenn snaps photos.  Mixture of higher and lower oxygen levels, one station below 1 mg/L, but not a consistent trend.

0530    Smells of breakfast.  Pineapple being sliced.  Surfacing of scientists from below deck.

0600    Finish trans I in 27 m, oxygen near 4 mg/L

0700    Transit to trans J, offshore end 

0900   At offshore end of trans J, thought we had started far enough offshore to be out of hypoxia.  But, 1.3 mg/L. 

1100    Head out to J8 to close it off at 3 mg/L. Weather increasingly degenerating. Rain, windy, high seas.

1130    Head back into shore, with bad waves over bulkhead, windy. Continuous low oxygen into shore.

1500    Station J4, intended for box coring, too rough.

1730    At J3, oxygen barely above 2 mg/L, move inshore to make sure.

1930    At J1, closest station to shore, about 9 m, 1.5 mg/L. Considering waves of 3 to 5 ft, pretty amazing.

1945    Head west to inshore end of trans K.

2200    Moving slowly into K1, shallow, rough and sloppy. CTD to only 1.5 m of the bottom.  Well-mixed. YSI to bottom, but can’t tell where the bottom is. Headed offshore.

2230    South into 10 m and hypoxia, less than 1 mg/L. Continue offshore on trans K.

2300    Hmm, peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Day 4

0100    Farther along trans K in 18 m, lower 7 m of water column close to anoxic.

0300    Close to anoxic, 25 m at K4

0500    Still below 2 mg/L at K6, headed south, still very rough, windy

0645    Day shift dodges the bullet, night shift gets last one on K, above 4 mg/L, headed to west to S8 on the offshore end.

0915    Starting at S8 offshore of Galveston in 27 m and heading into shore. Are we going to close off the hypoxia map on the west today?  Oxygen above 4 mg/L, heading inshore.

1045    Much of the same, in 24 m. More to shore

1230    Station S6, oxygen starting to decrease in the 20 m range, below 3 mg/L.

1400    Expected to go low in this area, and it does, 0.4 mg/L.

1515    One more to close off trans S in 16 m, oxygen at 2.4 mg/L

1600    Heading southwest to the inshore end of trans T. Will see what this transect looks like, but we need to head east soon. Don’t want to run out of days at sea to complete the job.

1830    Day shift does NOT dodge this one. Starting at station T3. Night shift gets leisurely dinner. Yikes, below 2 mg/L. No time to go inshore, have to move on.

1930    Even lower, farther offshore.

2230    Continue offshore. Apparent at this point that we do not have time to completely map the western extent because of time constraints.

2330    And again, even lower. 

Day 5

0045    Out to station T8

0130    Incredible, out to 40 m

0300    Finally, just above 2.5 or so, headed to J4 to box core. Get to eat, waiting a long time.

1000    Calm seas awaiting us at J4 to complete in record time; Jenn for foraminiferans, Gene for paleoindicators.  Two night team members there for Jenn ;-). Oxygen well below 1 mg/L as headed west and missed the chance to box core and today on return.

1100    Head to E1, stopping along the way for 2 water stations for primary production.

1200    Calm seas and smooth sailing. This long run usually heralds a return to dock. This year it means we start working our way east from trans E, probably around 10 pm.

2130    Begin nearshore end of trans E, well-mixed, high chlorophyll, > 7 mg/L

2300    Oxygen going lower, down to 2.6 mg/L

2350    Fooled you, oxygen 3.4 mg/L. Collected box cores at E2A, 3 for 4. Large remora at surface, where was its companion?

DAY 6

0130    Strong oxygen minimum below peak fluorescence about 3 m above 20m water column, but oxygen at
              bottom was about 4 mg/L.

0245    No low oxygen on trans E, head to offshore end of trans D.

0400    30 m at end of trans D, no low O2, school of needlefish

0530    25 m, no low O2

0700    20 m, n low O2, where is the low O2?

0715     Box core at D3, bottom oxygen at 6 mg/L, winds and seas have picked up, up to 5 ft seas, very difficult to box core.

              One good box core deep enough to catch the clay layer and keep the mud inside. Finally gave up on a second and a

              third box core. Live Diopatra cuprea in one of the foram cores.

0845     Head to D2 and D1, then inshore end of C. Feel sleep time coming.

0915    Surprise, low O2 near shore on inside of trans D

0945    And more to beach

1125    And more low O2 in water as shallow as 5 m. Finish off trans D and head to inshore end of trans C

1330    Inshore is where it is at. Value of 0.1 mg/L at C1.

1420    Low O2 continues, can depend on trans C.

1700    Through C6B. Box core at C6B for wild forams.

1840    Stations C7, C8, and C9 above 2 mg/L

2130    Head to offshore end of trans B. Moving along now. In hindsight, maybe could have taken one more transect to the west.

2330    B9 in 38 m, out of low O2, head back inshore. Supertankers offloading. 

Day 7

0100    Pizza!!

0200    Quite low in 22 m water depth, 0.4 mg/L

0315    Oxygen stays low, heading towards Port Fourchon

0430    Oxygen close to zero all the way to shore. Expected, with winds from the north-northeast creating upwelling

             favorable conditions. Jubilee at Grand Isle? Are fish jumping from oiled water onto oiled beaches?

0500    On our way to trans A inshore.

0730    Begin trans A on inshore end. Low oxygen on the inshore end, similar to D, C, and B.

0845    Stations close together, making record time. Go Day Crew! Box core at station A3. Too much clay, try another station.

             Oxygen 0.3 mg/L.

0945    Station A4, still low O2, at 0.75 mg/L.

1030    Station A5, out of low O2. Try box core again. Good one, full to top. Will be good for vertical profiles.

             Bottom O2 3.5 mg/L.

1245    At end of trans A, oxygen is 4.1 mg/L. Head to offshore end of trans A'.

1430    No low O2 in 34 to 14 m. Oil slick seen on way to A' 2 from A' 3.

1515    A' 2 in 11 m more low oxygen, and again at A' 1 in 8 m. More oil at station A' 1. This finishes the water column

             stations. Day Crew rocks!

1700    Head to river to get end member.

1800    Begin with 16 psu salinity, work through 12, 5, 2-3.

2115    Long run to get salinity of 18, and tried a long time for 30 psu. Too much fresh water out here.

2200    Give up. Head to the house. ETA, Aug 1, 2010, 0600.

THUS ENDS THE DAILY LOG FOR SHELFWIDE 2010