The expedition I am participating in is conducted onboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker ship, the Healy. This ship started operating in 1999 and is involved in different missions such as polar expeditions, environmental protection, law enforcement, and search and rescue. The ship contains a huge laboratory space for conducting science onboard and it can hold up to fifty scientists. This is my second research cruise and the largest ship I have been on; it will also be the longest I have been at sea: TWO MONTHS! Our current mission will explore the Arctic basin all the way up to the North Pole. The goal of the expedition is to collect oceanographic data so we can compare them to historical data and create a baseline of changes that the Arctic basin is experiencing with climate change.
This expedition is incredible because multiple areas of polar oceanography are being studied. Participating scientists include physical oceanographers, biological oceanographers, geological oceanographers, chemical oceanographers; There are experts on every level, from undergraduate students to principal investigators at the top of their field. The crew is very diverse, with members from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of California Irvine, Yale, University of Rhode Island, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Clark University, and of course, Oregon State University, and this is only the science crew! I think it is awesome that people from different parts of the country are getting together to study different aspects of the same region.
We are all collecting pieces of a puzzle which will give us insights into what is happening in the Arctic basin. For instance, we have a team of physical oceanographers observing the different currents that make up the water masses in the basin. Because everything is tightly coupled, changes in one aspect of the system will reflect in others, such as in the concentrations and distribution of oxygen, carbon, chlorophyll, nutrients, and productivity. That is why we need a big group of experts in the different aspects of oceanography to be able to tell the Arctic basin’s story.
My part of this story will be focused on dissolved oxygen concentrations and dissolved oxygen isotopes in the basin. My team and I will be taking water samples using an instrument called a CTD (for conductivity, temperature and depth) and other methods at multiple locations along the Arctic basin. I hope I will be able to explain what this means in other posts…
I am still learning about the Healy crew, all of whom are members of the U.S. Coast Guard. They are all very involved in the science. The BM (boatswain’s mate) says, “we are here to make your dreams come true,” which in a way is totally true. People with BM ranking are working on deck and are the muscles behind the results. Without them we would not be able to come to the North Pole to do our science expeditions. They deploy the CTD, the multicores, pumps, and other scientific instruments that goes into the water. The ship engineers keep the ship safe and in its best conditions to be able to take us to the North Pole. The people in the mess hall, or the cafeteria, cook the food that keeps us nurtured. The captain and his mates steer the ship along our desired route so we can make it to the top of the world. The whole crew makes sure we know how to keep ourselves safe and we don’t go overboard, and if we do, they will be the ones who will try to rescue us. Also, if we happen to encounter a situation where someone needs to be rescued, they will be the ones saving lives. They are basically the superheroes of the ocean.
There is also the STARC (Ship-Based Technical Support in the Artic) team, which is here to fix everything that breaks. If there is something I know from being on the ocean, it is that if something can break, it will, and sometimes in ways not seen before. They are on watch 24 hours daily to make sure everything is operating the way it needs to be. These people have the training and the mind to find solutions to problems never encountered before. They keep our sensors in order so we can get accurate numbers for science, and they have expertise in the shipping of oceanographic instruments, installation, and maintenance. They manage the sonar instruments that give us detailed imaging of the ocean subfloor, which is very important to know when deploying instruments and getting sediment cores. They are probably my favorite team on the ship. I admire the dedication these people have for their jobs and how smart they need to be to fix things in ways not seen before!
There are also medical practitioners on the ship in case someone gets hurt, a coffee shop operated by the Healy crew to keep people happy (it’s a lifesaver so far), a barbershop, two gyms, and even a chaplain to reach out to if you need to talk! It feels like living in a building community with everything you need to survive on it.
So far, we have had lots of free time while underway to our first station to start the science, and I am OK with that. I am using the time to get used to the constant rocking and the ship environment. The doc says it is like we are in the womb again, which explains why I have been sleeping like a baby so far. It’s also giving me time to learn my way around, but I am still getting lost around the ship.