Kahuna

Ladies and gentlemen, it is summer. For me, summer means field work. And this year, field work means scallops!

This week, I spent 3 days on a scallop fishing boat, F/V Kahuna, collecting samples on Georges Bank. The goal of my research is to understand what environmental and biological factors control the growth rate for scallops, especially right after they settle on the seafloor. Ultimately, our results could help improve sustainability of the scallop fishery. 

I had a similar trip last year - you might remember I spent a few days on F/V Three Graces and came home with plenty of scallop samples to measure (and eat)! This year, the fishing boat captain who was scheduled to take me out wanted to hit all 10 of my stations in one trip. That doubled the length of the trip and made me a bit nervous (I get pretty seasick...), but I decided to go along with the plan. I'm very glad I did!

You see, I do get seasick, but I also acclimate. This year, we were out on Georges Bank long enough that my body got used to the motion. On our second sampling day, I was nearly unaffected by the rolling and actually felt like myself!

Look at all those scallops we caught at one station! No, I did 
not keep all of them. Photo by Capt. Beau.

We had some struggles - that's expected. At our first station, we actually lost a water bottle and the heavy steel grapple that we had used to weigh it down. The line we had used to lower them over the side of the boat snapped, and they were gone in a flash. The captain was pretty frustrated, but I actually laughed. We could not have predicted the mistake. Sometimes, stuff just goes wrong at sea. 

At every station, we collected plankton samples, a sediment sample, video of the seafloor (so I can estimate the density of scallops and their predators), and scallops themselves, of course. I was afraid that the diversity of samples I needed would be confusing for the fishing crew - but I was wrong. Even as I explained the procedure for our fourth different sample type of the day, one of the deckhands told me "This is so much easier than fishing." I was surprised.

We got into a good routine. In fact, by the end of the trip, we could get everything I needed from a station in about an hour. The crew was incredibly helpful. The two deckhands, Rocky and Kevin, jumped and ran around the deck, grabbing and hauling and doing whatever they could to help me. I was incredibly grateful to them, especially when I was motion sick. 

I came home with boxes of samples - there will be plenty of data to analyze! Thanks so much to everyone on F/V Kahuna for such a great trip.