Let's do some damage

Whenever things are going really well or the lander is on its way to the seafloor, Andrew says "Let's do some damage!" It's just his catch-phrase, I guess. We definitely did some damage to the seafloor this morning, because all four landers on board were deployed to the abyss. We started before dawn, kicking free vehicles overboard and pushing back the frontiers of science, one step at a time. 

Cliff and Michelle deploying the camera lander.

You're already familiar with the respiration lander, but what about the other three landers on the cruise? Well, allow me to introduce you. 

Mackerel on the bait arm of the camera lander.

We'll start with the baited camera. It's a metal frame with two video cameras to film fish, shrimp, and other scavengers on the deep seafloor. A mackerel is tied to the end of a long pole, and it serves as bait to attract the scavengers. We never know what, if anything, the camera has captured until it comes to the surface and we can download the data, so there's a certain element of surprise. A lot of times, Astrid will be watching the video in the lab and let out a "What's that?" - and immediately, scientists crowd around her laptop screen and start offering opinions on the identity of the animal in question. It's actually kind of cool to see. Scientists are very predictable, you know; we just can't resist a good question. Sometimes, the scavengers that show up to the bait interact with each other, swimming around or bumping into each other, eating each other, or chasing each other away. Back on land, someone will be responsible for counting, measuring, and identifying all the scavengers that showed up at the bait and describing their behavior. Biologists spend a lot of time with dead specimens, so it's really neat to see the animals live for once.

Squid on a fish hook. Yum.

Deploying the plankton pump lander.

After the camera lander, we usually deploy the baited trap. The trap is just what it sounds like: a fish-catcher. It's essentially a giant mesh box with openings in the sides and bait hung in various orientiations; in mesh bags or on hooks. For me, the best part about helping with the fish trap is setting the bait. While Astrid hangs mesh bags of mackerel inside, the rest of us slide pieces of squid onto hooks that dangle from the outside of the trap. The squid is sliced on a piece of scrap wood on deck, but if you stand far enough away, it almost looks like fancy appetizers on a cutting board. 

Last but not least is the plankton pump. The idea is to filter a whole bunch of water in the hopes of finding the larvae of abyssal organisms. Once we catch larvae, we can count and identify them to assess the potential for manganese nodule fields on the abyssal plain to be recolonized after a disturbance. The lander has two plankton pumps on it, and rather than call them boring things like A and B, Oliver labeled the pumps "Arnold" (as in Schwarzenegger) and "BBBB," after the famous biologist Edward Forbes (prounounced "four bees"). Yeah, we have our fun.

Our landers are all doing their damage at the deep seafloor, so we'll see what they bring us back tomorrow!