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International Continental Shelf Survey

Aloha!

Make sure you see the Museum of the Unangen in Unaslaska! They have great resources for your classroom (books, DVDs) and pictures that you take as well. One thing I wish I would have taken more pictures of in Dutch were the bunkers that were used in WW2. They are very similar to the ones on Midway Island, a world apart but so similar too. Lastly, could you take pictures of the debris along the shores? I'd like to compare it to what we have along our shores. I know we share the same garbage :)

My students come back on Tuesday, school has started for us in Hawaii already. I hope to use your journals to show my students how science is done. Looking forward to your journey and lots of learning!

warmly, Mrs. P

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 09:47

Bill Schmoker

Great tips- Thanks! Will do my best to snap some detritus for 'ya, too. Thanks for following along! Best- Bill (temporarily in Seattle, AK- bound.)

Sat, 07/31/2010 - 21:18

Bill Schmoker

Hi again Mrs. P- I looked around Unalaska Island some today with yourdebris challenge in mind. The shores looked pretty clean (nice!), but
not sure if this was because I was only in protected harbors and no real
open ocean shores. The debris I saw seemed to mostly be bits of rope or
netting along with a few fishing floats and some lumber. Happy to send
along a few pics- drop me your email and I'll post them your way if
you'd like.

Thu, 08/12/2010 - 19:16

Maggie Prevenas

Aloha to you and the great people on the Healy!What a cool mission you are on. I am following your posts and find them all very interesting. It is amazing to think that you are almost straight up from us, but the ocean is so much different. We are interested in what you are finding out about the acidity of the ocean way up there. Is this the first time there is sampling of the ocean pH at this time of year where you are? Do you have numbers to compare it to from previous years? I imagine the amount of melted ice also influences the pH. That being said, is this a big melted ice year? How does the pH vary if it is old ice or new ice?
Thank you so much for your blogs. I look forward to learning with you!
warmly,
Mrs. P

Thu, 08/12/2010 - 20:24

Bill Schmoker

Hi Mrs. P! Great questions- I will talk to our water chemistry team and ice analysts about your questions tomorrow and get back to you pronto.No ice around the last few days except for a line of drifting ice that came by last night while we were coring. We had a very interesting find in the bottom of one of our core samples- stay tuned!
We've been mapping along the 2500 meter deep isobath which has kept us reasonably close to the northern Alaska coast. I expect that to change after we meet up with the Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Louis S. St. Laurent tomorrow and head north.

Fri, 08/13/2010 - 20:09

Bill Schmoker

Hi again Mrs. P! I spoke with Chris, Sherwood, and Mark on our ocean acidification team and with Pablo and Josh on our ice study team about your questions. I'll try to answer them in the order you asked them.First, there have been other arctic ocean pH studies but none with the very high precision of this study. I'll journal about the process more but our team is using spectrophotometric measurements that are accurate to pH +/- 0.0004. In that regard this is a baseline study to compare future studies to.
Unfortunately, we really can't compare any numbers yet, partly because the analysis is ongoing as we continue our cruise and partly because there aren't any previous ultra-high resolution studies in the arctic to compare to.
Melting ice could have an impact on CO2 uptake by the Arctic Ocean, resulting in increased acidification (lower pH). Basically, ice forms a barrier between the air and the water so the less ice there is the more atmospheric CO2 can enter the water. This could have negative impacts on plankton which is kind of scary in my opinion since that is the base of the food chain and in the case of phytoplankton, a major CO2 scrubber.
Once again the ice being found this year in the Arctic Ocean is below the long-term mean but it is too early to say by how much as the melting season is through September.
So great to have your insightful questions! Enjoy your weather- up here it is currently right around freezing with fog and drizzle. We are encountering more and more ice as we head north on this leg of the survey.