TALES OF A MARINE SCIENTIST : A big catch up on 2019

When I came back from Rothera in January 2019 I was straight back to work! Seol Mara our smaller vessel was on the slip at Corpach where it was having its annual maintenance. Norman and I brought the boat back, this was the first time that I practised driving her, such a perfect day with the snow on Ben Nevis reflecting back off the Loch.

It was February when we collected Seol Mara and at 5-6 kts its a slow slog from Corpach (Fort William) back to Dunstaffnage (near Oban) so we ended up coming back in the dark. It was great nav practice to get through the narrows under Radar.

In between working, we had a duty to keep out qualifications up to date, we learnt lots during the BASP Outdoor First Aid

I also had a great trip up to Eyemouth with Lars, we were collecting seaweed for reproductive studies!

The lifeboat coming past Calanus doing some checks.

Inbetween doing fieldwork you can also still find me in the lab doing analytical science! Here doing some oxygen titrations to calibrate a sea glider that was picked up on the Blyth.

In April 2019, I went out with Raeanne on Seol Mara to help her use the plankton pump. It's a cool piece of kit which collects plankton/larvae from the depths that you choose. Raeanne was looking at Barnacle larvae.

On a very summery day in May we headed out on Calanus (my first time on the beast), and we did a week's worth of some awesome science in our most local bay, Ardmucknish.

The great thing about having a big deck is that you can fill it full of scientific gear!!

We followed the dye patch around, using drifters, the REMUS & lots of CTDs.

Lots of people, computers & kit. We did lots of checks before chucking anything into the sea, well not chucking but deploying it.

We also ate CAKE! It was Em & Karen's birthday that day :)

We had to radio the Calmac Lismore ferry to let them know we had some kit in the water! This was a scary 5 minutes, haha.

So when we collect samples, some of them are sent off to get analysed elsewhere. This is the epic Dr Claire Johnson helping me pack some nutrient samples that I had collected on the Neil Armstrong cruise, we pack them so they try and stay frozen during transit. Oban is pretty far away from the main depot of Glasgow, so on this occasion, I had to drive to and from Glasgow to drop off the samples so that they didn't defrost overnight in the Oban depot. They then headed onto PML in Plymouth.

A few months before this the managers had been going around SAMS looking for things to tidy up/throw out...I asked why this poor RIB was deflated and looking sad.

It was because we had no money to use it, then a grant came in which John Beaton (JB) and I had the fun job of getting it back up to coding standard. I have learnt so much as Ships opps and this was a big job to get a boat recoded. Since this JB has become my mentor, he is teaching me his crazy ways with everything from vessels to physics/sensors/moorings!

Together we got her cleaned, bought all of the appropriate safety equipment & gave her a sea trial.

She's now on our website and available to hire from SAMS. Great job with JB. https://www.sams.ac.uk/facilities/vessels/

In September, we had a fun PhD project with Charlotte & Denise! Charlotte is looking at the sea careers on fish farms and how their noise propagates. I was crew and a helping hand!

Another JB tip, always draw a diagram of your deployment...

The mighty RV Calanus

Watching the bridge, checking everything is ok whilst Norman checks on things outside.

In between fixing up the RIB, I did some work up Loch Etive for Dr Kim Last by collecting some plankton samples at the famous RE5 site up Loch Etive.

Or assisting Alison and JB bringing in a jellyfish camera, we had to check the anodes were ok, battery charged and the camera was not fouled.

Classic comms through hand signals.

This was a very wet day on the west of Scotland, deploying a mooring with an ADCP at the bottom of it.

Big piece of kit getting us lots of data

Learning from Caitlin at SNH about ROVS!

Sometimes you don't know what you're doing at work if you've planned to do paperwork. This day I got a call that one of our raft sites had come loose so we had to pull it to shore!

Towing it to the shore.

There are also some days I don't work on the boats...so like this day I decided to wear a skirt...but nope still got called up to help with a deployment or similar...so awkward to wear a lifejacket and skirt haha

In-between fieldwork the boats need to be maintained, also once a year they are hauled out and surveyed to keep their coding certificate. This time I had to pick which planks needed replacing on Calanus, very shabby chic.

She was then straight back to work and deploying plankton nets and more up Loch Etive for Chelsey's PhD project with sidekick Emma to assist! Chelsey explains, "the primary objective of the WBAT mooring in Loch Etive is for zooplankton visualisation, it will also provide data that may be of relevance to hydrodynamic modelling (Aleynik), and will serve as a platform for the integration of ‘opportunistic’ instrumentation (such as a DIC sensor, Brand) to build on our understanding of local sea loch dynamic."

I was there to assist with helping to deploy this mooring. I have got to know Loch Etive pretty well over the last 2 years so I was allowed to do a bit of driving, Calanus moves like a shopping trolley with a bad wheel...!

Now that Usige the RIB is fully functional we use her a lot, especially for deploying the ROV!

I also went to the Falls of Lora with Mark Inall and he sprayed some dye into the water for the students to visually see the overturning!

We had a slight disaster before Christmas where Seol Mara's stern gland failed and she took on a lot of water which meant her engine had to be cleaned and lots of parts replaced.

This is what happens when electrics meet saltwater.

I also helped JB sell this old RIB for SAMS! What a beast.

I also researched and helped SAMS to invest in an Electric run around vehicle for SAMS users!

Even though I don't work for Dave anymore, he taught me lots about lipids. So I was brought in on another project which Carla and I finished together.

Soldier Fly Larvae being fed different amounts of lipids..as they are used to compost waste or convert the waste into animal feed https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X19306440

Random jobs happen all the time, on one particular week after we had fixed Seol Maras engine...the RAMS on the A-frame broke which meant I had to drive back and forth to Glasgow to get them fixed!

Precision measurements! It was the same workshop in Glasgow where parts for the BAS/NERC ship the Sir David Attenborough are being built.

Norman...always keeping an eye out!

This is the first time in a few years that we have had divers off Seol Mara! Here they were helping clear up an old scientific field site.

Standby keeping warm!!

Happiest in my salopettes!

Over the winter months, I am usually brought in on inside lab jobs whilst the boats are not going out. This often means dealing with computers.....and data!

This is me learning how to do photogrammetry, satisfying when it works and you have the servers up and running.

Fixing and maintaining equipment like the gas chromatographer.

After work one day I went to see if I could volunteer for the Oban RNLI, however, I live too far away but still got a cool look around the boat.

Immaculate engine

I snuck out on the boats again...someone stole our light!!?! JB teaching me how to recover moorings.

We also did some drills and practices a man overboard!

Organising kit to be serviced!

One job we do every month is with Tom and Gail to collect grab samples filled with mud from Dunstaffnage Fish Farm. I have been let loose on the winch! There is a lot to concentrate on when deploying a grab correctly to get a viable sample.