We arrived at our first dive site at 07:15 this morning, after steaming for nearly a day to get here. The Brine Pool. Months of preparation, and dozens of people traveled here to witness the event. By 08:00, Alvin was in the water with two eager scientists and a basket full of experiments to deploy.
Meanwhile, Dr. Craig Young gave the first at-sea lecture in the Deep Sea Ecology course. The students learned how brine pools are formed and how to identify all the methane seep invertebrates we planned to collect.
It was all hands on deck once the Alvin came back, bioboxes full to the brim with deep-sea mussels, clams, and snails. The students cleaned and sorted the animals into cold seawater for upcoming shipboard projects.
"The best part of the dive was finding a patch of mussels covered in my favorite snail, Bathynerita naticoidea"
Ahna Van Gaest
