Landlocked in Montana as a child, but craving the majesty and mystery of the ocean, I had no choice but to read of the high seas. For years, I sailed aboard the Nautilus with Dr. Aronnax and avidly flipped through marine textbooks. One day, I happened upon a book with a single page describing cryptic deep-sea coral habitats and I was entranced; a hidden beauty in the ocean that only Captain Nemo could find in his submersible. Yet today I said goodbye to the sun much like Captain Nemo by dipping beneath the waves in the HOV Alvin.
As a student working in Dr. Shawn Arellano’s lab, I’ve been excitedly anticipating our cruise for several months. However, I never expected to go in a submarine! The preparation for today’s dive began late last night when all the students on board decided to decorate Styrofoam cups. We each sent a Styrofoam cup down to be shrunk by the pressure of the ocean. During the evening, I participated in the age-old tradition of avoiding liquids due to the lack of restrooms on the small sub.
Waking up in the morning brought a fresh wave of excitement as I donned all cotton clothing (any synthetic fibers are a flammable hazard inAlvin). My next step was to simply step into the sub and descend into the deep! Though I didn’t quite travel 20,000 leagues like Captain Nemo, I did get to go down 1,093 meters which is our deepest dive thus far. As soon as we hit bottom, we began a search for beds of the cold seep mussels we need for our research. Within minutes of starting our exploration, I suddenly noticed a large crimson squid drifting by the submarine!
The excitement continued as I saw starfish scattered on the sea floor and jellyfish floating by me. During our search, I looked out the window and suddenly saw a couple of deep-sea corals peeking out from behind a ridge. I gasped in excitement to be just feet from an organism I fell in love with as a child. The sub pilot moved us along until we found a large enough bed of mussels where we could collect organisms and deploy equipment. The weather that we were oblivious to in the depths unfortunately took a turn for the worst at the surface so we had to return to the ship a bit early. Luckily, we awaited a warm (or perhaps I should say cold) welcome where I got to participate in the tradition of getting a bucket of ice water dumped over my head immediately following my very first Alvin dive!
Laura, this is so cool! I loved reading your blog and could feel your excitement. I am proud of you and so glad you are getting to experience so many wonderful things through opportunities you have worked so hard for!!