along and the water in the water sampling bottles was emptied into them . These were then taken off to be analysed in a mind-bewildering array of different procedures and instruments . Some samples were also filtered ( sieved ) to examine the particles within , many of which are living organisms , the plankton . Other water samples were poisoned and then frozen , to preserve them for analysis at some later date .
Collecting a sample from the CTD @ Jeremy Young
While the ship was stopped for our measuring station , a lot of other devices were also lowered into the sea . Special nets were dragged through the water to catch larger plankton , and a titanium CTD was also used , to capture seawater without any metal contamination , for reasons that will become clear in later blogs . Some other individual sampling bottles and pumping devices were also lowered separately , all as part of a major effort to collect , measure and examine the local seawater in as many different useful ways as possible . From all of the different analyses we will build up a detailed understanding of the life that lives there , how healthy it is , how actively it is growing , the chemical environment it is living in , and much else .
There are a number of different microscopes on board and so we often find out quite quickly if there is something interesting or unusual in the water . Today we had a first surprise – the water was full of pteropods . In fact the numbers seen today , in the first place we have stopped , are almost as many as seen during the whole of the previous research cruise in the Arctic . Pteropods are ‘ swimming snails ’ that are a particular target of our cruise , because previous research has shown them to be strongly affected by the chemical changes associated with high levels of carbon dioxide in seawater . Again , they will be the subject of later blog entries , but it was good to see that there are many of them about , because otherwise of course we wouldn ’ t be able to study them .
We have been accompanied for much of today by some albatrosses floating alongside . It is tempting to think that they are here out of curiosity . They spend the large majority of their lives out at sea , wandering the ocean searching for food , and so perhaps a ship is a welcome respite from grey sea stretching from horizon to horizon . Much more likely is that they are unable to distinguish us from a fishing ship , and so are accompanying us in the hope of fish scraps being thrown overboard . Unluckily for them , we have a policy of no pollution , which includes no throwing overboard of food or any other waste .
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