returned to the surface and what are the possible effects climate change may bring about to this process .
Richard trying out being a crew member by operating the winch @ Emma Cavan
As these biological sinking particles are known as marine snow , the piece of equipment I use to measure this snow is called the marine snow catcher . Witty I know . I deploy the snow catchers at around 6:30 and 8:30am each day . Simply they are massive water bottles ( 100l ). After pinning bits of it together , with help from the crew when I haven ’ t woken up properly yet ( see pics ), the snow catcher is lifted overboard . I then send a messenger down ( a heavy weight ) which hits a release and closes the catcher , which fills with water . The only incident we have had so far was when it was bought back on deck last week and the 20kg weight suspended from the base almost took me out . Thankfully , the crane holding it took the hit . Hydraulic fluid starting leaking everywhere and the deck engineer was called to fix it . All was fine ; remarkably the snow catcher had nothing more than a small dent – and we have changed our system so it can ’ t happen again !
Once the snow catchers have been deployed I spend the remainder of the day filtering water and picking out the particles which have sunk to the base of the catcher , to photograph them under a microscope . This is the exciting part as I get to find out what I have collected . So far it has mostly been zooplankton feacal pellets or bits of biological looking stuff that needs proper identification back at base . After photographing , I take the particles to the fridge where I drop them one by one into a measuring cylinder full of water and see how fast they sink . ( Technology at its best !)
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