From Peter:
After a nice sleep on the boat we woke up to clouds and drizzel, ate a nice breakfast and got to work setting things up. Here's a picture of me setting up the Tucker trawl. We got it together much faster this year since our winch, big Bertha, is working. Also Nick says "things look promising for the LOPC", (laser optical plankton counter) but our intern missed the bus in Portland and will be late.
Time for a quick trip to town to get sunscreen, butt connectors (electrical supplies, thank you), and some diesel for Bertha. This afternoon we'll head out and test the gear, perhaps get the first station in.
Note: the Tucker trawl is a net system that allows nets to be opened at specific depths. This gives us some information about whether the copepods are more abundant at the surface, bottom, or in between. The LOPC is an entirely electronic system that measures the size of plankton-sized particles that pass through it. It gives us even more information on how deep the plankton are, but we can't tell one species from another, only the size of the particles. Unlike the nets that have to be counted by hand on shore, the LOPC data is available in real time and can help guide the sampling.
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