by Sara Zeidan

It’s been quite rough waters the past few days, but sampling is still going smoothly. We are far from shore and open ocean surrounds us as far as the eye can see. It’s quite calming and humbling to be in the middle of the ocean, with blues of all different shades making up the waves as they crash up against the boat.

Our sampling is going smoothly and we collected a few depth samples for cesium filtration as well as 2 L water samples at various depths. I will be bringing these 2 L water samples back with me to the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Lab at the University of Ottawa to analyze certain radionuclides, such as Uranium and Plutonium, and observe how their concentrations vary at different depths throughout Line P.

The crew also carried out a few multi-purpose nets, which collected biological activity at different depths down to 3000 m. I had the chance to observe all the marine organisms captured at different depths, and it was interesting to see how the composition of biological activity changes the deeper you go. We’re nearing P14, meaning were more than half way through our stations. I finally seem to be getting the hang of things and a daily system going.

Til next post!

(This will be the last post until next week due to the ship being out of satellite coverage.)

Other posts from Line P in 2016: The Plan, Out to Sea, Big Blue, Day in the Life