First of all shifts are usually 12h on 12h off so you may have a 4am to 4pm shift or you could be assigned a night owl shift from 4pm to 4am.

Here’s what a 4am one can look like:

• 3:45 – wake up (which when lacking a porthole feels like waking up on a dark winter day)
• 4:00 – in the deck lab for the shift start (via the coffee room is often necessary!)
• 4:00 – 7:00 – This depends on your team onboard:
• For everyone: Sampling from the CTD if happens to come on board
• Physics team: data monitoring and analysis (data will be processed so that it is available to the public before we even get back to shore!)
• Chemistry team: Oxygen and nutrient analysis which involves continuous titration of water samples
• CFC team: on the clock processing of water samples to extract CFCs and SF6. They are constantly running samples due to a slight back log that occurred earlier on in the cruise because of their misbehaving analysis machine (which i ought to mention is named Barbarella)
• 7:20 – 7:50 – Breakfast in the canteen (or dinner for the night owls). A research ship is one of the only places where you can be eating your bowl of shredded wheats next to someone enjoying their Friday night fish and ships!
• 7:50 – 11:30 – And the buzzing continues. Slight changes of schedule on this particular expedition will come from the deployment of Argo floats, safety drills or hopefully if we’re lucky some dolphins or whales passing by. In which case all science stops!
• 11:30 – 12:00 – LUNCH!!!
• 12:00 – 14:00 – Science, Science, Science
. 14:00 – 14: 30 – The perks of working in the middle of the Atlantic is that your coffee break is spent staring at the never ending great big blue. Which if you ask me makes it all extremely worthwhile! Labs are often jamming to a different person’s playlist every day, and you discover some rather odd music tastes. You get an open ocean sunrise and sunset pretty much every day often followed by the #greenflashornogreenflash debate. I’ll believe it when I see one… And finally, you get to experience something which is very rare for most of us nowadays: no continuous phone internet.
• 14:30 – 16: 00 –
 Yep, you guessed it! Some more science at sea. CTDs are coming up and down (to 5000m deep and beyond!). Water is being filtered, salinity is being measured and nutrients are extracted. All this data is capturing what the ocean was like precisely during this period so it is important we get it right was there are no second chances!
• 16:00 – Shift finished! This is when you can start to wind down and you can see my previous blog for more details on what’s available aboard to wind down.
• 20:00 – 21:00 – Get ready for a well-deserved sleep before it all starts again! I think this ship holds my personal record for the time between which my head hits the pillow and deep sleep. Although some nights I watch and episode of Fawlty Towers before falling asleep.

That’s briefly how a day is structured. The shifts are of course different for various crew members on board (engineers, cooks, officers etc…)

All in all, it is a fantastic but tough experience and I am still enjoying every second of it!

For some fun videos have a look at the twitter account @JC159_24s

The post What we get up to at sea – a day aboard the RRS James Cook appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

The expedition in question (JC159) is led by the ORCHESTRA project and is aiming to collect crucial data on important physical and biological ocean parameters. This includes salinity, temperature, oxygen, nutrients, chlorophyll levels, microplastics (my focus), radiocarbons, CFCs, you name it! The labs on the ship are filled with state of the art equipment to get great quality data and often within a few hours of sampling.

But there is so much more to a research expedition than just the science! The environment on board is like nothing I’ve experienced elsewhere. All of us 21 scientists as well as 24 crew on board will live closely together for the next 42 days and this creates a really close and friendly community.

The James Cook is a fantastic research ship both in terms of lab space and living conditions. First off, every single crew member (engineers, scientists, officers, cooks etc…) has their own cabin. And believe it or not, my cabin on board is nicer than my student accommodation back home! Also, if you’re extra lucky then you even get a porthole to look out at sea, or IN the sea even depending on weather conditions…

Second of all, the ship has all sorts of entertainment available to unwind when not on shift. The living room is equipped with all the essentials: table football, darts, board games, PS4 and a Wii (in case anyone feels like throwing a just dance party…). The chefs are always cooking up fantastic meals. It was someone’s birthday today so I am writing this whilst digesting a very large amount of kiwi and chocolate topped cheesecake. There is also a gym and just today one of the scientists on-board will be running regular circuit classes at 4pm on the forecastle deck. This means no need to cut down on the cheesecake!
Oh and in case this wasn’t enough, there is also a sauna (yes you read that right, a sauna!). Finally, because we are sailing through the tropics it can get very hot and so one of the engineers transformed a crate into a seawater horizon pool!

There is limited internet for uploading pictures on the ship but here is a link to some of us taking a break in the makeshift seawater pool on the back deck! Safety first of course. https://twitter.com/jc159_24s/status/970463827245568001

You’re probably wondering by now, does any science get done?? And the answer to that is an overwhelming yes! Life on board the ship is intense but rewarding. Science is happening 24h a day to maximise the ship’s capabilities at sea and everyone is on tight shifts with swift changeovers to ensure that research and data collection is happening at all times. You can wander around the ship at any time of day and you will witness rooms buzzing with scientists carrying out calibrations, sample collections, measurements, and of course repairs to temperamental equipment.

If you want to follow our journey and get regular updates about both science and life aboard the ship then you can follow the expedition’s twitter account @jc159_24s

The post Week one of an Atlantic crossing aboard the RRS James Cook appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

It was a heart-breaking scene that brought our excessive use of plastic to the spotlight for millions to see. This harsh but necessary message sparked a social media wave of pledges to reduce or stop the manufacturing and use of single-use plastic. It may be a distressing scene to watch but these images are necessary to truly understand the impact we are having on the ocean and instil within us a sense of responsibility. The issue with plastic pollution is that when we are sitting at our desks and throw away our plastic coffee cups in the bin, we cannot see the far-reaching impacts it may have on our seas.

Although I mentioned in the previous blog that I would focus on land emissions of plastic to the sea, I think that focusing on ways we can reduce plastic waste is a more important issue to address following Blue Planet’s message.

No excuse for single-use: quick and effective changes that make a difference

We need to stop buying or using unnecessary single use plastic. This includes straws, coffee cups, disposable plastic cups, plastic bags, polystyrene food containers, disposable cutlery.
We can easily make these changes by saying no to straws. Similarly, we should aim to always have a reusable coffee mug or bottle at hand and asks shops to fill that instead. Finally, having a carrier bag placed in your car/office/handbag ensures you always have one at hand when you go shopping.
There are also many easy and cheap alternatives to all of these products. Vegware is a company that produces compostable packaging. Here at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton for example, we have recently substituted all coffee cups and cutlery with Vegware products.

Reducing the need for plastic packaging

 When you go shopping, try to by as little plastic packaging as possible. This involves trying to buy products that come in paper bags or no bags at all i.e. bread, vegetables, fruit. It is also a good idea to buy in bulk rather than many individually packaged items.

Recycling etiquette

It is a good idea to get to know the recycling regulations in your neighbourhood, as they are all slightly different. An overarching requirement however is that most recyclable items need to be rinsed before being thrown away. This doesn’t mean you need to put them in the dishwasher, but a light rinsing of containers to remove food waste can go a long way. Finally, it is also helpful to squeeze/flatten plastic bottles and containers to remove as much air as possible. All of these quick and easy steps help streamline the processing of products at the recycling plant and result in a more energy efficient process.

Plastic pollution is often out of sight and out of mind, which limits the drive to reduce plastic consumption as we are not exposed to its effect on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis. It is however never too late to have a positive impact! We are now aware of the issue and can actively help to reduce its impact on marine life. If you are interested in learning more about plastic waste, the following organisations have plenty of useful information on how to get involved!

5 Gyres institute
https://www.5gyres.org/faq/

The great Nurdle Hunt
https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/

Beach clean ups:
https://www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch/ (UK)
https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/international-coastal-cleanup/clean-up-locations/ (World)

The post No excuse for Single Use appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

In this blog, I’ll start by introducing microplastics. In the following post i will describe what we know of land based inputs and their transport pathway into the sea. My final blog will outline what potential hazards they may cause to living organisms and what current studies have shown.

Microplastics can be characterized as any piece of plastic smaller than 5mm. A vast majority of them are therefore invisible to the naked eye. The first type of microplastic that will now often jump up in mind is: microbeads! These are the small and frankly highly unnecessary plastic beads used in exfoliating and personal care products to help scrub off dead skin. They are slowly being banned in countries across the world, and the UK has joined in quite recently with microbead manufacturing to become illegal as of the 1^st of January 2018. So, will that be it with microplastics then? Well not really, as microbeads are only a fraction of microplastics out there…
Microplastics also encompass many other very common forms such as:

• Fibres – Many of our clothes are made of synthetic plastic fibres, such as nylon and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and a single washing cycle can shed up to 700,000 fibres!
• Nurdles – Plastic is manufactured by small pellets that are melted and moulded together to form any desired shape. These pre-production pellets are called nurdles.
• Fragments – This includes any fragment broken down from larger “parent” plastics. Plastic never truly disappears; it only gets smaller and smaller. Many large plastic objects will break down over time due to erosion from wave action, wind and UV light. Common sources of fragments include car tyres & packaging.

Microplastics can also be subdivided into two broad categories:
Primary microplastics include microbeads, nurdles and fibres. These are manufactured as microplastics, that is as particles of 5mm or smaller. They easily pass through sewage treatment plants that do not necessarily have the appropriate sized filters to catch them.
Secondary microplastics are formed because of larger plastics breaking down. UV rays, wind and wave action causes plastic to fragment into millions of smaller pieces. A good example of secondary microplastics are the resulting polystyrene fragments breaking off fish & chip boxes at the beach. These make their way straight into the ocean if not disposed of properly.

In the following blog, I will expand on how microplastics make their journey from production on land to floating in the ocean.

The post A brief introduction to microplastics appeared first on Exploring our Oceans .

Since then I have had a strong passion for underwater life and the closer I can get to it the better! I am always looking for ways to go deeper and further with scuba diving. In 2014 I passed my Divemaster qualification on the island of Utila, Honduras. This was an incredible experience as not only was I diving alongside eagle rays and turtles, but I was also introducing people to the world of Scubadiving and the whole new world this brings. There is nothing quite like accompanying someone on their first dive. In 2015 I also went on a qualification allowing me to dive down to 60m at my home club in La Favière, a small port of the south coast of France. At those depths, light starts to become scarce and as you look up to the surface you get a glimpse of how vast the ocean is.

I think I am so drawn to Scubadiving because it essentially allows you to “unlock” new places to explore. Very much like in a videogame, scuba is a tool required to achieve a new level on our planet. Life below the surface is completely different from anything on land and the colours, noises, and movements you get to witness are always breath-taking. As many of you watching Blue Planet 2 right now will know, most of the incredible footage they collected come from advances in scuba gear. This includes a personal favourite of mine: rebreathers, which essentially recycle the air you breathe and release no bubbles whilst diving. Rebreathers allow divers to get extremely close to marine life and film never before seen behaviours.

A rebreather works by allowing you to essentially breathe the same air repeatedly. This is possible thanks to a can of sodium hydroxide that essentially “cleans” your exhaled air of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide reacts with sodium hydroxide to form a calcium carbonate solid that is then stored during your dive. Before your next breath, another tank of pure oxygen replenishes your air to make it breathable. This incredible technology allows you to silently sneak up on elusive and shy marine life that would otherwise swim away at the sight of bubbles. I have experienced this first hand when diving alongside barracudas at my home club in France. If you get too close to them or find yourself exhaling whilst below them, they swim away to avoid the bubbles your produce. Here is a video from a dive with barracudas:

I would highly recommend Scubadiving if you never have done so before! My advice is make sure you completely trust your instructor and always voice any concerns or questions. Scubadiving is a sport that must be learnt in a safe and trusting environment to avoid being put off by finding yourself in a stressful situation.

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