ANNIMS – Scientific Voyage

We’re on our last CTD just off the Montebello Islands, about to retire to the back deck for a celebration barbecue in the balmy sunny weather (air and water temperature are both 28 degrees, light breeze). Calm seas and sparkly sunshine, with flying fish everywhere.

This morning we found a deep ocean canyon on the sea floor that wasn’t on the chart -  we went right over it and made a map of it with the swath mapper. Very cool. We identified it via improbable contours on the chart – it was either someone running out of texter, or a ski-jump feature on the sea floor. Bernadette has plotted a beautiful view of it. We’ve also been going through large blooms of the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium. Pinky-brown slurry on the water surface.

Finally, we did a fantastic transect off the Montebellos with the “Toysaurus”, a CTD embedded in a torpedo-like case that is yo-yoed behind the ship.

Looking forward to more calm warm weather as we cruise east to Broome..  Anya