 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
DISPATCH 5 | 06.07.2007 | The Key West Bioherm Another early morning Transect party convenes in the Wheel House. We are mapping out an area that Jordan first reported in 1954. It looks to be a fairly steep ridge and we want to get some exact numbers for the submersible launch. Riding in the sphere this morning is scientist Amy Wright with submersible pilot Phil Santos. In the back is new submariner Hilaire Kemami Wangun with subcrew member Jimmy Nelson. Hilaire just joined our group a few months ago and this is his first expedition- in fact this might be his first time aboard a research vessel. 
The Sea Demystified - Hilaire V. Kemami Wangun It was a great pleasure for me to participate in the exploration of the deep sea. Our expedition took place on Thursday 7th 2007 at 8 am. We went up to 897 Ft down for the sample collection. Before getting into what my impression was, I would first like to write a couple of words about my background. I am a Cameroonian coming from the part of Cameroon (west part, of the Bamilike people) where the sea is considered a mystery. The people that live close to the coast are considered mysterious as well. So, by accepting to dive I made a great decision in my life. I am sure no body would have agreed or understood in my family. Now coming back to what my impression was; I was very impressed to see how big and how rich the ocean is. We collect many samples, sponges, crinoids and sediment. It should be highlighted that all these samples are potential candidate from which anti-cancer drug (my main research project) may be isolated and characterized. My second impression is related to the submersible which I found to be a remarkable and safe machine for deep sea exploration. I would like to thank Dr. Amy Wright who gives me the chance to be a part of this exploration. Sinkhole A, 14:00 EDST 
Of the five largest sinkholes that Jordan described back in the 1950's, our group had now made a dive in all but Sinkhole A. To date, no one has made a dive in Sinkhole A, but I bet you can guess what's coming... yes, this afternoon, Pilot Phil Santos, Scientist Shirley Pomponi, Scientist John Reed and Submersible Crewman Frank Lombardo will explore it. Shirley will ride in the Sphere while John will ride in the aft observation chamber taking copious notes on the site. This will complete John's aim of exploring and documenting the habitats of the five sinkholes using the Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles. After this final dive, John plans to write a paper describing the comparative geology and fauna of these sinkholes. He took detailed notes on the dive and an excerpt of these is found below. We apologize in advance for all the unusual abbreviations, but this is John's shorthand. He knows what it all means. Excerpts from Dive Notes - J. Reed JSL II-3593 June 7, 2007 Sinkhole A (from Jordan, 1954) S. Pomponi, P. Santos; J. Reed, F. Lombardo Transect from max depth up north wall, along N rim to about 1:00 (as clock), then drop to 1200' and continue transect along NE wall, finish about opposite E. rim waypoint (3:00). 16:42 Launch 1000'- twilight, can see sub and light above 1200'- lots of plankton and salps, dense 1" shrimp or euphausids. 1380'- 6" squid 16:38 1511'- on bottom, flat coarse sand, br, large school (hundreds) of 12" fish, silvery with chin barbels, like previous sinkhole B, Golden crab, pavement, brown crust; salinity- 35.2, temperature 10.2C, 45' visibility, 0 current.; aluminum can, dense euphausids in light, 6" red shrimp royal reds?, rock w/ 2' relief, flat 50% or pavement. 50% sand At Waypoint 9.; to Waypoint 18- 350 dg, 1800 ft. 16:49 1485',. Heading to WP 18, 1' sand waves w/. 8' wave length, steeper on North side of dunes. All sediment, no bioturbation; green eye Chloropthalmus 16:53 1465'- pavement, 1' relief, loose rock, 50% rock cover, 2" stylaster S-201 Rock sample, used manipulator to break off pavement,. 30 dg slope, temperature 10.1C, 39.2 salinity; no fish, no euphausids 
17:03 1356'- 20-30 dg slope, steps
17:05 1335'- Rock outcrops, br, 2' relief, covered with encrusters, small Hexactinellids or Pachastrellids, 17:10 1260'- terrace, rock pavement, 45 degree, then steeper to 70 dg, Black coral, 100% rock pavement 17:14 1224'- S-1 Spongosorites 80 degree rock slope; stylaster coral 17:28 1138'- 2' rock outcrop, starfish, fish w/ chin barbels 1098'- 45 dg slope, scorpeinid, 3' black coral, 1082'- base of wall, 100% rock pavement, 17:32 1062'- S-2 Hexactinellid, 8" hollow ball, long spicules; 60 dg rock, 10.9 C, 35.3 salinity. 1027'- 80 dg rock, dense small encrusters, Nezumia w/ spot on tail; 1" sponges, several S1 6" diam. 17:44 969'- 60-70 dg rock pavement, school small pink fish; black coral, anemones, Hexactinellid; 11.2 C, 35.4 salinity 931'- 45 dg rock, black coral, Geryon fenneri, smooth rock, no ledges 17:47 909'- pink fish 892'- 20 dg rock pavement, numerous small fish 886'- nr WP 18, Head East along top of wall, not a sharp edge, rounded; 10 degree rock pavement, no ledges, no sediment, barren 17:52 889'- transect along top edge SE toward Waypoint 8 (top of east wall)- 145 dg; 4" wh anemones common 17:56 904' - S-3 12" yellow Paramuriceid, w/ Asteroschema; 10 dg rock pavement; 11.2 C, 35.4 salinity, anemone, starfish, black coral 1', 0.2 kn from 250 dg 18:03 C/u fish in hole, anemones, scorpionfish, some small fish in rock, Nezumia , 3' pi, white black coral 18:07 906'- S-4- 4" wh anemones, common, 10 dg rock pavement, few potmark holes w/ fish; 11.2 C, 35.4 salinity, human debris, Anthias nicholsi? Colorful pink fish, long tail filaments; golden crab; Pink anemones 
957'- edge of wall, heading 180 degree, transect down wall to 1200' and go along wall to East wall 1019'- sonar shows 2000' diameter hole N-S 18:50 1200'- rugged vertical rock, ledges, 6' ledges and overhangs with thin crust, large galatheids, comatulid crinoids, 12" galatheids, 6" green fish dense schools; 10.6 C, 35.3 salinity, 4" thin encrusting sponge; thousands 6" green fish 19:04 1208'- 30 dg rock pavement, few Nezumia, debris, heading 150 dg, scorpaenids, large shrimp, stylaster 1230'- heading 170 degree, 20 dg terrace and 80 dg rock slope below 19:09 1238'- heading 150 degree, 80 dg smooth rock pavement, 1240'- large 10' overhang 191:2 1246'- more rugged, heading 140 dg, Fix; head upslope 095 dg; smooth narrow rock ridge, barren, small encrusters 1169'- S-5 Zoanthid on black coral dead stalk; 80 dg smooth rock Fix-off bottom; to Waypoint 8 at E edge of hole- 100 dg 500'. End of dive This is only part of John's notes, lots of detail, a few odd abbreviations, it will be a great paper once he is done. Back In The Lab Making Barnacle Milkshakes - Alanna Mitchell So, what happens once all these hard-to-find deep sea samples make it back to the ship from the bottom of the ocean? On the second dive of Day 3, which is in a formation called Sinkhole C at a maximum depth of 1,372 feet, here's the drill. The submersible, carrying scientist Amy Wright, pilot Craig Caddigan, engineer Frank Lombardo and Wright's post-doctoral student Jennifer Choate (she's already got her PhD and is doing further research at Harbor Branch), got back to the R/V Seward Johnson at 7:40 p.m. 
By 7:47, all 13 separate species the crew had collected in the sinkhole - including soft corals,
sponges and stalked deep-ocean barnacles - are sitting in numbered buckets of seawater on the
table of the ship's wet laboratory. Kathleen Janda, a research specialist in microbiology who
has been at Harbor Branch since 1985 and Tara Pitts, a research specialist who has been there
since 1986, are already hard at work.
Their job is to take samples from this living tissue, isolate the microbes that live on their surface or inside them, grow those microbes and then eventually see whether any of the microbes will have cancer-fighting. They form a critical part of the quest to find cancer cures, one of three strategies scientists at Harbor Branch use. The first strategy is to look at the molecular compounds of the deep-sea creatures and see if they have an effect on cancer cells. The second is to learn to grow these rare creatures in the hopes that once one of them proves to be able to fight cancer. The third is the work that Janda and Pitt are helping with tonight. That's to separate the microbes from their hosts and see if it's the microbes, rather than the sponges or other large creatures that have what it takes to cure cancer. Janda is wearing purple gloves and Pitts, neon green. Each has a pair of glasses or safety glasses. These are measures to protect them against any toxins or stingers from the deep-sea creatures they're about to work on. A glancing touch from some of the sponges can result in a nasty rash. Deep-sea sponges are built to repel enemies in their harsh environments. Everyone who touches the samples must wear gloves for another reason, too: to make sure that human DNA doesn't get passed to the samples, whose own DNA will be sorted out later. Janda slices off a piece of one sponge with a pair of heavy-duty garden snippers. It's got an elephant-like skin and star-shaped formations inside. For the others, she uses tweezers and surgical scissors, making delicate strips of the living organisms. One of the sponges, called a glass sponge, looks exactly like white fiberglass. 
Each of these samples goes into a small orange-stoppered vial that Pitts has carefully labeled. Each will now be filled with seawater and glycerol and then stored in a freezer on board. The glycerol makes sure that the frozen cells don't break when they freeze. They'll be looked at once they are back at Harbor Branch's main labs.
Then it's milkshake time. Janda has already quizzed Shirley Pomponi, Harbor Branch's chief executive and one of the world's experts on sponges, on the potential microbial find in the stalked barnacle, pale deep-sea creatures that resemble shrimp more than the hard-shell barnacles that grow on ships' hulls. "Do you think they'd have good microbes in them, Shirley?" asks Janda Pomponi doesn't hesitate. "Yes!" she says. So Janda has taken a whole barnacle and is making a special sample of it. "I've never done a barnacle," she says, grinning. "This is a first." It involves grinding it up very finely, diluting the ground material, spreading it over one of several growing media (they contain different types of foods and other substances) in a Petri dish, and then waiting for a couple of months for it to grow. In some cases the growing media contain anti-bacterial or anti-fungal substances so that one type of microbe will grow but not all of them. Janda starts snipping the barnacle into smaller pieces - along with 20 ml of sterilized sea water derived from the Gulf Stream - so that the Virtis grinder, with its sharp and swift blades, can make mush of it. The grinder resembles the milkshake-maker in an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor. 
Janda laughs at the analogy. "It's the same principle," she says.
As she snips, she points to the creature's insides. "See, there are lots of microbes in its guts," she says. "We're getting the filter feeders." Once the barnacle is froth, Janda withdraws some in a pipette and puts it into another vial, diluting it. Then she takes the diluted material, dilutes some of it by another factor of five, and keeps going until the original sample has been re-diluted by a factor of five, five times over. This makes sure that the microbial samples she's going to grow won't be too dense on the Petri dish. If they are, they will be too difficult to separate out. She and Pitts spread the barnacle milkshake on growing medium - again, carefully labeled - and spread it around with a sterile instrument. Tomorrow, these Petri dishes will be sealed, staying that way until Janda can "pick" the microbes that will have grown in them over the next two months or so. This has been a life's work for Janda and Pitts and they still love it. They work seamlessly together, in a precise rhythm, gloved hands expertly wielding the pipettes and spreaders. "I knew from when I was young that I wanted to be a scientist," says Janda. "I like science that has a purpose, that can make a difference." She pauses. "I may not see it in my lifetime," she says. "But I know that the work is there for others to build on." 
|
|
| ||