R/V Hogarth

Four CCME students spent four days (9/20/2021 - 9/24/2021) onboard of the R/V Hogarth doing research sampling as part of an educational cruise experience titled “Instructional Cruise to Assess Decadal and Current Environmental Health Assessment of the central West Florida Shelf”. This initiative was funded by a grant awarded to Dr. Michael Martínez-Colón by the SLOAN Foundation. Dr. Martínez-Colón in collaboration with Dr. Richard Long and Dr. Jeroen Ingels (Florida State University-FSU) were awarded subsidized ship time by the Florida Institute of Oceanography.

As part of the science party, we have Ms. Ariana Uwaibi (CCME-PhD), Ms. Gabriella Lirio (CCME-MSc), Mr. Demarcus Turner (CCME-MSc), and Ms. Amonra Garrett-Mills (CCME-undergrad). We also had to two students from FSU (Ms. Katherine Henning and Ms. Chenoa Dubree) and one student from Eckerd College (Ms. Daisy Wischmeyer).

The cruise took place along the West Florida Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico and the students were trained in different aspects of oceanographic sampling along a depth gradient between 25 m and 300 m transects. These experiences included: (1) deployment/retrieval of a multicorer and subsequent sampling of sediment cores (foraminifera, nematodes, grain size, organic matter, microplastics, radiochemistry, molecular analyses) (2) deployment/retrieval of a CTD/Niskin rosette for water sampling (microplastics and molecular analyses), and (3) plankton tow deployment/retrieval for microplastic sampling. These operations were done in 12-hours shifts (12am-12pm; 12pm-12am). Most importantly, students engaged in knowledge transfer by those who had prior experience which was the case of Mr. Demarcus Turner who trained students in microplastic sampling using a density separator and Ms. Ariana Uwaibi who trained students in sediment sampling for molecular work.

From left to right- Mr. Demarcus Turner (CCME-MSc), Ms. Gabriella Lirio (CCME-MSc), Mr. Benjamin Shirey (NON-CCME), Ms. Amonra Garrett-Mills (CCME-undergrad), and Ms. Ariana Uwaibi (CCME-PhD)

Ms. Gabriella Lirio (CCME-MSc) and Ms. Ariana Uwaibi (CCME-PhD) preparing the niskin/CTD rosette.

Ms. Amonra Garrett-Mills (CCME-undergrad) slicing a sediment core.

Mr. Demarcus Turner (CCME-MSc) next to his microplastic density separator