Posted by Phil Taylor, Program Manager, Biological Oceanography Program,
National Science Foundation.

After 14 years of involvement with Alvin-based science as a program officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF), I finally took the opportunity to join this Alvin cruise at the invitation of Dr. Craig Cary. Why did I wait so long? Time and timing. Most cruises are longer than this 10-day expedition, making it much harder to break away from NSF duties. And most are much more distant from land, making it hard to join or leave a cruise in progress. Since Guaymas Basin is tucked into the Gulf of California between the mainland of Mexico and the Baja California peninsula, getting on and off via a small vessel out of Guaymas or Mulege is entirely possible. I started the cruise with everyone in Guaymas but will get off the ship and head back to Guaymas mañana. Finally, this cruise was scheduled at a time when things are just a little less busy than the normal frenzy back in the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences. Thank you, Craig!

The National Science Foundation’s Ocean Sciences Division provides the vast majority of funding for the research undertaken with the R/V Atlantis and DSR/V Alvin. The program I direct at the NSF — the Biological Oceanography Program — supports the majority of biological and ecological research. This research is geared toward understanding the ecological relationships of vent animals and microbes, as well as their rather unusual biology. My program has been heavily involved in the Life in Extreme Environments (LExEn) activity, of which Extreme 2000 is a part. So here I am enjoying the opportunity to see firsthand, on board the ship and in the submersible, the ways in which these excellent national facilities allow our scientists to pursue interesting and compelling research.

It is rewarding to see that the Chief Scientist and collaborators have gone to great lengths to ensure maximum use of the cruise for research and educational projects beyond their own. These cruises are not cheap, so maximizing the pay-off in terms of education and science is important. The University of Delaware Web page and the first day of direct phone connections between students and the ship/sub are being augmented by another excellent educational Web page out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. While the LExEn research that is the raison d’etre for the cruise is focused on the interaction of geochemistry and microbiology in the sediments and the hard sulfide structures; other researchers are getting samples of large organisms — Riftia and Calyptogena — in order to study their genetics.

Yesterday, special high-pressure chambers were taken down to collect and trap water samples so that they maintained all of their gaseous components when brought off the seafloor. These were taken for someone not even on the cruise and will be sent back to Marv Lilley at the University of Washington for analysis. And since there were no planned night-time activities except laboratory work, Dan Fornari and the crew have wisely employed the ship’s Seabeam system to create a detailed map of a large portion of the seafloor in this region of the Sea of Cortés. This will be a scientific asset for others wishing to return to the region.

Amongst all of this activity are the individual research projects of young scientists — graduate students and post-docs — from U.S. and Canadian institutions. It has been very exciting experiencing the ship’s crew, the Alvin group, and the scientists working together in a superbly organized fashion to get all the work done with efficiency and safety.

Now some may think that since I hail from NSF, everyone is on their best behavior. Not so. I got slaughtered in the start of the ping-pong tournament, and I got the new diver’s dousing with buckets of cold water as soon as I exited Alvin. As well, this multifaceted, multi-disciplinary, full-program cruise meets my expectations to a T since I have always heard claims of excellence from the scientists that we support. Most important to me has been the opportunity to see the full suite of activities — from preparing for dives, to working on the seafloor at K2 and Robin’s Roost, to working up samples. This gives me an incredibly valuable perspective as a program director who has to make decisions on the allocation of dive-time for many science projects, as well as decisions about combining multiple projects on single cruises. Thanks to the Alvin group, the Atlantis crew, and the scientists for a wonderful learning experience!