We loaded up the Spree with many thousands of pounds of food, fuel, crew, and 20
scientists hot to count fish. This is a mission we perform every 2 years on
behalf of NOAA with scientists/fish ID experts from FFWCC, University of Miami,
NOAA, National Park Service, and other government agencies from all over the
southeast United States. We left Stock Island on the 13th of May at 1130 PM,
arriving at Dry Tortugas at 0700. Seas were 5-8's out of the Northeast, wind was
blowing like a 2 dollar hooker, and we needed to get to work. The wind would
blow on this trip for 8 out of 10 days at a wind speed of greater than 15 knots.
One of the nice things about the Tortugas is that there are islands to hide
behind, and we are not restricted to the limitations of our commercial charter
permit. We dove in the park the first 4 days.
Lots and lots of research is taking place in the Dry Tortugas National Park
right now, including fish tagging and trapping by the FWC, coral surveys by the
FWC, oil spill monitoring by the National Park Service, and the fish census. We
spend a lot of our time working around other research boats and trying to stay
out of their way. We had a load of new faces for this leg, including a few who
had never been to Dry Tortugas before. Many had never been on the Spree, and
wondered how I was able to drop off and pick up divers like we were in a 1 foot
Boston Whaler. 12 years of practice, I suppose. Anyway, being behind an island
does not make the wind blow any less, but does cut down the seas. On some days
we had limitless visibility, and on some days the vis was 15 feet. Out on the
bank the current was howling with the new moon, in the park it wasn't so bad,
but the bottom was stirred up. Water temps were 82 on the surface, but 71 at
depth.
The oil spill was on everyone's mind the whole time. I am afraid that this thing
will turn out to be a disaster of biblical proportions, and has every chance to
destroy life in the Gulf of Mexico and along the gulf coast. I can't really
blame anyone, as the cause is America's huge thirst for oil products, but when
this is over, our grandchildren will still be feeling the effects. We were
tasked by National Park Service and NOAA to note on our data sheets the absence
or presence of oil or tarballs. We didn't see any, of course, that can wait
until the June cruise, but we watched the news and the talking heads every
night. We had a bet each evening as to whether the spill would be"worse than we
imagined" or "not as bad as we thought". Sadly, the talking heads were worse
than we imagined most nights.
On a upbeat note, on day 2 we found a young female loggerhead turtle trapped in
a lobster trap buoy. We threw 2 snorkelers in the water to assess the general
health and well-being of said turtle. We found the pot warp wrapped around her
neck about 10 times, as well as being heavily involved with a back flipper. She
was going to stay wrapped up for a long time on her own, especially when pot
warp doesn't rot. We used EMT shears to cut the rope from her neck, and she
skedaddled on out of there I don't know how long she had been tied up, but she
could hardly breath, and couldn't eat at all. I wonder how to tell if a turtle
is skinny?
We had a weather break on day 5 and 6, so we headed for the bank. The corals
seem to have survived the winter well, and there were no lionfish to be found (woohoo).
We did see lots of the commercially valuable species in the protected areas, not
so many where fishing is allowed.
I think it was a successful trip, and I've never worked harder over the course
of 10 days. We have an extra day off in port, and plan to use it wisely,
sleeping.
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