Aloha (Goodbye) to Hawaii!

Today is our last day of waking up anytime after 4 a.m.! This time, we woke up at 6 and prepared for departure. It was hard not to try to help the crew cast off, but I realize that I would just get in the way. Better let the professionals take care of it. We motored our way through the shipping section of Honolulu and made our way to the entrance of the port. It was amazing to see the shoreline slip away behind us, knowing that it would soon be out of sight for a long time.

Jennifer, me, and Carrie just before we left the harbor

Immediately after leaving the harbor, we had a safety drill to practice what to do in an emergency. We donned the usual life jackets, but all the newbees on the ship had to also practice getting into our survival suits. These suits will keep us warm and alive in case we fall overboard. They are also called gumby suits because we all looked like giant red gumbys!

Try to figure out which one is me!

We made our way to the lee side of the island so we could practice lowering the rosette into the water. The rosette is an 1100 pound piece of equipment that is lowered by an A-frame crane into the water and sent to a specific depth. 24 bottles are attached and they can be remotely closed to capture the water from a specific depth. We practiced twice without going very deep and then we practiced a 1000-meter drop to collect our first round of samples. Lower the rosette into the water takes a lot of work and at least 3 of the scientists have to be on duty to help. We switched off roles and I was a “tagger” on the final drop. A tagger basically holds onto and slowly feeds out a line that is attached to the rosette to make sure it doesn’t swing too much when it is in the air. We even get to wear hard hats! It took almost an hour to do the final drop because it takes so long to get to 1000 meters.

Once the rosette was back on the deck, we collected our samples from the bottles corresponding to specific depths. I filled my bottles and then prepared my filtration system. On a given day, I will be filtering 40 samples of water, 4 from each depth: 2 with a .8 mm filter and two with a .2 mm filter. Good thing that today was only practice because I seriously messed up!

After dinner, we said our final goodbyes to land. We won’t be seeing any shoreline for another month!

Aloha from Hawaii!

Yesterday, we flew from New Bern to Atlanta to Las Angeles to Honolulu. Long Day.

Today, however, was very different. We woke up to a bright, humid, hot morning. It drizzled on and off throughout the day, but it was never very much. Just enough to cool us down. There must be something magical about Hawaii, but we have seen several beautiful rainbows arching over the city. Most of the undergrads spent the morning playing in the ocean at Waikiki Beach. It’s crazy to think that less than a week ago I was skiing in -6 degree weather and not I am walking down to the beach in my bathing suit and shorts! We didn’t have much time at the beach, but it was just long enough for us to finally feel like we were in Hawaii. After checking out of our hotel rooms, we made our way to the University of Hawaii Marine Center and we caught our first glimpse of the Kilo Moana. At 185 feet, the ship is massive!

We were each shown our room and then we spent some time exploring the ship. It is very easy to get lost among the ever-twisting corridors and random staircases. After a quick meeting with the entire Duke group, we began the task of organizing the lab. I can’t believe that a whole lab had to be shipped to Hawaii, complete with a flow cytometer and many boxes of plastic gloves. One of the most important jobs was tying down all of the equipment. Since the ship will be rocking and rolling 24/7, we needed to strap everything to the tables and walls to make sure nothing would shift around or fall off during the cruise.

At six, we had a full scientific meeting to go over the main goals of the cruise and to make important announcements. We had a chance to meet the scientists from the University of Tennessee who will be joining us on the cruise. In total, there are 17 scientists. All 17 of us went out for a celebratory dinner on the eve of our departure!

Things are quieting down here as people prepare for the voyage ahead and try to catch some sleep while the beds are stationary. Tomorrow will be a new and exciting adventure and I cannot wait to see what the next month holds in store!

Compromise

Today we focused on acquiring real world data about our issue as well as have a chance to explore the proposed development site. First, we took a tour of the waters surrounding Beaufort. We saw dolphins and sea gulls, as well as some beautiful homes and beaches.

After the boat ride we went to explore the wetlands and we took water samples to see what the nutrient levels were. We hiked through Maritime forest along several different trails while discussing the difficulties of developing in this area. Foremost of these problems is the fact that currently, much of the area is underwater and would have to be filled with sediment before construction began. Another very important issue is what to do with the sewage. The ground is super saturated already and it’s almost impossible for the sewage to filter through the ground to become clean again. The best option would be to build a separate sewage treatment plant, but that would be very expensive. We spent a lot of time touring the island looking for different types of treatment centers and/or septic tanks. Fun!

      

When we arrived back at the Marine Lab, we grew cultures of fecal bacteria from our different water sampling sites. By counting the number of colonies, we were able to count how many poop bacteria were in each water sample. As expected, the highest number of little poop colonies was grown from a sample taken from a very developed area (such as a marina). Just something to think about when you go swimming off the coasts of big cities. I’m definitely simplifying the matter, but you can understand the general point.

Later in the afternoon, we met with our whole cluster and had a very intense debate about what we were going to do (oppose the development completely or compromise with the developers). We decided to compromise, but the whole situation wasn’t realistic because all of the people at winter forum actually care about the environment and no one wants to build a hotel on wetlands. The developers decided use super “green” techniques in their construction and limit the size of their plans. Our group, the NGO, wasn’t as radical as I would have expected a real NGO to be. Everything was pretty tame.

Nevertheless, coming from a strictly science background, I learned an incredible amount about the politics behind development and conservation. The whole experience taught me to look at an environmental issue from multiple perspectives in order to come up with a well-informed solution. 

Friends of Carteret County Wetlands

After a tearful goodbye, I boarded the eco-friendly, ethanol-dependent, renovated church bus and headed for the Marine Lab. I was going to Winter Forum, which is a two-day conference that focuses on a specific worldwide problem. This year, it was titled “Blue Devils and the Deep Blue Sea: How can we rescue the oceans?” We were split into 9 groups of 10 students each, with 2 advisors per group. We also formed 3 clusters, which were composed of 3 groups each. Each cluster was presented with a scenario and each group represented a different stakeholder in the situation. Our cluster was faced with a development company wanting to build a hotel and a series of homes on a pristine portion of wetlands located on Emerald Island (about 10 minutes away from the Marine Lab). The developers were met with opposition from a non-governmental organization that protects wetlands and a water quality control group. My group represented the Wetlands NGO, "Friends of Carteret County Wetlands". On Sunday, we met with our groups and were introduced to the problem so we could start thinking about what actions we were going to take. After dinner, we had a humanities hour and President Brodhead spoke about Moby Dick. The way he described it made me really want to read it… and then he told us the ending. Who does that?! I was not happy, but I think I’ll still end up reading the book. Afterwards we had a bonfire with s’mores, even though it was drizzling.

At the end of the night, we played trivia! The first section was all about the oceans (woohoo!), but the second section was miscellaneous (bleg).

Yes, I know what animals make up the phylum Porifera.

No, I have no idea what Snooki named her baby.

Our group of six had a good mix of knowledge areas and we ended up coming in second place!

The perfect surprise

Travel days are long and frustrating. Especially this one. Mom, Chrissie and I woke up at 4, drove to Bozeman, flew to Denver and then flew to Orlando. In Orlando, I switched my bags and got on another flight to Charlotte and then on to Raleigh/Durham. I was supposed to arrive at RDU at 11:30 at night and get a taxi to West campus. The whole idea of an 11:30 taxi ride by myself wasn’t very appealing, so I managed to catch the earlier flight that arrive in Durham at 9 p.m.

I have never been so happy to catch an earlier flight.

Guess who was waiting at the bottom of the escalator?

Nick.

At the end of such an exhausting and hectic day, Nick was the perfect surprise. Especially since I didn’t expect to see him again until May. He drove 5 hours just to see me for one night.

Of course, this meant that we had to say goodbye… again. 

Time for a montage

Having family time in the wilderness (not really) of Montana really makes the days blur together. Some of us were here for almost 9 days while others were here for less than a week. However, it’s not the quantity of the time, but the quality. The super-competitive board games, movies by the warmth of the fire, home-cooked meals and dangerous games of tag on the slopes make every single day the best day ever! I've compiled a short video of some of the highlights of the time on the slopes. I didn’t take many pictures inside, but this should give you a taste of how the Reicherts (and Jacob) handle the slopes!

Starting out with a bang!

I definitely started my new year with a crazy adventure.

Ice Climbing!

Imagine using crampons (a bunch of spikes that you clamp to the bottom of a boot) and an ice axe to scramble up a frozen waterfall. Yes, I spoke correctly. A frozen waterfall. Please don't ask me how a waterfall could possibly freeze, because it still boggles my mind. I just hope it doesn't thaw while I'm hanging on for dear life! This is an annual tradition between me and my dad. Each winter break we spend a day exploring the frozen cataracts of Hyalite Canyon. This time the larger waterfalls were crowded with climbers taking advantage of the holiday. We chose a less crowded, smaller waterfall to practice important skills such as lead climbing, belaying, and self-repelling. Using our crampons, ice axes, rope, ice screws and quick draws, we were able to slowly ascend the frozen stream. Here's just a sample of what this looks like. 

At that point, the camera popped off my helmet and fell down into the snow at the base of the hill. (I didn't fall off, no worries!)

Here's an example of the ground-level view. This time, my dad is lead climbing up to the summit, which involves screwing ice screws into the ice (I know that was repetitive, but I couldn't figure out how else to say it). This is much more dangerous because you have to balance against the ice while you are attaching the next screw. Furthermore, the distance you fall is much larger than if you were attached to something at the top. 

On the way back down, we latched the rope to a line that was already attached to a tree at the top and pray that it doesn't break!

It didn't and we returned home safely. What an exciting day!