FEATURE
Chris Malinowski started his summer in Fort Pierce, focusing on his graduate research: the feeding habits of wild dolphins in the Bahamas. That is, until an e-mail came along.
Scientists at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI), FAU’s marine research campus in Ft. Pierce, sent the early July e-mail. They were recruiting students for the last leg of a month-long expedition to explore the gulf for potential effects of oil.
“To work on the research vessel is something I’ve wanted to do since I came to FAU,” said Malinowski, a graduate marine biology student. “When the opportunity came along, I decided to jump on it.”
From Aug. 2 to 9, Malinowski and six other grad students got academic credit for their work in the Gulf, finishing up the research expedition known as Florida Shelf Edge Exploration (FloSEE).
According to Dennis Hanisak, a research professor and Director of Education Programs at HBOI, the goal of the trip, which was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was to conduct a time-sensitive expedition to assess the potential impact of the BP oil spill on Florida’s ecosystems.
Timeliness was important, according to Hanisak, because once oil gets to the region, scientists can look at what it looked like previously and better understand any change that may have occurred. Without such research, BP could claim that the region was damaged before the oil even got there.
“We hoped to establish a baseline of conditions before oil impacts reached shelf-edge reefs in the eastern Gulf of Mexico,” Hanisak said.
HBOI led the expedition, but it contributed more than just leadership to the trip. It provided the Research Vessel Seward Johnson, a 204 ft. research ship. The science team in the gulf examined reef systems and other deep sea-life.
“A lot of sponges and corals were brought up to look for potential cancer-fighting properties,” said Malinowski. “The submersible research that occurred focused primarily on the bottom layer [of the Gulf] and that is particularly important to the way everything in the ocean is able to survive.”
Malinowski and the other scientists of FLoSEE were picked up by the Seward Johnson on one of six stops on Florida’s west coast that picked up new passengers and supplies. The ship also brought the Jonhson-Sea-Link II (JSL) out to the Gulf in order to be able to conduct underwater studies. This submersible, or small submarine, holds 4 people and is generally used to collect deep-sea samples of marine life.
The submersible went down twice a day for three and half hours, according to Lorin West, a marine ecology graduate student.
Diving in the JSL was Malinowski’s most memorable part of the trip.
“I don’t think a lot of people get to experience this; it was definitely a dream.” Malinowski pointed out that he was able to “see things first-hand which you would normally not be able to see or see only through a TV monitor,” like deep-sea life.
West agreed with Malinowski about the dives.
“It was great. It’s one of the best, if not the best, trip of my life,” she said. “I mean, how many people get to go down in a submersible?”
West also enjoyed Malinowski’s company.
“Chris was great. He was funny,” she said. “When there’s downtime, we goofed around a lot. It was nice to have someone like him.”
During this downtime, the crew made time to watch a few movies, including Anchorman and Superbad.
“We were going to try to watch The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but [someone] stole the copy that was on the boat,” said West
The cruise was originally scheduled for May 2011, but was pushed up due to Harbor Branch’s selling of the Seward Johnson to Cepemar, a Brazilian environmental company with an office in Boca Raton. Cepemar agreed to postpone the ship’s delivery to Brazil.
“We were very fortunate to get permission from FAU and Cepemar to use our ship and submersible,” said Dennis Hanisak.
According to Hanisak, students can expect trips like this to happen again in the future despite the loss of the Seward Johnson.
“Education is all about providing opportunities,” he said. “For students interested in marine science as a career, I cannot imagine a better thing that I could do to provide an opportunity.”
Chris Malinowski was at a loss of words when he tried to sum up his experience.
“It’s always kind of difficult to wrap up an entire trip,” he said. “The entire thing was a unique experience and incredible.”
Get immersed!
Harbor Branch offers students a watery semester
The Semester by the Sea (SBTS) program, offered by Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI), FAU’s Ft. Pierce campus, is a semester-long program that is focused on marine biology.
“Students get to do their own mini-thesis and work with teachers basically one-on-one,” said Lorin West, a marine ecology graduate student. “They spend the whole semester at Harbor Branch and underwater.”
According to Dennis Hanisak, director of education programs at HBOI, “The recent trip to the Gulf is not part of SBTS, but the two “share similar concepts.”
“SBTS is a good program for undergraduates interested in this career path (and many of those students go onto grad school, or teaching/research/agency positions),” said Hanisak, “The last two years we did short cruises (2 days, 1 night) for the SBTS students.”
The next program is slated to start on January 11, 2010 and will run through May 5.
West encouraged students to take advantage of this little-known treasure.
“A lot of people down in Boca forget that we have this campus.” She said.
To learn more about the SBTS program, email [email protected].
There’s money in oil
BP funds FAU-led research
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI), FAU’s northern marine research campus, is spearheading three BP-funded projects in a national effort to study the effects of the BP oil spill.
FAU is involved in four of the 27 research projects selected by the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO) Council. The 27 projects were approved out of 233 proposals set forth by various research groups.
The projects range from determining the effects of the oil on reefs and coral to its effects on marine life, like plankton and sharks.
[Source: www.fau.edu]
