The screen is black. Lucie Cassarino has switched off the measuring instruments and spends her days doing other things than research.
French scientist Lucie Cassarino is science coordinator on board Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Normally her days are filled with taking samples – of seawater around the ship, of plankton and other organisms.
She makes sure the scientific equipment on board is functioning properly, and she coordinate science projects both with researchers staying on board for shorter periods, and with universities and research institutions on shore.
But not right now.
– You’re technically allowed to do science in the international water without asking for permits. But then, as soon as you arrive into the economic zone of each country, then you need to have permission for doing science, Lucie explains. You can’t just go there and do whatever you want.
In other waters
Statsraad Lehmkuhl had the necessary research permits for the planned voyage through the Northwest Passage and around Alaska, but ice conditions forced the ship to turn back in the Labrador Sea off Greenland. Now the ship is heading south toward Bermuda and the Panama Canal.
In these waters, the ship has not applied for research permits, and obtaining such permits is no quick process. Lucie explains:
– The permit is kind of like a proposal. You give a summary of the whole project and explain what you are going to do: What type of instruments, what type of samples and exactly how many, and how you plan to preserve the samples you collect, and then how you are going to use the data afterwards.
Authorities want to be sure the work does not harm the environment or interfere with sensitive matters.
– In part of the Mediterranean, for example, we had to turn off our hydrophones and not do any underwater sound recording, because there might be submarines hiding in the area, says Lucie.
Doing other things
There will be no science along the coasts of Canada and the USA, and probably not in the waters around the next port, Bermuda, either.
– Not because our project is not important or because we are doing something bad. It's just because the process of getting permission normally takes very, very long, six months to a year, and we sent our application only ten days ago, Lucie explains.
That gives her time to do other things.
– Do I sleep more? No, no, no, because we are on a ship, and we also have other duties. I still have a lot of office work to do, and now I’m participating more doing work on deck, I stand at the helm, and do fire watch and lookout watch.
Climbing in the rig and handling sails is her favorite, but Lucie enjoys the variation.
– The helm is pretty cool. You know, you’re having the wheel of the ship in your hands. So it’s really nice, but the lookout is really cool as well, because I get a chance to see animals, which I very often miss when I’m in my office.
New experiences
The samples Lucie hauls up from the deep sometimes contain creatures bigger than the tiny microorganisms she normally studies. Like the sea angels that were caught in a net deployed 1000 meter into the deep.
– Another world. So cute. Really, really cute. I was really happy to see one because I've seen beautiful pictures, but never a real one, says Lucie. The lanternfish was a big surprise too. We didn’t expect to catch a fish, and with it we caught a massive jellyfish as well.
Lucie is a biogeochemist, working in physical oceanography. For her, encountering oceanic eddies, enormous rotating systems like underwater tornadoes, was just as thrilling.
– One was going clockwise and one going anti-clockwise. They create a very particular environment for the ocean, and a different environment depending in which direction the gigantic tornado is cycling. So yeah, that was really nice, to cross two of them in a row.
Hoping for two things
As a scientist, she hopes for two key outcomes from the One Ocean Expedition.
– We do microplastic analysis filtration on board. If we can evaluate how much microplastic we have been sailing through, and help to understand where it's coming from - that would be a very nice result. But also when it comes to physical oceanography, just adding our data will help the models that are being built to predict ocean circulation in the future.
Her motivation for being on board is clear:
– Giving good data for people to use, to better understand the world we are living in, see how it changes and why, and then explain, and make a difference. Is that going to save the world? I’m not sure, but hopefully it will make it better.
Collecting data is most important, but doing ocean science under sail also offers another kind of reward.
– It’s great. I mean ... It just feels good, living at sea, being out rather than all day long in front of a computer in an office. You know, it’s not always easy because sometimes you don’t sleep well and you’re far from your family. But overall, it’s, like, pretty nice, she smiles.
