NOAA Teacher at Sea
Our Year in Blogs
Our Year in Blogs
In 2014...
Our 29 NOAA Teachers at Sea wrote 150 science blogposts that included over 3000 photos and 10 short video documentaries. These posts reached 160,000 people from 175 countries around the world.
Most Read Author
Kimberly Gogan (NH)
TASCast BoxCore 2.0 by Kainoa Higgins (WA)
Most Viewed Video
Top Ten Posts
My love of being on the ocean continued into my teenage years where I worked on a lobster boat as a stern person for many summers. Lobstermen are not fair weather workers and I quickly learned what it meant to work hard and be tough. We were up before sunrise and worked long hard hOurs. Rain or shine, we were on the sea. In my college years I worked at a boatyard scraping barnacles off docks and painting and fixing boats. The ocean is in my blood and I feel a strong connection to it. I am so excited and looking forward to be spending a month on a ship at sea.
--Kimberly Gogan
--Kimberly Gogan
In just a little over two weeks, I will be leaving the green, flat fields of the Midwest to board the NOAA ship Oregon II and sail out of Pascagoula, MS! This is a wonderful opportunity to work with a scientific research team to learn what lives below the water and to bring this back to my students. I am honored to have been selected as part of the 2014 NOAA Teacher At Sea class and look forward to this exciting adventure. While on the ship we will be doing a summer groundfish survey. I am really looking forward to finding out more about this groundfish survey. We have been learning about the food web, so my students will be interested in learning about this too!
--Carol Schnaiter
--Carol Schnaiter
In this picture you can see a GOES satellite antenna (square white one) that is used to transmit tide data ashore and a GPS antenna (the small white eggs shaped one) that provides the tide gauge with both position and UTC time.
--Denise Harrington
Photo by Barry Jackson
--Denise Harrington
Photo by Barry Jackson
The Pisces is a large ship, but it is not until you move around on the decks that you realize how much space is needed to carry out all of the diverse series of scientific operations. The Pisces is equipped with a hydraulic crane with the ability to lift 10,000 pounds, which is needed to raise and lower science equipment and remove and replace the gangway, the walkway needed to board and get off the ship while it is docked. The ship also has a giant spool called a net reel where they store the fishing nets used for trawling missions and a series of winches with thousands of feet of wire to lower scientific instruments into the depths of the ocean.
--Spencer Cody
--Spencer Cody
NOAA has the best and brightest scientists, cutting edge technology and access to the wildest corners of the planet we live on. And I have got the most amazing assignment: mapping coastal waters of Alaska with the best equipment in the world! NOAA Ship Rainier is “one of the most modern productive hydrographic survey platforms of its type in the world.” Rainier can map immense survey areas in one season and produce 3-D charts. These charts not only help boaters navigate safely, but also help us understand how Our ocean floor is changing over time, and to better understand Our ocean floor geology and resOurces, such as fisheries habitat.
--Denise Harrington
--Denise Harrington
After falling in love with the manatee, I wanted to learn more about the oceans. I researched on my own, read books, and even attended Marine Science camps during the summers. I did not have the opportunity to see the ocean until I was in High School, but as soon as I saw it, I was drawn in. I knew that I had to study Marine Science.
--Jamie Morris
--Jamie Morris
The dorsal fins are equal size. They suck their food in and crush it. Nurse sharks are very feisty. See the attached video of Tim, Lead Fisherman and Trey, Scientist, holding a nurse shark while measurements are being taken.
The skin of nurse sharks is rough to touch. Incidentally, all types of sharks’ skin is covered in dermal denticles (modified scales) which is what gives them that rough sandpaper type feeling. If you rub yOur hand across the shark one way it will feel smooth, but the opposite way will feel coarse.
--Jennifer Goldner
--Jennifer Goldner
There is a donut in the Bering Sea? Well, not exactly, but there is “The Donut Hole”—let me explain. The Western side of the Bering Sea, out to 200 miles from shore, is Russian territory, and the first 200 miles offshore on the Eastern side belongs to the United States. The section in-between, which lies 200 miles out from the coastlines of both countries, is known as “The Donut Hole,” and is considered international waters. This area comprises 10% of the Bering Sea.
--Johanna Mendillo
--Johanna Mendillo
If fish are located through acoustics, the ship will break transect (a mark is made on the map) and the ship will circle around and a sample of the population is taken by trawling. The population of pollock can then be mathematical calculated. After trawling, the ship will return to the break and continue along the transect line.
--Julia Harvey
--Julia Harvey
My experience aboard the Oregon II has given me a better understanding of the vulnerability of some shark species. While many of us may think that sharks can be threatening to humans, it is more accurate the other way around. Sharks are more threatened by humans than humans are threatened by sharks.
--Maureen Anderson
--Maureen Anderson
Thanks to Our teachers and supporters for making the 2014 Teacher at Sea season such a success. We look forward to a tremendous 25th anniversary year in 2015!