15 June 2013 Science, Setbacks, and Velcro

Journal

Kristin O'Brien, Paula Dell, and Lisa Crockett watching Fish SPy — As you can see, the weather was a bit foreboding. Kristin O'Brien, Lisa Crockett, and I are watching the live feed from the Fish Spy. We had to put the dvr monitor in a baggie to keep it dry.

First I should say that the Fish Spy has performed fantastically! She has done what she was built for - spy on the world beneath the surface. Having said that, we have hit some unexpected obstacles of which we have no control. But fear not - our little Fish Spy has a lot of work to do before I head back North.

Fish Spy power box secured to a vice — Matt, one of the marine techs, figured out this clever way to secure the power box inside safely so we could stand outside and watch the footage and keep an eye on how things were going. In the background is Kevin, an electronics technician on the Laurence M. Gould grabbing a wrench so we could adjust the camera angle.

If there is one thing that is a common thread in science, in most successes too, if you think about it, it is setbacks, failure, and perseverance. Very little works like a charm and exactly how you want it the first time around. Think about it. Abraham Lincoln lost 8 elections before winning one. He ended up doing alright for himself. 16 publishers rejected The Diary of Anne Frank. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Many an invention or discovery were discovered by accident but most by hard, repetitive, and persistent work. (Is repetitive and persistent redundant?) Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying we have had to switch gears a bit. Due to unforeseen circumstances on the ship, we were not able to go to the original fishing grounds that our Fish Spy was designed for so we had to launch her in waters that turned out to be too deep to reach the bottom. We did see lots of marine snow (look that up as your new fact for the day) and in the process learned that our Spy was up to the task snooping down below. We attempted to launch her in shallower waters on the way back to Palmer but for various reasons, the Captain felt this was not possible. Sooooo, that brings us to today. The amazing marine and electronic crew on the ship are as excited about this project as you and I are and have done an awesome and almost miraculous job at getting her in the water. I'll talk more about the specifics tomorrow on what ingenious and exciting things the crew has done to make this project work. Now for velcro (which by the way was first conceived when the inventor was returning from a hunting trip and noticed how the burrs stuck in his dogs fur. And it took a few tries and combos to get it right.) Got it right, they did! Turns out that velcro holds up like a champ in the cold, seawater. No kidding. We used velcro as an added support to keep the added weights in place. Who knew??