What Happened to Weatherbird 1??

The trip on the Weatherbird was pretty awesome! I was really nervous about getting sea sick while out at sea because I have never been far off shore before, but it was actually really calm and flat. That was definitely the most exciting thing of the week for me because we got the amazing opportunity to have a day aboard the R/V Weatherbird II! There is no other place that would let us spend a day on a research vessel than the FIO course. As an undergrad there are such few opportunities to do things like what we did and I am so happy that I got to experience it. The most interesting thing of the week was probably learning how to work all of the equipment on the ship and what each of them were used for. I had no idea what a dredge or otter trawl was before last week and it was awesome learning all of the methods of collection. The most challenging thing of the week was identifying plankton. I only knew what diatoms looked like, so it was very difficult attempting to figure out what family the plankton under the microscope was in without any background previously. It was a great week overall, though, and I learned so much about the open ocean! Thank you Professor Judkins and everyone at USFSP that made it possible!! :)