by Day 3 – R/V Sikuliaq – Kevin Huo
Location: Bering Sea
As I write to you, Outside World, I am sitting in the lab of the R/V Sikuliaq alongside another STEMSEAS student reminiscing silently the days spent aboard this ship. Today is Day 3. The lab is moving up and down, up and down, left and right, left and right, and even at all 360 degrees. Outside the bright blue sky and scattered clouds give us the illusion that everything is beautiful as just below the ocean waves roar at 15-20 feet. Behind the R/V birds ranging from kittiwake, gulls, puffins, and others tail the ship, guiding us along a singular path towards the Unimak Islands which we hope to pass by in the morning. We are traveling at around 10 knots, a total of 898 nautical miles to Seward, their has been varying developments in which we may or may not arrive on time to Seward for our next leg of the journey. But, as several sayings go…”roll with the punches (storm waves)”, “expect the unexpected” these are the few things I keep calming myself with. For me, each day passes quickly with adjustments to this rocking motion slowly becoming my everyday life, I wonder the significance of fieldwork and research; to see how important and difficult it may be, but also how enlightening scientific research can be. The glory of travel is amazing, the journey itself is dangerous, but the end-results of your research are what make all the difference in the end. We are lucky. We are aboard the R/V Sikuliaq, a vessel from which we explore and analyze the world around us.
The R/V Sikuliaq a marvel of the ice-breaking vessels rips through each 15-foot wave that confronts them. The students of this STEMSEAS voyage are fighting a storm and a typhoon on two different fronts, but with science in their hearts they storm ahead. Their vessel of choice the Sikuliaq is a 261-foot research. Every foot is covered with science and adventures. Some of these adventures are documented today, October 5th 2018.
Adrift at sea aboard the R/V Sikuliaq are 11 students. With each wave they surge past, they inch towards their final destination of Seward, Alaska. As of today October 5th, a new day begins. Progress is made within our studies of geology, biology, oceanography, and science communications. Many of the students today engaged in practice of biology, specifically learning from our instructors Anne-Lise and Rachel about the process of analyzing environmental DNA through a device produced by Oxford Nanopore called the MinION. Let it be known, that for the first time in history, today, environmental DNA analysis has taken place aboard a research vessel! Students learned pipetting, processing, and analyzing the data, even while roaring through waves that shook the ship. Much of the results are currently still being processed as I type out this blog. Following the biology lab, we began a discussion on oceanography. With both Nicole and John we discussed concepts ranging from the Coriolis effect to history on the Bering Sea area in which we were voyaging through. Later on, CaT led us in an exercise on examining evolution through everyday materials such as forks, spoons, beans, and paper. Like all days on this trip so far, each day has been an eye-opener as all of us have learned about science, about marine practices, about surviving seasickness, and mainly about experiencing life in whole other part of the world.
