{"id":231,"date":"2014-07-05T17:18:27","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T17:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/walvis2\/?p=231"},"modified":"2015-03-06T10:25:01","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T10:25:01","slug":"my-experience-on-sonne-so-2341","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanblogs.org\/walvis2\/2014\/07\/05\/my-experience-on-sonne-so-2341\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience on Sonne (SO 234\/1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0By Edison Kapuire<\/em>
\nUniversity of Namibia, BSFA Honours Graduated<\/em>
\nWinhoek, Namibia<\/em><\/p>\n

What I have encountered in this expedition has gone beyond one expectation. Something I am grateful for and will always be. A lot has been learnt in this journey in a short period of time, and in one thought and mind is hard to find what is it that one missed which I can point out.\u00a0 Biological and geological sampling, lab work and lecturers has been practiced and presented in well, humors, organized way one possible may think of. All the Individuals on the SO234 cruise were way to Friendly and their hospitality is beyond imaginable that at one instant one thought they were not human but robots designed to assist one quest no matter how busy they were.<\/p>\n

On the biological perceptive<\/strong>, Trawling with rectangular mid-water net with a closed cod end was done from 400 m to well about 1000m deep. Personally filled the joy I had in helping Adrian setting up the nets, occasionally. Nets were trawled over less than five hours and with a minimum speed possible as the objective of the biological cruise was to preserve the sample in the best possible stated even if they were few. The best possible technology was utilized in ensuring that the net was kept at the desired depth. Fish identification was carried out and an observation of the fish brain was done to greater details, giving thanks to Ron Douglas and Hans-Joachim Wagner (on the study of fish brain) and to Adrian Flynn (fish identification) and Fanny de Busserolles (The eye of the fish).<\/p>\n

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\"Adaptation<\/a>

Adaptation of visual systems in mesopelagic animals to bioluminescence was lectured and observed in details on board (SO 234\/1). Photo: Edison Kapuire<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Trawling<\/a>

Trawling nets being deployed into the sea for mid-water trawling on Sonne (SO 234\/1) Photo: Roland Knauer<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"Some<\/a>

Some of the organisms caught in the trawl net (SO 234\/1) Photo: Roland Knauer<\/p><\/div>\n

On the geological perspective<\/strong>, J\u00f6rg Geldmacher (The master who kept our night shift hilarious and enjoyable, that even at 8 am one wished and prayed it was night time already, a practice one would not which for in any other normal night shift) and Reinhard Werner made it possible for us to pick up what they were doing and why they doing it and before one knew it, one was already a geologist that deserved at least a Diploma if not a Master degree to be fair. Atlas\u00a0 Parasound sub-bottom profiling system and the SIMRAD EM120 echo sounding system were put into great use in locating seamounts on the Walvis Ridge in the range of about 2500m to 3500m depth and a designated point on the seamount was than selected for dredging. The reading of the Parasound and EM120 was done in Shift of two hours, individually, over 24 hours.<\/p>\n

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