August 11th 2026
Location: Primarily Southern Hydrate Ridge
Depth: ~770 m
Seasickness: 0/10
Excited: Definitely!
Times “lost” in the hallways: 3.5
Favorite sighting: Sole fish
As normal, first order of business today was a shift in the Jason van. For some context in case you haven’t perused too much of the website yet, To the left is an image of Jason being deployed into the water with a payload below. Adrian – my shift partner – and I joined during Dive J2-1780 (labels on the current dive code can be seen on the livestream, so if you haven’t checked that out you should!) while the team was swapping out one camera system for another. This overall dive went pretty well, however it had one snafu. This was because the geology in the area is changing so rapidly (quite the opposite of the timeline I generally envision for the sea floor!), a camera setup placed last year had one of it’s legs sunken into a soft depression. This meant that extra care had to be put into placement of the camera to match the old view as closely as possible without being sunken in the depression, which the team handled without issue!
This camera swap portion of the dive ended right about 4 am (my shift end), but since the next endeavor was the methane seep survey I was quite excited about, I decided to stay up and watch. This was in fact the right decision, as we saw loads of really awesome sights. The first of these that was notable – a methane bubble plume coming from the ground (seeping). It was fun to watch the hydrate-encased bubbles rise what seemed like forever into the distance. The bubbles that rise from the site are methane bubbles, which is released in the area due to the subduction of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate under the North American plate and associated geological processes which, like a snow plow pushes ocean sediments onto of the North American Plate. There were fuzzy white bacterial mats that consume the methane seeping up out of the sediment, as well as an orange mat of what seemed to be similar bacteria. We also saw many crab, rockfish, rattail fish, hagfish, brittle stars, and a flamingo left on site by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute several years ago, and lots more!
By the time I had slept some (and very soundly with the gentle rocking of the ship), and come back up to the control van for my noon – 4 pm shift, we were in the middle of Dive J2-1781 – a dive focused on swapping a junction box and some accompanying sensors. This is when I saw my first octopus on the cruise, which was awesome and I hope to see more. Although I did see the octopus, biology wise the best part of this dive was learning about how to identify many of the creatures we see down there – especially learning from Jolee and Adrian how to tell rattail fish and snail fish apart. At the end of the dive, we started the long ascent with Jason back to the surface, which because we started at 2900 meters, took around 2 hours. However, this ended up being great as the Jason crew gave us a chance to learn how to direct the manipulator arms! It was relatively intuitive, however it was still quite difficult – especially to tell where the “hand” was, which gave me an even greater appreciation for the skill that all of the Jason pilots have.
In terms of my favorite equipment of the journey today – (with full admission of bias because I got to use it), was the Jason manipulator mini arm! It was a small scale model of the full size manipulator, and you could freeze and unfreeze it with a button at the end which allowed you to reposition your hold to get a better angle for the complex twists the operators need to make.
August 10th 2026
Location: Oregon Offshore
Depth: ~600 m
Seasickness: 0/10
Excited: Absolutely!
Times “lost” in the hallways: 3
Favorite sighting: The little red shrimp who float by Jason scrambling their legs as if they were not meant to be in water.
Today started off strong, with a very exciting first shift at midnight. I woke up from a nap and went to the Jason control van, where although there was not a dive, I had a very good conversation with Adam, one of the Jason team members. He shared about how through an internship he eventually joined the team, and was also very excited to share an email list where many opportunities are posted for the academic research fleet.
I then went to find the rest of the watch, and learned that we would be shortly doing an ~220 meter CTD cast. This was a great way to spend the nighttime shift, as it kept us busy! Shortly into the shift, we were notified that we would be arriving to the Oregon Offshore site in about half an hour, so it was time to go out and prep the CTD and Niskin rosette. This primarily consisted of priming (securing open) the Niskin bottles, as well as uncapping some of the sensors. Upon arrival, Noah and the winch operator took charge and we watched as the CTD started the shallow dive at the site (220 m). Following lowering the rosette package down to depth and bringing it back up (collecting water samples along the way), we collected and tested the samples. Our watch was involved in bottling and testing for oxygen concentrations, dissolved inorganic carbon, temperature, and nutrients – with the next shift picking up for a few more analytical types.
Upon waking, it was time for the second shift of the day – this one back in the Jason control van for some more equipment turning – where I was mostly involved in video logging for replacing a Digital Still Camera installed in 2025 . We also had a student meeting where one of the crew graciously showed us the basics of using a sextant – which we’ll get to do more of tomorrow which is quite exciting!
After my shift, the day held an random-ish assortment of other endeavors including – decorating cups to be shrunk by the pressure on our next CTD cast, helping collect chlorophyll from the CTD water samples, and learning how to calibrate/check calibration on an ac-s Optical Sensor, which measures the attenuation and absorption of the water – which can be used for a wide variety of things! The next few days are going to be particularly exciting, as there will be a multi hour seep survey including images of an essential fish habitat zone – which multiple people who have been on VISIONS claim is their favorite!
Today the piece of sea equipment I found the most joy in learning about were hydrostatic release units. We saw them yesterday during the safety meeting where we went over the lifeboats where they serve as a backup for if manual release of the lifeboats fails, they activate. This happens when the life boat capsule reaches a certain depth (pressure), which then lift the device that has a pin holding an internal knife edge in place. Once this pin is gone, the knife snaps forward, severing the rope it is positioned with, and releasing the lifeboat or other secured item. I particularly like these because of the simplicity of the mechanical system
August 9th 2026
Location: Oregon Shelf
Depth: 80m
Seasickness: 0/10
Excited: Yes!
Times “lost” in the hallways: 2
The grand VISIONS adventure started yesterday with a splendid van ride down from Seattle to Newport. Arriving in Newport, we hopped aboard the R/V Revelle – the research vessel that will be home for the next week or so! We got a tour around, seeing all of the different labs, the berths (beds), galley (dining), and more. We also got a safety briefing, which was quite fun to see pretty much everyone aboard all together. To cap the night off, we had dinner, played a round or two of Uno, and eventually went out to watch the sunset – with a bonus appearance of the largest flock of seagulls I have ever witnessed.
Bright and early this morning I woke up and went to a fast breakfast. Next up was a tour of the Jason control van, where we learned the basics of how to log different actions such as manipulation, dive start/end, and biology observed – as well how to correctly swap between camera feeds and capturing photos of interesting events. Following this we got an introduction on how to prime the Niskin (water sampling) bottles on the Conductivity, Depth, Temperature (CTD) sensor suite.
During the orientation, we took off from port, guided past danger by the harbor pilot of Newport. Out there, watching him hop back onto a small boat via ladder, I also caught some of the coolest wave formations I’ve seen – long crested wavelets along the side of the ship as we were turning. As we left the safety of the harbor, passing under the beautiful bridge, the boat started to roll, but it was not too rough so nobody got seasick – a great way to start the venture! Later on during the day, we did an abandon ship drill, which included getting into immersion suits – a bright orange waterproof onesie.
Immediately following our foray into fashion, Vector from despicable me would be jealous of, Adrian and I headed to the Jason control van for the first dive. Jason was headed down to replace (turn) a Benthic Experiment Package (BEP), and immediately started to discover a grand amount of life – that is to say the entire package was covered in barnacles, starfish, and anemones. This quickly led to a small issue in that when opening the doors of the BEP to access internals, they could not open all of the way due to all of the animals. Luckily though this just made it impossible to latch it open, so we continued on with the rest of the dive agenda, which went on without issue.
One of the best parts of the cruise so far has been discovering and learning about the level beyond land equipment that is needed for at sea operations. My current plan is to share one of these each day, and because it’s the second day aboard, I have two favorites to share with you. The first is that a large section of the Jason electronics are exposed to the outside. I expected them to all be entirely contained and difficult to access – but instead they are in pressure boxes filled with mineral oil right at the edge of Jason. This helps them withstand the pressure and leads to a visual effect that is reminiscent of steampunk machines – sepia colored and all exposed. In addition to the mineral oil bath, the way that we secure our computers has tickled my fancy. First a non-slip mat goes down, then your computer does – standard stuff. Then the fun really begins and you pull out a drill, and drill right into the table next to you. This is followed up by a set of eyebolts and tying your computer in with string around the keyboard and display.
That is all for the day – I will be back tomorrow with updates from the midnight – 4 am shift, as well as some more sweet ocean mechanisms!