“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.” – JFK.
We still have much to learn about the ocean and the microbes of the deep sea. The data we collected on our most recent cruise in the Gulf of Mexico will bring us a little closer to understanding them. The scientific objective of this cruise was to collect sediment and water samples from six different historic shipwrecks so that we can continue our effort to evaluate the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill on microbes in deep-sea sediments. We collected the sediment cores with a multi-corer, and as you can see, we were all very excited when our cores came on deck with our deep-sea treasure.
At one point in the cruise, we had some Atlantic spotted dolphin visitors who came along, no doubt, to check up on our science.
As we settle back into life at the lab, we are grateful for our time spent out on the sea and for the time we were able to spend with our colleagues and crew. Southern Miss to the Deep!
Click the link below if you would like to see more photos from our cruise.
HamdanLab 