Lionfish Research Mission Log - July 31st

“It’s not all about the divers,” Christine Addison explained as she leapt back aboard the R/V NANCY FOSTER.

It was an interesting statement from Christine, who had just surfaced from a half-hour lionfish survey in 120 feet of water (plus an equal amount of time in decompression). As much as we had been eager to hear her lionfish reports, she had made an interesting point.

Without the dive operations team facilitating with equipment and logistics, and ensuring the safety of the scientists; and without a well-oiled machine like the R/V NANCY FOSTER to carry them 60-miles offshore to the research site; the divers would be like ‘fish out of water’. It would be impossible for them to embark on the kind of extreme diving expeditions necessary to perform the critical survey and collection missions they were undertaking four times each day.

We spoke with Doug Kesling, whose monumental task has been to coordinate and oversee the dive ops aboard R/V NANCY FOSTER. Doug comes from the NOAA Undersea Resource Center (NURC) and has technically trained all of the divers for the ‘extreme’ conditions they would see on the trip.

‘Extreme’ as in long bottom times. ‘Extreme’ as in depths up to 150 feet. ‘Extreme’ as in deploying off the steel deck of a 187-foot moving vessel, in to rough ocean waters and strong currents, with 150-lbs of gear strapped to their backs.

“Safety is paramount; science is secondary,” is Doug’s mantra. He has parlayed a love for SCUBA diving and fascination with marine sciences into a long career that focuses on this type of research and exploration.

Doug remarked that R/V NANCY FOSTER was a well-suited platform for these kinds of operations. Sturdy, long-ranged, self-sufficient; she has compressors, equipment, utility boats and a diver staging area that’s functional, secure, and safe.

So it wasn’t unusual that safety-conscious Doug was standing by when cinematographer Curtis Callaway and I were disembarking R/V NANCY FOSTER to one of the smaller dive tenders, to get a lift back to the Morehead City, NC after five days of filming.

We were scheduled to transfer to a 47-foot US Coast Guard rescue boat.

Transfer, as in transferring funds, or transferring files, is swift. Effortless. But this was intense. Heralding the low dark clouds that were swiftly approaching were rough, choppy seas. Our low-lying tender and high profile USCG vessel handled the swells differently, and tangoed wildly on the sea. R/V NANCY FOSTER Captain James Verlaque instantly called us back to the mother ship, to attempt a safe transfer from there.

We reboarded R/V NANCY FOSTER to cheers – by now the entire crew had lined the deck; even master cook David Fare had left the galley, his apron still on, to observe.

Bags were offloaded and rewrapped in plastic (I think to keep them wet, as everything was already drenched from bouncy ride). The USCG pulled their vessel alongside the massive R/V NANCY FOSTER -- fenders fending, gunwales banging -- but somehow Capt. Verlaque and the USCG managed to hold steady as the crews loaded the massive camera-laden trunks and equipment aboard the lurching deck. The skies crackled with lightening and the first fat drops of rain plummeted, as strapping young Coast Guardsmen steadied us aboard.

Then we were off: on a wet and wild ride back to port, eager to tell the story of our adventure on the lionfish expedition.

Underwater cinematographer Norbert Wu stayed behind to film the final four days of research, and will carry on this email blog. Stay tuned for Norb’s dispatches from the R/V NANCY FOSTER.

Signing off – Betsy Crowfoot