Mission Logs from NOAA research vessel R/V Nancy Foster in its expedition from July 27 to August 4, 2006.

Betsy Crowfoot, EISF's journalist, participated in this exciting voyage to investigate the Indio-Pacific red lionfish invasion into U.S. Atlantic coastal areas.  Betsy posted Blogs "live" daily to inform us about her at-sea experience and new scientific discoveries from this mission's research.

Life aboard a ship at sea is dictated by unfamiliar parameters.

There are strictly adhered to boat deployments and dive times. Emails come and go twice a day. There's a dress code (no flip flops; no tank tops in the mess hall). And the most precisely planned and regimented things are meal times, by which everything else is planned. They are chiseled in stone.

With all of this under our belts, we tackle Day 2.

Curtis films the early morning (0630) plankton tow: a search for lionfish larvae, while Norb readies for the first dive of the morning (0730) - a survey of lionfish on one of the earlier identified research sites - along with a side by side comparison of HD (high definition) vs. SD (standard definition) footage; or as he puts it "jumping off a two-story building with 600 pounds of equipment."