After working overtime performing ocean engineering on Navy projects for the last few months, I was so ready for a break. Timing was ripe when Susan Sember, EISF President, called me up and offered tasking to work on an high definition documentary production covering oceanographers researching the red tide, along with another HD documentary production later in the week, on critical sea grass studies. I jumped at the chance to travel back to Florida; it had been years since I took a boat cruise along tropical shorelines or been immersed in the warm Gulf waters.

The EISF production team returns to Florida for more in-depth investigation into the researchers studying the Gulf of Mexico's red tide. EISF goes into the field with scientists and engineers from the University of Southern Florida (USF) - College of Marine Science  (CMS) and Center for Ocean Technology (COT), Mote Marine Laboratory, along with Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, documenting their collaborative efforts to develop and employ state-of-the-art oceanographic technology to unlock secrets of the red tide's harmful algal bloom.

Dan Powell, EISF's Director of Marine Operations, reports on the Behind-the-Scenes production of this High Definition Documentary Project; voyaging offshore on research cruises, diving into sea grass habitats, and flying over the Tampa Bay area in a helicopter for aerial footage.

It’s always an amazing experience when I show people high definition footage, particularly, when it is their first time seeing this high resolution, immersive format. The wonderment, the awe, the total engagement with the content is so rewarding. Further, the spontaneous and even unsolicited brainstorming that transpires when the viewers recognize the unmatched scientific, education and outreach applications of this very special media is additionally satisfying. These same outcomes occurred with our recent mobile high definition screening at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium. During a marathon week of 18 hour production days, my team and I were also involved in several high definition screenings in Sarasota and Bradenton Beach, Florida. With the assistance of Brian Greene and his “one of a kind” mobile HD production coach, we took the world of high definition, literally, right to the doors of our selected audiences.

It was a grim sight: a juvenile loggerhead sea turtle splayed in a big black tub; curiously still.

So paralyzed by the potent neurotoxins of Karenia brevis, it was unable to lift its head to breathe while swimming. Instead, it lay motionless on a thick pad of foam, kept moist by a fine mist of water, at the MOTE Marine Laboratory’s Rehabilitation Center.

Loggerheads are benthic, or  bottom feeders. They eat shellfish, crabs, and fish – animals laden with high concentrations of Karenia brevis during red tide blooms like the present one. Over 100 sick sea turtles had been brought in last year and now 2006 numbers were rivaling that count: just another example of the effects of this Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB).

Another 15 minutes.

We arrived painfully early at our rendezvous point at Fort Desoto, Florida after a 45-minute drive – having allowed two hours. The sun was barely poking out of the horizon, and all I could think of at that dawning hour on Tampa Bay, was how I could have stayed in bed another 15 minutes.

Scouting the island for coffee (non-existent at this hour) we stopped instead to capture on HD film the golden sun as it rose from behind the Skyway Bridge. A multitude of seabirds danced their stealth ballet at waters edge, seemingly oblivious to the cars buzzing in the distance. It was a spectacular juxtaposition of natural and man-made elements, and reminded me of the permanence of the footprint mankind has placed on the earth.

Join the EISF production team in Florida as they explore the local red tide – a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) caused by the micro-organism Karenia brevis.

Residents and tourists, scientists and entrepreneurs, doctors and politicians are among the people EISF encounters on this quest to unearth the impact and causes of this naturally occurring, but unwelcome, phenomenon.

Writer/Production Coordinator Betsy Crowfoot reports on the production of the High Definition Documentary Project; spotlighting the fascinating and inspiring work being done to preserve Florida’s beautiful Gulf Coast.

Chief Scientist Paula Whitfield popped up from the RIB (the accompanying dive boat to the R/V Nancy Foster) onto the deck of R/V NANCY FOSTER beaming. ‘We hit the mother lode,’ she announced, in her eternally effervescent way.

A record 16 lionfish had been surveyed in the transect – a 10m X 50m swathe of rocky ocean bottom.

But it was bittersweet news. High numbers were good for the scientists’ research, but bad for the environment. Invasive lionfish have a powerful toehold in their new habitat.

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."

Topside research scientist James Morris' excitement is palpable. An earlier lionfish retrieval hadn't yielded what he was looking for: eggs and sperm to fertilize, to incubate lionfish larvae. But now Christine Addison, scientist and diver, proudly hands him a lionfish plump with eggs. She's just brought it up from a 120-foot dive on the reefs off North Carolina where beneath the endless blue waves and rich Gulf Stream waters, is a hidden Garden of Eden of the sea.

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.