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As the R/V Falkor made its way south past the Grand Banks of Newfoundland this sunny, calm morning, Second/Third Officer Paul Shepherd overheard Chief Scientist Dr. Cabell Davis talking to researcher Melissa Patrician about the sea ahead, which had a slightly rusty reddish hue in relation to the blue sky. Throughout the Falkor’s maiden voyage … Continued

Scientists from the University of Rhode Island working aboard the R/V Falkor’s first shakedown cruise are collecting ocean water samples from the North Atlantic seas between Greenland and Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Gathered using a platform called the Conductivity, Temperature and Depth Rosette (CTD), the water samples are rife with the ocean’s smallest, but most abundant … Continued

As the R/V Falkor continued its maiden voyage across the North Atlantic on Friday, July 20, the Video Plankton Recorder (VPRII) in tow observed a sharp temperature drop off at approximately 30-meter depth. Water above that thermal layer was about 9 degrees Celsius along the coastal shelf approximately 100 miles from the Newfoundland coastline. Below … Continued

The Video Plankton Recorder (VPRII) aboard the R/V Falkor’s first shakedown cruise late Wednesday, July 18 and throughout Thursday, July 19 observed quantities of cold water plankton that increased greatly as the expedition made its way from the central Labrador Sea to the shallower waters of the continental shelf, about 100 miles northeast of the … Continued

Researchers aboard the R/V Falkor, led by Chief Scientist Dr. Cabell Davis conducted a 1:30 p.m. plankton net tow that yielded a variety of species commonly found in North Atlantic waters, including Calanus glacialis, red copepods, and a gymnosome pteropod, sometimes called a “sea angel.” The net tow is a regularly scheduled event aboard the … Continued

The results from our Video Plankton Recorder (VPRII) continue to please researchers aboard the first Falkor shakedown cruise. “We made our daily stop for a CTD cast and a plankton net tow, and the VPR was redeployed easily in calm seas,” said Dr. Cabell Davis, the mission’s Chief Scientist. “With three successful plankton tows for … Continued

Since leaving Newcastle, U.K. we have been running the Falkor’s various acoustic systems constantly to get a full understanding of the vessel’s acoustic capabilities, as well as some test dips of the Video Plankton Recorder (VPRII) – an underwater microscope capable of capturing images of ocean microorganisms and quantifying them. Whilst operating on the continental … Continued