First day of diving

Today we dove to retrieve miniDO2T sensors at 3 sites.  At the first site Brock also installed a new CTD.  At the second site Charlie got a bit distracted from the task at hand when a dolphin zipped by while he was working.  He managed to film it with his GoPro camera.

Once we were back at our home Brock downloaded the data from all three miniDO2Ts.  They had been deployed for 6 months.  Unfortunately one of the miniDO2Ts had lost the membrane covering the sensor about 2 months into the deployment.  So while it recorded the water temperature for the entire 6 months, the dissolved oxygen was only recorded for those first two months.  

After the data was downloaded it was backed-up several places so that Fio could maintain her record of never having lost data.  Tonight the sensors are being soaked in vinegar to clean them off.  Tomorrow morning we will replace the batteries and tape them up.  Taping up the exterior of devices being deployed in the ocean is standard procedure on items you want to re-use.  This way all the things that settle are on the tape which is then removed.

Below is a photo of the three devices getting their overnight vinegar soak.

miniDO2Ts being soaked in vinegar to clean sensor