10 Days of Italian Sampling Coming to a Close

Tuesday July 20th

On July 16th we finished our Straits of Messina sampling and headed into the Ionian and Adriatic Seas.  We sailed overnight and collected our Ionian Sea sample,  we continued  northeast and  on July 18th we collected our Adriatic Sea sample.  After we collected the Adriatic Sea sample we turned around and headed back to the Straits of Messina to resample the south entrance on July 19th.  We proceeded through the straits directly to Ponza Island where we anchored tonight July 20th.

We have never really resampled a site in the same exact location a few days later, the profiles above are from the same GPS coordinates and the same time of day 3 days apart.  The fluorescence, Oxygen, and salinity look very similar but there are some slight differences in temperature down the water column.  These two samples could be very interesting to compare once they have been sequenced.

Since we entered Italian waters on July11th we have collected 24 samples from 11 different sample sites.  It was a very busy 10 day but a very successful!  We collected samples in all the different bodies of water and unique environments as we had planned.  One of the reasons we were so successful was due to weather.........we had calm winds and seas the entire time which made sample collection very easy, and made overnight passages possible (we only anchored 3 nights in 12 days).  Below are some pictures of the seas we had during different legs of this trip, sometimes it felt like we were on a lake it was so calm!  Tomorrow we sail the 50 miles to pick up Dr. Venter and do some Italian media events.