Student Statements

U.S. GO-SHIP thanks all of the students who participated on the cruise for their important contribution to collection of this essential global ocean data set, used as the benchmark for accuracy of all other deep ocean observing systems. The training opportunity for students and leadership is an important part of US GO-SHIP’s mission. We are committed to do so in a fair, cooperative and professional environment, ensuring an inclusive, safe and productive climate at sea. We thank the students for their honest reflections on their experiences that are included in this section. We have reached out to those who expressed concerns and are taking issues raised seriously, by working to address and prevent these issues from occurring in the future. We also thank them for their feedback in the anonymous post-cruise survey, which we are using to continue to improve our program. This will include ongoing education for all members of our community to create a more inclusive environment.

Lillian Henderson

As primarily a marine organic geochemist, the research I do on a daily basis involves intensive lab work and wet chemistry in order to isolate individual compounds for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. Because of the time required to prepare each sample, I typically work with relatively small datasets/sample sizes. In contrast, the CFC work I was able to do on the GO-SHIP A22 hydrographic cruise involves very little sample preparation, allowing for much larger collections of data. These larger datasets provide better understanding of the global ocean circulation patterns. Being a part of this cruise provided me an opportunity to learn a new sampling method and analytical technique that I would not have been exposed to otherwise. I learned about the analytical system used to measure CFC/SF6/N2O concentrations and how these data are used. I had a great time getting to know everyone, and I hope to work on another GO-SHIP cruise in the future!

Holly Olivarez

Environmental Studies Program and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)

As a graduate student who statistically models the variability of air-sea CO₂ flux using in situ surface ocean p|CO2| observations, I am very grateful for the experience and perspective I gained from being part of the A22 hydrographic research cruise. From the science to the people on the ship, being here has helped me grow as a human and as a scientist. Even though I have worked in an observational environment before, it was not related to oceanography. The ocean knows no borders and sharing passion and curiosity for this critical system on Earth with fellow scientists and ship crewmates was priceless. I learned of the many ways one small, overlooked detail (either due to inexperience or fatigue) can disrupt or invalidate a rosette full of freshly collected seawater, or how moving a cast time to accommodate dinner for samplers impacts the ship crew, too. I learned about folks who care so deeply about “good” data that they devote their career to the science of taking accurate and precise measurements.

I also learned that those who have been at sea for much of their career, either as a scientist or as a ship crewmate, can teach me more than I’ve learned in any classroom or textbook. I suppose the real challenge then becomes finding the intersection between those who teach in a classroom, who lay the groundwork for future real-world application, and those who teach us in the moment as we are doing the actual science.

My PhD research is based on the simulated Earth system but grounded in real world observations. Without observations, scientists’ simulations of the Earth system would be purely theoretical. This experience has given me the perspective and recognition of real-world observations as the foundation of what I do. This is something I will not forget as I forge ahead in my career. Thank you to all involved in the GO-SHIP project and thank you for the opportunity to be a part of it.

Maya Prabhakar

As a paleoclimate student with a background in geology, moving my fieldwork from land to sea has been a sizable shift. The Thompson, and GO-SHIP, is a great introduction to ocean research. I attended as a CTD watch-stander to better understand how CTD data is collected since I use it often in my research. I have thoroughly met my goal. We, the attending students, have prepped casts for deployment and for sampling, giving us a good understanding of the mechanical workings of the rosette. Monitoring casts has allowed us to see the change in station oceanography in real time and provided good conversations. The limitations of the subsequent data and uncertainties are better categorized in my head when thinking about the datasets I use from GO-SHIP and similar projects. Our graduate curriculum is light in physical oceanography, so being able to ask questions consistently for a month provided a useful learning experience. I am primarily interested in noting the data from the Gulf Stream because I focus on the Arctic and the Fram Strait, which are heavily influenced by the Gulf Stream. This cruise has brought about several questions related to my field of study which I plan to explore when I am.

I have been consistently fortunate to work for, and with, numerous women and racial minorities during school. This is a strong contrast to the ship. I am still fortunate to be working under two amazing women acting as chief scientists during this leg and I have loved being able to ask questions and discuss science with them and the other women on board, but I have run into multiple occasions during this leg where I have been patronized consistently by a handful of people, often on topics I have training and experience in. It has reminded me to be grateful as a racial minority and a woman to work in the labs I do and collaborate with the people I currently work with. It is an unfortunate epidemic in the whole of science, but I note it as a distinct failure of the GO-SHIP cruise.

Being able to actively learn and bring a background of geology to the cruise has been a lot of fun and a welcome change from the zoom learning of a covid-19 world. I have gained numerous skills and insights that will help me navigate future fieldwork and create new discussions in my lab. I look forward to publishing the geochemical data from this cruise.

Victoria Schoenwald

The A22 leg of this year’s GO-SHIP cruise was my first glance into what observational oceanography is all about. I participated as a CTD Watch Stander on the night shift for 30 days which involved long hours of watching the CTD rise and fall into the water while monitoring screens taking real time data from temperature to voltage spikes from the UVP. Being a part of a modelling lab as a graduate student at the UM RSMAS, I would not have had the opportunity to go to sea if not for programs like GO-SHIP. I am grateful that all of the scientists on board were happy to allow new students to become part of their research. When I first decided to pursue a career in oceanography, I was excited about discovering the way the ocean, atmosphere, and land interreact with one another. I later realized that my interests aligned well with global climate modelling and field work would not be part of my Ph.D. experience. From the start I knew that I would want to get back into field work some way or another so when I discovered there were openings to come on the A22 leg I was very excited.

Back in Miami I was researching sea level rise and coastal flooding using global data sets and climate models. Being on the CTD team therefore allowed me to see where some of my data is coming from and how the ocean off of the East Coast of the U.S. has been changing over the years. Besides the knowledge I learned from the science team one of the most rewarding parts of the cruise was getting to know the crew. I enjoyed hearing their stories about travelling, life at sea and gained perspective on careers that I previously knew nothing about. Getting to know more people who love the ocean as much as I do has made this month an unforgettable one. This experience has reminded me why I chose to research the ocean in the first place, and I hope to have the chance to participate in more research cruises in the future.

Ali Siddiqui

To whoever reads this in 10 years

Hi there!

I was a CTD watchstander and the LADCP operator for the A22 2021 GO-SHIP cruise.

If you’re a student reading this, wondering what a watchstander or an LADCP operator experiences in a GO-SHIP cruise, I might not be able to do justice in this short statement. If you’re a PI reading this, and wondering if your students should take part in a GO-SHIP cruise, this statement would only offer a fleeting peak into the experiences of potential students. If you’re just someone browsing through student statements, I hope this one offers you something of value about the lives of GO-SHIP participants. I guess the only person who really needs to read this is Mike Kovatch who’s wonderful job gives him the pleasure to make cruise reports which contain the tired musings of departing students. So, let me be terse.

As someone whose research involves modeling the ocean using computers, it’s very easy for me to forget what the real ocean looks like. The ocean exists in the virtual world with smooth data and exact floating points accurate to the precision of the computer. What the CTD watchstanding taught me was how the ocean really looks like. In person. Or in water ? It taught me the importance of taking accurate, reliable and long-term measurements of the ocean using the CTD. It is very easy to sit in a lab and complain about missing data in the ocean. What this cruise has taught me is the value of recording data during each CTD cast and the amount of hard work and labor that goes into procuring a single vertical profile in the deep ocean. Undoubtedly, I’m going to be a better oceanographer after this cruise, or atleast a more informed one.

As for the LADCP, even though I had read up about the theory of the Acoustic Doppler and its functionality, it was an extremely enlightening experience to operate the instrument on my own. Admittedly, I was very nervous in the beginning but things got better as we performed regular deployments. Processing and understanding the ADCP data was another trick of the trade that I got to learn as we made our way from the Caribbean to the familiar shores of Woods Hole. Hopefully, I will have more opportunities in the future to operate the LADCP.

There are a few of lessons that I will take away from my experience. I hope when someone reads this, they would find them helpful too. The first is about the importance of the ship crew. Without them, no science would ever be done. On the R/V Thompson, the crew was the star of the show in my eyes. They would help us with deployments, carry out maintenance on the ship, feed us, navigate us, and most importantly give us a glimpse into the lives of people who spend half their lives on the sea. If any person in a position of leadership is reading this, I want to acknowledge how important the crew of the R/V TGT was to us and commend them on a brilliant job they did to help us do our science. Another lesson was about the importance of staying patient on the ship. Taking measurements in the sea can get monotonic after a while, and people tend to slack off and become impatient with the process. I realized how important it was to carefully go through each and every step in our deployments, right from preparing and keeping track of log sheets to preparing the rosette for each cast, all the way up to firing bottles at the right depth and eventual recovery and sampling. Even though we get trained in all these exercises, it is interesting to see how much one can learn about an activity each time you repeat it. This brings me to the final lesson worth typing in this statement, which is that of mental well being at sea. The ship is a small space to be in for a month with a bunch of people who you’ve never met. It is very easy to get cranky around mid-way through the cruise. However, it really helps if you have something to occupy yourself with on your time off. Reading books, playing chess or catan and even darts, personal writing, admiring the ocean and the stars on the hammock at the bow, were some of the things that helped me keep myself cheerful. Obviously, this was on top of making friends with some really amazing people on the ship.

If that doesn’t give much glimpse into the mind of a watchstander, then maybe the knowledge that most of us were even dreaming of the CTD and muttering, “Roger that, we are ready to deploy”, should tell you all about the experience.

With hope,

Ali Siddiqui