March 6, 2022
Our final deployment was Mesa Yellowfin from San Diego Mesa College. In less than two weeks I’ll be back home in San Diego myself. I’m lucky to see the ocean frequently in my daily life, but without any coastline, the sea here almost looks like a separate entity. It seems desolate, empty. But beneath us is an even more foreign world with “forests” of tiny phytoplankton and submerged mountain ranges. Each SOCCOM float provides us a tiny but crucial window into this world, which is more intimately connected to our own than it feels from out here on the deck of the R/V Sarmiento de Gamboa. I’m proud to have contributed, through this cruise, to the opening of six new windows.
– Channing
Mesa Yellowfin decorated and ready to go! Photo and illustration by Channing Prend.
On deck preparing to deploy Mesa Yellowfin. Photo by Channing Prend.