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UW Tacoma students, alumni, faculty and staff aboard Adventuress on Commencement Bay

Aboard the Adventuress

November 19, 2021

Take a deep dive into a research/instructional cruise on Commencement Bay. See science being done on an historic two-masted schooner.

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On the podcast: hear what it sounds like when 20 people measure ocean acidification, examine phytoplankton, look for micro-plastics pollution and check water temperature and turbidity. And then there's the beluga whale sighting!

It’s a crisp morning in early October. The sun is low on the eastern horizon. The world is quiet, save a few passing cars and a handful of people milling about on the deck of the schooner Adventuress. UW Tacoma Associate Teaching Professor Julie Masura is one of those people. The educator is busy double-checking equipment that will be used on today’s research trip around Commencement Bay.

Masura is familiar with the Adventuress. She’s on the board of Sound Experience, the nonprofit that owns the ship, a 133-foot, 98-ton schooner that was built in 1913 as a pleasure yacht for a wealthy silver-mining baron. In 1914, the ship was acquired by the San Francisco Bar Pilots and spent three decades guiding commercial vessels through the Golden Gate. After twenty years of uncertain status and relocation to Puget Sound, Adventuress became the centerpiece of youth sail training, coming under Sound Experience ownership in the late 1980s.

Masura has taken part in a variety of educational programs aboard the Adventuress. This trip is different. A few months ago, Masura and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Cheryl Greengrove got to talking. The pandemic made it difficult for students to get experience working in the field. Masura and Greengrove wanted to do something about that and quickly decided to have groups of students accompany them on the Adventuress to help conduct research.

Masura and Greengrove are noted marine scientists. The pair are currently working together on a project to study toxic algae in Puget Sound. Masura is also doing work on microplastics in the Sound. Both understand the value of “getting your hands dirty” and have come up with a four-hour research crash course that is meant to be hands on, informative and, well, fun.

A group of about twenty current students and alumni trickle down the ramp at the Foss Waterway Seaport Dock. They hand over signed release forms and get their temperature checked and are greeted with a wide smile and a hearty “welcome aboard” from Masura. A few minutes later the ship is unmoored from the dock. The Adventuress’ motor roars to life and the adventure begins.

SS Adventuress at dock, sun rising, overcast sky with sunbreaks

The 133-foot schooner Adventuress first set sail in 1913. During its maiden voyage, Adventuress traveled to the Artic to transport a Bowhead Whale specimen for the American Museum of Natural History. The expedition ultimately failed. Adventuress later helped transport bar pilots to and from cargo vessels near the Farallon Islands. Adventuress is now operated by the Port Townsend-based Sound Experience which uses it as a floating classroom. In 1989, the National Park Service granted Adventuress the status of National Historic Landmark.

  

Commencement Bay, Puget Sound, bulk carrier vessel at right

View of Commencement Bay and downtown Tacoma from Adventuress. Commencement Bay is one of the most active commercial ports in the world. The Port of Tacoma ls located at the southeast end of the bay. In 2015 the ports of Seattle and Tacoma partnered to create the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA). Data from the NWSA shows that the ports handled more than 3 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in 2020. The measurement is derived from the standard length of a shipping container and is used to calculate how many containers a given ship can hold. The NWSA handled approximately $66 billion of waterborne trade with 189 trading partners globally in 2020.

 

Students viewing a marine chart aboard SS Adventuress

Aboard Adventuress, a group receives instruction on how to read a nautical chart. The group learned how to chart latitude and longitude as well as how to triangulate the ship's position. Second from left is Jessica Asplund, '06, B.S. environmental science and current UW Tacoma staff member. To her right is Gibson French, '21, B.S. environmental science. 

 

View of Sea Bird CTD instrument deployed beneath surface of Commencement Bay.

A Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) instrument is lowered into the water. A fluorometer and an oxygen sensor are also attached to the device. The different sensors can be used to measure salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity (solid material in the water), chlorophyll and other "green stuff" like phytoplankton. Combined, these readings help scientists like Masura determine the overall health of a body of water.

 

Oceanographic instruments on the deck of SS Adventuress

A Niskin bottle (left) is a plastic cylinder with stoppers at each end which are used to seal the bottle. Water flows through the Niskin as it is lowered by a rope. When the desired depth is reached a person pulls on the rope which closes the stoppers, trapping water in the bottle, and preventing contamination as the bottle is pulled up. This device allows scientists to study the characteristics of water at a given depth. The Secchi disk, with black and white quadrants, is used to determine how much light is present at a given depth. Generally speaking, says Masura, "more light equals more life."

 

 

Manta net being towed along surface of Commencement Bay behind SS Adventuress.

The Manta trawl, equipped with a large net and named because it resembles a manta ray, collects samples of material floating on the surface of a water body, between two to five centimeters of depth. Greengrove and Masura use this device to measure the ​​​​amount of microplastics pollution that is present at the surface of a particular body of water such as Commencement Bay.

 

Julie Masura and Morgan Heinz watch manta trawl being towed from Adventuress

Masura and Assistant Teaching Professor Morgan Heinz watch as the Manta net trawls behind Adventuress. The device is left in the water for 15 minutes before being pulled back aboard.

 

Sails flaked on boom aboard Adventuress

When fully rigged, Adventuress has seven sails. A 10-year refurbishment of the ship was completed in 2019, just one of a number during the life of the schooner. As a result of the 2019 overhaul, the rigging scheme closely resembles the 1913 original plan. These sails are folded up, or flaked, along one of the ship's booms. Sails weren't used on the UW Tacoma research cruise because of the need for exact positioning for extended periods at certain points in Commencement Bay.

 

 

A sieve holds debris from Puget Sound being rinsed with water from a squeeze bottle.

Associate Teaching Professor Julie Masura uses a sieve and water bottle to rinse material present in the sample collected by the Manta trawl. Note the blue chip of plastic debris to the right of the water bottle tip.

 

Adventuress crew Emrys keeping watch for vessel traffic on Commencement Bay

Crew member Emyrs stands on a boom aboard Adventuress and watches for other vessels in Commencement Bay. If another boat or ship is spotted, the crew member will communicate to the person at the helm, using hand signals, the type of vessel, where it is located and what direction it is headed.

 

UW Tacoma student Kathrine Hackney deploying a plankton net over the side of Adventuress on Commencement Bay

UW Tacoma student Katherine Hackney deploys a plankton net over the side of Adventuress into Commencement Bay. These nets are used to concentrate plankton in a water sample, helping scientists understand the planktonic ecosystem in a body of water.

 

Sound Experience crew member Emma LeValley aboard Adventuress, holding chart describing Ph scale

Emma LeValley, Adventuress crew member and Sound Experience educator, leads a discussion on ocean acidification with UW Tacoma students. The chart depicts the pH scale, a measure of how acidic or basic water is.

 

Person holding an iPhone flashlight behind a jar containing a sample of plankton

UW Tacoma environmental science student Katherine Hackney (black hat) examines a water sample held by Adventuress crew member and Sound Experience educator Steve Grace. Fellow UW Tacoma student Claire Byers uses a light from her phone to illuminate the sample.

 

Secchi disk being lowered over side of Adventuress into Commencement Bay

UW Tacoma Environmental Science student Katherine Hackney lowers the Secchi disk into Commencement Bay. In the background, MaggieJo Baer, '06, B.S. environmental science, instructs Hackney on how to use the disk.

 

Dropping a Niskin bottle over the side of Adventuress into Commencement Bay

Claire Byers, '21, B.S., environmental science, drops a Niskin bottle over the side of Adventuress into Commencement Bay.

 

Students listening to Steve Grace lecture about phytoplankton aboard Adventuress

UW Tacoma student Katherine Hackney and Claire Byers, '21, B.S. environmental science, listen as Adventuress crew member and Sound Experience educator Steve Grace talks about a sample that the students recently pulled from Commencement Bay.

 

Microscopic view of phytoplankton from a sample of Commencement Bay water

A water sample from Commencement Bay is placed under a microscope which is connected to a computer. The disc-shaped objects are a form of phytoplankton called diatoms. Phytoplankton are critically important in the aquatic food web, providing food for a vast array of life, from microscopic zooplankton to huge whales.

 

Students and alumni are instructed on reading a nautical chart aboard Adventuress, on Commencement Bay

A Sound Experience educator instructs Claire Byers, '21, B.S. environmental science, and students Katherine Hackney and Abdullah Alammar on how to read and use a nautical chart.

 

Van Veen sampler poised above Commencement Bay with jaws open

The Van Veen grab sampler is used to collect sediment from the seafloor. Samples are taken back to the lab and analyzed. Scientists can run tests on the samples to determine how much carbon and organic life is present at the bottom.

 

Adventuress Captain Katelinn Shaw at the helm on Commencement Bay

At the end of a full morning of research and learning, Adventuress Captain Katelinn Shaw steers the ship through Commencement Bay, back to its berth near Foss Waterway Seaport. The ship is home-ported in Port Townsend, Wash.
Written by Eric Wilson-Edge
Photos by Eric Wilson-Edge
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