Photos

Please use the navigation buttons on your browser to return to the photos main page.

The gang is going fishing......jellyfishing.  

One of the more common jellyfish species in the Gulf of     Mexico is the 'moon jelly' Aurelia aurita.

   This is yet another large jellyfish which hasn't been        described in the Gulf of Mexico until this year. The scientific research partly is trying to understand why this year is so unusual for new species.

This species has been identified as Drymonema            dalmatinum. The largest we've collected was 61 cm across the bell. Others we've seen are as large as 1 meter across. These jellyfish make for interesting habitat for  many fish (see them schooling around the animal?). This jellyfish is actually upside-down.

Mmmm. Diet food.

Tonight is movie night.

This is our high school student, Julianne McDonald,  hard   at work with her chlorophyll samples.  

A garbage pail, couple of nets and good old fashioned       teamwork is the best method of obtaining large Drymonema samples.

Yes!  We got one!

This is a C.T.D. instrument, which measures the            conductivity, temperature and depth of the water, along  with providing us with valuable water samples from specific depths.  

The C.T.D. in action.

This is the single most beloved man on the boat,               Kelly the cook. 

His singing was scaring away the jellyfish, so we gave him    a sucker to be quiet.

Two of our intrepid researchers, Fennel and Meg

It's really hard to focus on finding jellyfish when you have dolphins swimming around. 

This is the chamber were we measure the respiration rate of Aurelia. 

Look Ma!  I'm ready to play with jellyfish!

This is another species of jellyfish common in the Gulf of Mexico, the Cannonball Jellyfish (Stomolophus meleagris). 

There was a spider crab, Libinia dubia, found associated with this cannonball. 

Our chief scientist, Dr. Monty Graham, is measuring the bell diameter of this cannonball.  

Here Dr. Graham demonstrates the aerodynamics of jellyfish. 

Oh No!  Who let Fennel drive?

This is our spotter plane, Dr. Vernon Asper, who helps find jellyfish congregations from the air.  

We found a mass hundreds of Aurelia right along this tidal boundary.