On October 31 we went out with a group of researchers and students from UNB Saint John on the Fundy Spray to collect sediment and water samples (we didn’t wear costumes… unless you count the mud that covered me). This was my second time on this boat in the Saint John Harbour for research purposes. It can be a bizarre feeling to be out on the water looking toward the city, instead of looking out to the water from uptown. To see uptown from the water’s point of view while the sun was rising behind it felt pretty special.

The UNBSJ researchers were taking sediment grabs from the ocean floor which are going to be analyzed three separate ways. They will be analyzing sediment for contaminants, microplastics, and invertebrate communities. To have so many different types of data from each one of these sites in the harbour is great! It is always very energizing getting to work with a group of people who are passionate about doing good aquatic research, even when it means being wet and cold and muddy for 8 hours.

ACAP was invited to collect samples on the Fundy Spray, so my colleague Bailey and I collected subsurface water quality data as part of an ECCC Atlantic Ecosystems Initiative grant administered through COINAtlantic. In the video below you can watch Bailey and Jon (MSc student) help sieve sediment to isolate invertebrates and clips of us collecting the water samples. We now have water quality data on 13 sites from this sampling (temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, phosphates, etc.).

Field work is always exciting, but is even more so when I get to be on the water… and even MORE so when it’s Halloween. Stay tuned for more boat sampling to come this month.

Cruising toward our first site at sunrise

Lowering the Van Dorn water sampler into the water

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A Maritime NGO in Poland

My Summer at ACAP - Cristian Estrella