August 23, 2004
Jon’s Journal: Day 17 (Part 1)
BY: Jon Warrenchuk
August 15, 2004: We’re sinking! But don’t worry, I’m in Woods Holes’ famous Alvin submarine, and sinking is exactly what it’s designed to do.
We’re descending 3/4 of a mile beneath the sea to a rocky slope on Pratt Seamount in the Gulf of Alaska. Our pilot is Bruce Strickrott, an experienced sub pilot with over 150 dives under his belt. Crammed into the starboard is Peter Etnoyer of Aquanautix, and yours truly, Jon Warrenchuk of Oceana is on the port side.
The trip to the bottom will take about 45 minutes, so there’s time to listen to music and wonder at the bioluminescent plankton. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which would have been absolutely perfect for the occasion. My sub-mates try to put on Rush, which I quickly kibosh, and we settle on some ambient house music.
I stare out the porthole, hoping for a glimpse of a sperm whale or giant squid or something equally rare and undocumented. I don’t see any, but nonetheless, the bioluminescent jellyfish, salps, and marine snow drifting past the porthole are interesting to watch.
When the seafloor looms into sight, it’s very surreal. Here we are, on the bottom of the ocean, millions of tons of water pressing down above us, and I’m wearing my favorite bedroom slippers. Bruce takes a moment to make a few calibrations and then we’re off, cruising upslope in a search for deep-sea corals for the biologists and pillow basalts for the geologists.