Prepping the cruise equipment

The final preparations for the cruise took place at Leon Pedersen’s workshop in Florvaag. Here the yo-yo camera frame, designed by Leon and Andrew Sweetman, is being assembled and finalised, ready to house the camera system which can operate up to 6000 m deep. The camera system is automatically triggered when the weight is lowered to the sea floor, producing a series of high-resolution images along a transect . See Sweetman & Chapman (2011) for full description of the yo-yo system. 

Yo-yo camera frame, constructed by Leon Pedersen (pictured) and Andrew Sweetman.

The floats, which will attach to the sediment traps in order to gauge the flux of jellyfish particulate matter, have a depth rating of 6700 m, which should be more than sufficient for the depths of Lurefjorden (max. 444 m) and Masfjorden (max. approx. 500 m)! The floats consist of a thick glass sphere encased in a hard plastic shell, and are kept separate in case of implosion.

Andrew Sweetman prepping the sediment trap floats and flag. 

Floats and mooring to keep the glass spheres isolated. Floats produced by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. 

For the sampling of Periphylla periphylla jellyfish within Lurefjorden, two nets were assembled. Periphylla will be sampled in order to gather morphological measurements on board the MS Solvik, and frozen for future jelly fall studies. Small quantities of tissue will be dissected for analysis at the Natural History Museum London, and the National Oceanography Centre Southampton. 

Large sample net, constructed by Leon Pedersen, for sampling Periphylla jellyfish. 

Graihagh Hardinge stitching together a small sample net for scooping out Periphylla jellyfish.