We departed Nasketucket Bay early in the morning bound for our first otter trawl spot of the day off Dartmouth when we discovered Erica Sachs, one of our mates, had an eye injury. We decided to make a stop back in New Bedford and dropped her off in the hands of Polly Zajac from the office staff to go and check it with a medical professional. Since we had more than enough licensed crew aboard, we continued on out of the harbor again on our way but stayed in touch by phone to look for a rendezvous point later in the day.

On our way once again, we motored to the mouth of the Slocum's River where the Paskemansett flows out for sampling, otter trawl and plankton tow. This data may be a useful tie in to the work of the institute last week at the Lloyd Center and other sites on the river.

You can see the skate that came up in this tow and the keying out process underway to analyze the plankton tow.

After the tow was aboard we continued on a few miles further to anchor off Gooseberry Neck in Westport where we were able to get Erica back aboard again by rescue boat. This anchorage is uncomfortable due to the swell coming around the Neck.

Our final destination today is High Hill Point anchorage in the Sakonnet River.

After the work was done and we came to anchor we had a swim call with Laurie Weitzen, our steward and volunteer coordinator (and lots of other things) in the water for a refreshing end of the day dip. Even the captain got a quick scull in with one of the dories (he does have the blisters to prove it)

Captain: Gregg Swanzey
Project Director: Alan Lee Hankin, PhD
Program Coordinator: Crista Mellican

You can access more images at John Wall's website at   http://users.massed.net/~wallj
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Funded thanks to a grant from the Department of Education and in partnership with the Westport Community Schools.