Sara Keltie Deep breaths from ocean depths - day 3 The vessel is officially a ghost ship no more as even those who were the most debilitated by sea sickness have finally stumbled upon the perfect cure for themselves and risen from their cabins. Whilst it was a blessing to have more hands hard at work many found it to be less of a blessing to have more hands to challenge for the cakes, biscuits, and other tasty treats kept in ready supply by the hard working galley (aka kitchen) crew. It was great to see them regain their appetites even if it did mean less TimTams for us. Due to the rough weather the decks became an 'out of bounds' area freeing up the crew to focus on work which awaited them inside. Rough, tumultuous seas are an awe-inspiring sight to be held. However quick gazes at the white caps had to sate our appetites as most of the day was spent below decks. As you can imagine rough seas quickly become less of a novelty when you are sitting in a small room with no porthole attempting extremely delicate work! Alas that is the life of a scientist at sea. The focus of the day was on analyzing oxygen and chlorophyll content of water samples taken by the CTD described in the previous post. Chlorophyll is utilized to estimate the abundance of phytoplankton present. Phytoplankton for those of you who are unaware are the microscopic plants of the ocean. These organisms, like trees on land, require sunlight in order to photosynthesize and thus are only found within the top 'trophic' layer of the ocean (<50m). Given that water covers 80% of the worlds surface it should come as no surprise that the majority of the oxygen in earths atmosphere (estimates ranging from 50-70%) comes from these tiny floral species. One can look at is as though every second to third breath that you take comes from the oceans, and is produced by such phytoplankton. As you may now realize its some of the smallest organisms on earth, the presence of whom we are generally unaware of as we go about our daily lives, that are some of the most important organisms on earth. Phytoplankton are in fact intimately connected not only with the lives of creatures that inhabit the seas, but also the lives of those on land; including our very own.