Two days ago we had so many expectations about making Video Assisted Multi Sampler (VAMS) dive on the Southern Madagascar ridge, but the weather wouldn’t cooperate.
Rough conditions prevented the planned deploy due to windy conditions, although the sun was shining in the blue sky. The sea was very rough (see image below) and is still the same.
Nevertheless, the less than optimal weather conditions have provided us an opportunity to continue with our series of interviews with female scientists onboard the Nansen.
Asma Damon is from Cape Town, South Africa. She is currently in her first year of a Masters degree in Marine Biology at the University of Western Cape.
Her interest for marine science began when she was very young, playing in the rock pools at the beach as a child and wanting to know what was crawling around.
This is Asma´s first cruise and she hopes to get some results from benthic samples, especially from the Walter Shoal area (we’re getting to this area later on in the cruise), to use for her thesis.
Asma has learned that the weather and sea state plays a crucial role for a scientific cruise, and is a little disappointed that we haven’t been able to get any benthic samples so far. Despite the disappointment, she enjoys learning the procedures of fieldwork and expanding her knowledge into oceanography through CTD stations and other samples.
Learning new things is what excites Asma the most about the work. For the future she hopes to complete her Masters and then get some work experience before possibly pursuing a PhD. We wish her continued success in her studies.
27/07/2015