Up Muddy Creek...

 ...With a paddle, fortunately.

I had a field sampling effort today, as part of my project relating to the carbon cycling in the Bay in conjunction with some other scientist.  This is my crew for today, Whitman, a fellow investigator, and Jen, who is a summer intern working for us on this project.   I'm driving the john boat and taking the pictures.


Click the pictures to enlarge.

 We were headed up Muddy Creek to measure CO2 concentrations in the water.  We passed by mama Osprey still sitting on her nest out on an abandoned gauging station in the back of the Rhode River

 A view of the Kirkpatrick Marsh, one of the places we work at.  You can see two other people on the project there, Amanda, Whitman's tech, and Kiersten, another intern.  I think I can even see which one is which.

Some eco-trash at the back of the river.  In the foreground, a float holding some oysters which are part of Whitman's and my study, and in the marsh behind, the long-term CO2 enrichment site.  The white pipes sticking up are "snorkles" that catch fresh air that is amended with CO2 to find the effect of enriched CO2 on the marsh.

Part of our apparatus, that I fondly call "Whitman's Bong",  It's function is to equilibrate air with the water, so we can measure the CO2 in the air.  It would make a pretty good water pipe with only minor modifications, though.

Going up the creek.  It's really shallow, and the tide was dropping (yes, that was the plan), and I started to kick up mud pretty bad with the motor.  We got up a little farther than the station you see up there, before I got the boat pretty well bogged down.  We started taking discrete samples up at the top, and on our way back, using the paddle as necessary.

His legs aren't that long....