Meet Flat Stan as he suns himnself on the back deck. Flat Stan is a buddy of Dr. Bob Bidigare's from Eastpointe, MI. who asked if he could join us.

Flat Stan learns to drive the ship

Here is Flat Stan taking reading a book and taking a rest if one of the cabins. Yes --the rooms are that small!

Flat Stan is eating lunch. The food was delicious throughout the cruise. The cooks even made a B-day cake for one of the scientists.

Stan is checking out a life ring, A very important safety device while at sea. He can throw it to someone who may have fallen overboard.

The engine room is an essential part of any ship. Be careful!

Stan is checking out the echosounder to see how deep the ocean is.

Stan loves to deploy that CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, and Density). We made over 100 casts this trip to collect water.

Of course, now Stan gets to sample the water from the bottles.

We deployed an optics package that measures various wavelengths within the water. It can help tell us what types of particles (plankton) are there

Once the water is collected from the CTD, it can be further processed using filtration

We filter and filter and filter....

Check out this instrument. It measures the concentration of CO2 in the water. Complicated stuff. Don;t touch those tubes Stan...

Stan is helping measure Chloropyll, a pigment in marine plants (phytoplankton)

Stan hangs out by the plankton nets. Life is good.

Stan also helps us measure dissolved oxygen, a measure of production.

Stan even got to use the microscope. What do you see Stan?

This is actually a lab van. It can be transported from ship to ship anywhere in the world. Note: More filtration racks!