P-MAN XII Progress Report #20 - The side-scan sonar gets a caretaker; the mission starts winding down
10 March 2010

Today was our last day of field work for this year's mission. Tomorrow is an administrative day of running around the country and checking out with all the important people we need to check out with, as well as a two-hour presentation at Palau Community College on the BentProp Project.

Before that, though, we took the side-scan sonar out on the water for some more data gathering. We took Pat Colin (who runs the Coral Reef Research Foundation) along with us. He will be holding onto our SSS equipment until we get back to use it again next year. In the meantime, he may be able to use it for some of the work he's doing in mapping the coral heads around Palau. Not only did we gather information today, but we also trained Pat in how to use the Marine Sonic SSS system.

Paul teaches Pat Colin the ins and outs of the SSS system.

We did a morning session and an afternoon session. Pat Colin quickly realized that this is slow work. Joe has to drive the boat very slowly on a straight course. We pulled the “fish” part of the system behind the boat and tried to not bash it into anything under the water. We were successful in doing so today and we think we gathered some good data for analyzing. Between the two sessions we stopped for a lunch break. Some took a nice dip in the water while others rested.

Some swam.

Some rested.

This is the time of the mission when things start popping up and we don’t have the time to get to them. We received two phone calls today about three possible crash sites. Joe is going to look further into these while we're gone but we are now moving into transition mode. P-MAN XII is coming to end and the planning is already beginning for P-MAN XIII. These three possible crash sites will fall onto our list of things to look at next year.

- Derek 

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