Who makes ECOS possible?

Today was the last day of our June ECOS cruise.  We had another of interesting day sampling on a long transect perpendicular to Long Island, New York.  Our last sample was collected in cold salty water more typical of New England and we captured some larval fish at several stations.  The day deserves description, from it's interesting oceanography to the fin whale we saw rolling toward the north off the tip of Sandy Hook. It rolled into brown water of the Hudson-Raritan river plume that ran between the bank of sand that is the New Jersey coast and the invisible riverbank on its eastern flank made by the north wind and the salty water of the Atlantic ocean.  But I'm too tired right now to process the data required to do the day real justice.

But I want to express my gratitude to Jeff Pessutti.  During all 4 days of sampling the complex integrated equipment and operations worked as smoothly as silk.  That was only possible because of the ingenuity, effort and careful work of Jeff who can take every crazy idea I can think of and make it happen using nothing but bailing wire, duct tape, and a few pieces of equipment, some of it begged for, borrowed, or ...... The ECOS research project could not happen without him. I can say the same about every other research project I've successfully completed over the past 10 years, but this project is technically the most sophisticated.