Jonelle collects her samples

Posted by Abby Madeiros
No need for night lights in this berth!

Meet Jonelle Basso, a Marine Microbiology Laboratory Technician and a veteran sailor – this being her 8th trip to collect specimens.

Jonelle may be searching for the smallest organisms in the sampling, but she is a professional at deploying all of the large equipment, CTD, Sipper and Bongos are no match for her.

Jonelle collects water samples from the CTD and completes 2 types of tests on them. She runs a toxicity test using bioluminescent plankton and bacteria to measure how toxic the water is. The less light the little guys give off, the more toxic the water. Since this must occur in a low light area, the berths below ship are the perfect place, so she has her own night lights on board.
Her other test is a mutigenicity test. She introduces 2 strains of E. Coli into the water samples to see if they stimulate phage production.
Both tests help her determine the health of the water.

Jonelle and Tim preparing to deploy the ctd.


Jonelle busy collecting her water samples