Plume Incoming and a landmark dive.

Every year the dive season starts as soon as we can get here after winter, until a large plankton bloom gets swept under the ice and the visibility drops to the point where we have to stop diving. This always happens around Dec. 10 - but this year it came early.

We thankfully got a brief reprieve from the plankton but the visibility dropped from 100s of feet to much less than that overnight (like the photo above - still good vis but not AMAZING). This does impact our diving and each day we evaluate the situation to make sure we can continue to work.

In some ways it is actually kinda nice - more green hues instead of blue. But it is more ominous than anything else. Always the way things change are a surprise and we did not expect this.

Still - there is soo much pretty stuff to see underwater. Even when it is green instead of blue. For example this Dragon Fish - just hanging out on the ice on the seafloor.

While the point of this dive was Science (as always) it also happened to be Steve Rupp's (dive supervisor) 1500th dive under the ice. All in the name of supporting science for decades.

Thanks Steve! Looking forward to more in the future!