Blooms and Clear Skies

We left under clear skies and light winds, and within hours of heading out, we were sampling the waters off of the Coronado Islands near the US/Mexican border and plotting our sampling schedule for the next few days. The team passed around the latest satellite data from SeaWiFS, NASA’s global orbiter for monitoring levels of chlorophyll in the ocean. We noted the locations of several large phytoplankton blooms along the Mexican coastline, and we made plans to sample the large bloom near Cedros Island, about halfway to Cabo San Lucas near the ‘spur’ of the Baja Peninsula.