ABOARD THE DAVID STARR JORDAN, still in dock at San Diego. Hi, and welcome to the blog of my expedition! I am out on NOAA R/V David Starr Jordan, one of the research ships belonging to the Naitonal Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, for the next nine days. I work for NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center, which is adjacent to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA.

We will be doing a survey for pelagic blue and mako sharks, to see how abundant they are, and hope to put satellite tags on several for TOPP.

Unfortunately we started a bit slower than hoped! We spent half the day at the pier due to a problem with the fuel receiving system and the need to get a larger tank for holding open-ocean rays. When we finally departed it was too late to fuel, and too late to get to our sampling block to start fishing, so we spent several hours prepping the equipment and going through some orientation and safety briefings.

The ship's crew and the scientific crew all seem wonderful and we look forward to starting our survey tomorrow morning. Here's the ship at the pier, where we spent much of the day.