Spying a pelican, briefly

A Peruvian pelican near Arica, Chile, just before the BiG RAPA cruise, headed by WHOI scientist  Dan Repeta, left in November for work in the Chilean upwelling system just south of Arica. The mission then headed for Easter Island to study microbial biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nutrients, and trace metals in the South Pacific Ocean. Groups from WHOI, MIT, UC Santa Cruz, the University of Hawaii, and Oregon State University, along with colleagues from the University of Vigo, Spain and University of Concepcion in Chile, used Arica as a staging port, to load and begin operations for the cruise.(Photo By Tyler Goepfert, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)