Image

Go Sox

Working and living at sea is never easy, but it is even harder when your favorite team is in the World Series and you aren’t due home for two weeks. In October 2004, Bruce Keafer and other researchers and students were working to study harmful algal blooms (better known as red tide) in the Gulf of Maine while the Red Sox worked toward their first Series win in 86 years. Mud collected from the seafloor in the sediment samplers became the war paint for decorating the fantail of the R/V Cape Hatteras. The research team had to settle for that mud, twice daily email updates from friends and family, and the occasional radio or TV signal when they were within shouting distance of land. (Photo by Bruce Keafer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)