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Aboard the Research Vessel (R/V) Lake Guardian
The
R/V Lake Guardian is the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA) largest research and monitoring vessel. It is
the only self-contained, non-polluting research ship on the Great
Lakes. The R/V Lake Guardian
¾ operated by the EPA’s
Chicago-based Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO)
¾ is used, extensively, to
support EPA monitoring and research activities. It is also used to
support research activities conducted by Federal, State, and, local
agencies, and universities. The R/V Lake Guardian has been operating on
the waters of the Great Lakes for the past 12 years.
There are 16 rooms on the
R/V Lake Guardian, divided
between a maximum of twenty-seven scientists and 13 crew. Rooms
include bunks, desks, lockers, and computer LAN connections.
Private bathrooms with showers or bathrooms shared between two rooms
are available. Recreation, exercise, and meal facilities aboard the
Lake Guardian are excellent.
The Lake Guardian's captain and crew are provided by
a contractor, and are noted for their high degree of
professionalism, cooperation, and efficiency in monitoring and
research work.
Visiting
Researchers
The Great Lakes National Program Office offers
the
R/V Lake Guardian as a vessel of opportunity during the
monitoring
surveys to other federal, state and university
scientists. We especially encourage research compatible with the
standard sampling performed at each station. That is, simple water
and/or plankton samples which can be subsequently processed and
analyzed. If you have an interest in utilizing the Lake Guardian to
facilitate your research, please contact Mr.
George Ison
at (312) 353-1669,
for more information on the capabilities and requirements for use of
the ship. Upon acquiring permission for use of the ship, a survey
plan must be completed. The current survey plan is
available in PDF (27Kb pdf).
For an electronic version, please email
George Ison for a
copy.
All those new to traveling onboard the
R/V Lake Guardian are required to view Safety Aboard the Lake Guardian.
It can be viewed online by clicking the above link. If
your computer cannot support this action, please email
Larry Brail for
either a CD or VHS copy.
Laboratories on-board the Lake Guardian
Three
laboratories are a permanent part of the ship: the biology lab,
chemistry lab, and multipurpose lab. The biology lab is
approximately 208 square feet. It is generally used for chlorophyll
a and other biological assessments of phytoplankton, zooplankton and
benthos. The Chemistry lab is slightly larger (300 square feet) and
was historically used for contaminant extractions from media, and
mixing reagents. A third multipurpose lab can be used for pH,
turbidity, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen measurements. Each
lab has bench space, fume hoods, refrigerators and freezers,
deionized water systems and uninterruptible power supplies. A
laboratory office is also equipped with computers, printers and
copiers for general use. There is also a laboratory office with
computers, printers and a copier for general use. Three, 8 X 20
containerized laboratories are also available on the ship.
Scientific
Equipment in Use
Several pieces of sampling and monitoring equipment are
located around the ship. Some of them have rather colorful names and purposes:
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 SEABIRD
This high-tech
device looks like a wire cage about 3 feet high and 1 foot on each side with a collection
of unidentifiable cylinders, boxes, tubes and wires contained within. It is often observed
to be connected to a computer, and it invariably attracts the attention of any scientist
within sight of the computer screen when it is deployed. With high accuracy, it monitors
the lake water four (4) times a second for basic limnological parameters such as depth,
temperature, conductivity (sort of a measure of saltiness), pH photosynthetic light
penetration, water transparency, and chlorophyll. |
 AIR SAMPLING EQUIPMENT
In the bow (front) of the ship are some aluminum booms and
ladders to which may be attached devices variously described as
houses or funnels, with or without hoses and motors. These are
samplers for filtering particles or gasses from the air. This
may remain pointed into the wind for several hours while the
samplers grab the air "upwind" of the exhaust stacks. Analyses
of the samples than helps determine the amount of contaminants
that enter the lake from the atmosphere |
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 PHYTO VIBES
This an R/V Lake Guardian exclusive! Located on the art
(rear) deck on the starboard side (remember, right side looking
forward), it looks like a heavy steel frame for a couple of
phytoplankton nets. Because phytoplankton are microscopic in
size, even though they are the "grass," or base of the aquatic
food chain, we must strain thousands of gallons of water to
collect enough of the algae to measure the concentration of many
of the contaminants that find their way to the large fish. The
cells tend to clog the nets, making them inefficient strainers,
so we invented a "phytoplankton vibrator" that constantly shakes
the algae from the sides and urges them down toward the
collection bucket at the bottom |
BOX CORER
"JAWS" might be a more descriptive term for the squat,
vicious-looking contraction on the rear dock. It is designed to slice a cube of sediment
cleanly from the bottom of the lake without disturbing the surface layer. Once the corer
is back on board, scientists can open the lid and take smaller sub-samples, ensuring that
the important top layer is intact. |
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PLANKTON NET
These cones of white cloth, 3 to 10 feet long and 1 to 3 feet in
diameter. They are used to capture phytoplankton (algae) or zooplankton (small animals,
mostly shrimp-like creatures) that eat the algae. The size of the organisms captured is
dependent on the coarseness or fineness of the fabric weave. Plankton are the "bottom
of the food chain" and support all the fish at the top. |
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 ORGANICS EXTRACTION EQUIPMENT
In some of the smaller "container
labs" are weird-looking contraptions of glass, or stainless steel, or flexible
tubing, or columns packed with white stuff. Some the equipment filters the particles from
the lake water, and some removes the organic contaminants that are dissolved in the water.
Although the concentration of organic pollutants in some Lake Michigan fish are high
enough to cause serious health risks if eaten frequently, the concentration of the same
pollutants in the water itself is so small that the contaminants from 50 to 250 gallons of
water must be concentrated to get a sample large enough the measure with certainty. |
 ROSETTE
This is another wire cage device, about 3 feet high and 3 feet in
diameter with a dozen vertical plastic cylinders attached. The rosette
is permanently attached to its own cable and winch, and even has its own
sampling platform on the starboard (right side looking forward) side of the ship. It is used to capture a sample of
water from any desired depth, and bring it to the surface without mixing with any other
water. This is an extremely useful device and it allows us to obtain samples to analyze
for a large of number of parameters that the SEABIRD is unable to measure directly (such
as total phosphorus, chlorides, atrazine, etc.) |
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 CHEMISTRY LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
We do some of the chemical analyses on samples
of lake water on board, and we send samples of the lake water back to a shore-based lab
for some other analyses. Depending on the current project, you may find auto-analyzers,
computers, reagent flasks or other specialized analytical equipment. Mercury is
particularly tough to measure properly in Great Lakes waters, because of the very low
concentrations and the very real problem of sample contamination, so we have created a
"Clean Room" with special air filters, constant positive air pressure, and
restricted admittance. |
 MYSIS AND DIPOREIA SLED
This thing look sort of like Santa's sleigh with a big
mesh bag attached. Two of the larger crustaceans in Lake Michigan (that is, roughly
½" to 1½") are very abundant in some areas, and are very popular food for some
of the fish. The Diporeia look like "little commas," and they live at the
surface of the bottom. Mysis are "ghost shrimp," and they spend their days on
the bottom also. At night the Mysis often migrate up in the water column to feed on the
zooplankton without getting caught by the fish. We slowly drag the sled behind the ship to
capture these important components of the open water food chain. |
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