Skip to content

Dispatch 24: Shrinky cups

Jennifer Kosty (Yale University)

October 12, 2025
18:00 local, 73.44◦N, 150.01◦W

Conditions:

  • Cloudy, flurries
  • 90% sea ice cover
  • -4◦C
  • Sunrise: 12-Oct-2025 11:21
  • Sunset: 12-Oct-2025 20:09
  • Day length: 8 hours, 48 minutes

We started the day by recovering TOP14, a tethered ocean profiler that was deployed around 79◦N, 145◦W last year on the 2024 BGOS/JOIS expedition. The recovery process was wrapped up by 11 am, and we began the short steam over to CB-3. After a quick lunch of Catalina cranberry chicken, Big Mac wraps, sweet potato fries, and garlic mixed veggies, the day watch prepped the CTD rosette for another 3800 m cast. This cast was extra exciting because we finally sent the decorated styrofoam “shrinky” cups (along with the CTD rosette) to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean!

Sarah Zimmermann, Dominique Baker, Annabel Payne, and Chris Clarke prepped the cups by filling them with kimwipes, which prevents the cups from deforming too much as the weight of 3800 m of ocean water causes them to shrink. The cups were then loaded into a few mesh bags and attached to the CTD wire near the beginning of the cast. After a 3-hour long journey to the bottom of the ocean and back, the cups returned safely back on board, albeit a little smaller this time. In fact, we calculated that the cups were approximately 45% of their original size. Everyone was super excited to collect their shrunken cups and take them home as souvenirs of the 2025 BGOS/JOIS expedition!

After the cast at CB-3, we spent the remaining daylight hours recovering TOP11, which was deployed on the 2023 BGOS/JOIS expedition. We were incredibly fortunate to have had 2 buoys drifting so close to our planned route today. It is not always feasible to recover buoys after they’ve been deployed given our limited ship time and the associated costs. However, we are thrilled to recover them when the opportunity presents itself, as the recovered instruments can be reused. Recovering buoys also limits the amount of waste left in the ocean and helps to prevent debris from washing ashore in the northern communities of Canada and the United States. Tonight, we steam towards CB-2, where the watches will complete another 3800 m cast around 11 pm.

 

Figure 1: The most recent sea ice concentration map for the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas (Source: https://data.seaice.uni-bremen.de/databrowser/).
Figure 1: The most recent sea ice concentration map for the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas (Source: https://data.seaice.uni-bremen.de/databrowser/).
Figure 2: Map showing our current location along the planned 2025 cruise track.
Figure 2: Map showing our current location along the planned 2025 cruise track.
Figure 3: Drift tracks of TOP14 (left) and TOP11 (right). 2025 cruise track.
Figure 3: Drift tracks of TOP14 (left) and TOP11 (right). 2025 cruise track.
Photo 1: Jerome Sibley recovering TOP14 from the man-basket. Photo by Paul Macoun.
Photo 1: Jerome Sibley recovering TOP14 from the man-basket. Photo by Paul Macoun.
Photo 2: TOP14’s surface instrument package being brought on board by Jim Ryder and Rico Amamio.
Photo 2: TOP14’s surface instrument package being brought on board by Jim Ryder and Rico Amamio.
Photo 3: Sarah Zimmermann (left) and Chris Clarke (right) posing with the decorated styrofoam “shrinky” cups before they were sent to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.
Photo 3: Sarah Zimmermann (left) and Chris Clarke (right) posing with the decorated styrofoam “shrinky” cups before they were sent to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean.
Photo 4: Chris Clarke (left) and Céline Guéguen (right) attaching the styrofoam “shrinky” cups to the CTD wire. Photo by Andrew Ross.
Photo 4: Chris Clarke (left) and Céline Guéguen (right) attaching the styrofoam “shrinky” cups to the CTD wire. Photo by Andrew Ross.
Photo 5: “Shrinky” cups being washed after returning from the bottom of the ocean. Photo by Dominique Baker.
Photo 5: “Shrinky” cups being washed after returning from the bottom of the ocean. Photo by Dominique Baker.
Photo 6: Jennifer Kosty (left) and Dominique Baker (right) posing with their “shrinky” cups. Photo by Dominique Baker.
Photo 6: Jennifer Kosty (left) and Dominique Baker (right) posing with their “shrinky” cups. Photo by Dominique Baker.
Photo 7: (left to right) Annabel Payne, Andrew Ross, and Chris Clarke bringing the Bongo sampling nets on deck after collecting a zooplankton sample at CB-3.
Photo 7: (left to right) Annabel Payne, Andrew Ross, and Chris Clarke bringing the Bongo sampling nets on deck after collecting a zooplankton sample at CB-3.