Meet Peter Gerring
Meet Peter Gerring
What is your job title?
Sonar Technician for the Ocean Geology Group at NIWA.
What do you study and why is it important?
As a technician my job is to maintain and operate equipment so that scientists can collect data on whatever it is they happen to be working on at the time. As equipment becomes more and more complicated there is a seemingly never-ending need to keep up to date with new technology.
What will you be doing on the voyage?
Running the Multibeam system and coring
Describe a “typical” day at sea?
There is no such thing as a typical day at sea, which is one of the reasons I enjoy my job.
Where were you educated?
My formal education occurred more or less by chance at Otago and Massey Universities. The more interesting stuff happened both before and afterwards.
How did you become interested in the ocean?
I don’t know – I just am and always have been.
Do you get seasick? And if so, any tips on how not to?
Thankfully, no. A predisposition to not getting motion sickness helps, but not going to sea is the only certain way of avoiding it.
What do you enjoy about your work?
Lots – mainly the variety of work and also the chance to continually learn new things.
What are some of the challenges you face?
Keeping some quite complicated electronic equipment operating in a salt-laden environment for one thing. Not getting injured or injuring somebody else out on deck for another.
What have you learned/discovered?
I have learnt that if I drink too much, I fall down.
How do you spend your spare time?
Riding my motorbike and trying not to do too much maintenance on my house (very successfully I might add).