We have achieved sampling station! And also penguins.
62.02 South, 52.9 West
After three days of fighting the ice in the Weddell Sea, we've finally
found a place we can sample. We were looking for the place where the
continental shelf ended and the water depth increased to at least 2500
m, but the ice kept forcing us north into shallower water. Finally
today we found a spot. It's two degrees north of where we originally
intended to sample, but it's the right kind of water and everyone is
happy. We've been here all day while every group takes a turn with
their sampling, and will probably continue to be here well into the
night.
In the meantime, the wildlife sightings continue. Today was penguin
day. After weeks of being the only person on the whole damn ship who
hasn't seen a single penguin, I suddenly saw bunches and bunches.
First there was big flock of Adelie Penguins -- at least thirty or
forty of them -- milling around on the ice as we made our way to
station. They were far enough away to just look like a bunch of black
specks to the naked eye, but with binoculars I got a perfect view of
the Adelies reacting to the Palmer's approach. Penguin response to
percieved threat seems to basically boil down to "When in danger or in
doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." At first they didn't know we
were there. Then they started hopping and flapping their wings and
scurrying around at increasing speed. Then they all flopped down on
their bellies and went sliding off the ice edge into the water. Once
in the water, they apparently decided that we weren't that scary after
all, because they kept porpoising alongside the ship for a few minutes
before finally vanishing under the ice.
The second sighting was even better, like a nice Discovery Channel
documentary playing out just for our benefit. First there was another
big flock of Adelies, much closer to the ship than the first one had
been. And just a few hundred feet away from the penguins, hidden
behind an outrcop of ice, was a great big leopard seal! Eek! And then
the seal started scooching toward the penguins! Oh noes! And the
penguins all had hysterics and ran away, whee! And the seal saw the
Palmer heading toward him and vamoosed into the water, without having
gotten any penguin lunch.
Actually, it probably hadn't even been chasing the penguins; seals like
to hunt in the water, not on the ice where they're clumsy and slow. It
was probably running away from the ship and just happened to go in the
direction of the penguins. But that was more than enough to cause a
major penguin freakout and get them all running.
(As you can probably tell, I went into physical oceanography because
I'm way too squeamish for biology. Sure, I can read about the food
chain in books, but seeing it in action? Not so much. Let the poor
leopard seal go without its lunch, I don't want the cute widdle
penguins to get eaten.)
That wildlife performance alone would've been more than enough to make
me feel that I've fulfilled my penguin quota for the trip, but the fun
was just beginning. Shortly after we stopped at station and lowered
the CTD into the water, there came the cry of "Emperors to starboard!"
Sure enough, there were about a dozen Emperor Penguins splashing around
really close to the ship, close enough to touch the hull if they
felt like it. For the next hour or so, they circled the Palmer while a
herd of overexcited camera-bearing scientists sprinted from deck to
deck trying to keep them in sight. It was one of the coldest days of
the cruise so far -- the wind chill was something like -35C -- but
nobody wanted to go inside.
Unfortunately, I was in transit between decks during the very brief
time that the Emperors actually came out on the ice to pose for
pictures, so the best I could do was to try and take some shots of them
in the water. The Nikon D70 my dad gave me for Hannukah a couple of
years ago really rose to the occasion here. Sure, I had to crop the
shots like crazy and clean up the brightness and contrast a bit, but
the results were way better than I expected given the distance, the
crappy light, my frozen hands, and the fact that the damn penguins
wouldn't stop moving. So here they are for your amusement.
After three days of fighting the ice in the Weddell Sea, we've finally
found a place we can sample. We were looking for the place where the
continental shelf ended and the water depth increased to at least 2500
m, but the ice kept forcing us north into shallower water. Finally
today we found a spot. It's two degrees north of where we originally
intended to sample, but it's the right kind of water and everyone is
happy. We've been here all day while every group takes a turn with
their sampling, and will probably continue to be here well into the
night.
In the meantime, the wildlife sightings continue. Today was penguin
day. After weeks of being the only person on the whole damn ship who
hasn't seen a single penguin, I suddenly saw bunches and bunches.
First there was big flock of Adelie Penguins -- at least thirty or
forty of them -- milling around on the ice as we made our way to
station. They were far enough away to just look like a bunch of black
specks to the naked eye, but with binoculars I got a perfect view of
the Adelies reacting to the Palmer's approach. Penguin response to
percieved threat seems to basically boil down to "When in danger or in
doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." At first they didn't know we
were there. Then they started hopping and flapping their wings and
scurrying around at increasing speed. Then they all flopped down on
their bellies and went sliding off the ice edge into the water. Once
in the water, they apparently decided that we weren't that scary after
all, because they kept porpoising alongside the ship for a few minutes
before finally vanishing under the ice.
The second sighting was even better, like a nice Discovery Channel
documentary playing out just for our benefit. First there was another
big flock of Adelies, much closer to the ship than the first one had
been. And just a few hundred feet away from the penguins, hidden
behind an outrcop of ice, was a great big leopard seal! Eek! And then
the seal started scooching toward the penguins! Oh noes! And the
penguins all had hysterics and ran away, whee! And the seal saw the
Palmer heading toward him and vamoosed into the water, without having
gotten any penguin lunch.
Actually, it probably hadn't even been chasing the penguins; seals like
to hunt in the water, not on the ice where they're clumsy and slow. It
was probably running away from the ship and just happened to go in the
direction of the penguins. But that was more than enough to cause a
major penguin freakout and get them all running.
(As you can probably tell, I went into physical oceanography because
I'm way too squeamish for biology. Sure, I can read about the food
chain in books, but seeing it in action? Not so much. Let the poor
leopard seal go without its lunch, I don't want the cute widdle
penguins to get eaten.)
That wildlife performance alone would've been more than enough to make
me feel that I've fulfilled my penguin quota for the trip, but the fun
was just beginning. Shortly after we stopped at station and lowered
the CTD into the water, there came the cry of "Emperors to starboard!"
Sure enough, there were about a dozen Emperor Penguins splashing around
really close to the ship, close enough to touch the hull if they
felt like it. For the next hour or so, they circled the Palmer while a
herd of overexcited camera-bearing scientists sprinted from deck to
deck trying to keep them in sight. It was one of the coldest days of
the cruise so far -- the wind chill was something like -35C -- but
nobody wanted to go inside.
Unfortunately, I was in transit between decks during the very brief
time that the Emperors actually came out on the ice to pose for
pictures, so the best I could do was to try and take some shots of them
in the water. The Nikon D70 my dad gave me for Hannukah a couple of
years ago really rose to the occasion here. Sure, I had to crop the
shots like crazy and clean up the brightness and contrast a bit, but
the results were way better than I expected given the distance, the
crappy light, my frozen hands, and the fact that the damn penguins
wouldn't stop moving. So here they are for your amusement.