Friday, November 11, 2011
Fishing in Antarctica!
Current Temp Ambient: 18 Windchill: 5
Windspeed (knots): 14
Sunrise: Negatory
Sunset: Nope
A friend of mind down here is a scientist working on a fish project. Yesterday she ran into some scuba divers who offered to film her fishing from under the ice. The video shows an number of interesting things:
a) she needs to work on her technique;
b) the absolute clarity of the water down here;
c) the diverse and dense wildlife in the Ross Sea; and
d) the Sea Ice from underneath.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5PDgCgX0AoY
Enjoy!
Friday, November 4, 2011
SEALS!
Current Temp Ambient: 14 Windchill: 3
Windspeed (knots): 6
Sunrise: irrelevant
Sunset irrelevant
Finally some early summer action with Weddell Seals! Yesterday on our way out to the Ice Runway a young seal was in the road, poor thing seemed lost and confused and should have been with it's mother. We had a big 2 day snow storm, it must have lost it's hole. By the time I came back from the runway, it was gone so hopefully it got back where it needed to be. The first video is that young seal and a man who was WAY too close. We are not supposed to impact the behavior of the animals at all down here. If they approach us, we need to slowly back away, but this man was excited and getting really close to the scared seal. You can sort of hear me trying to politely tell him to back away.
These videos are from my coworker Ricky (the one who saw the penguin!) who went Ice Fishing with a scientist yesterday and they had a visit from a seal. The scientists drill holes in the Sea Ice so they can access teh water, and then carpenters build fishing huts that are warm on the inside around the holes so they can fish, go diving, etc...This seal used the hole to breathe for a bit. Normally seals have to use their teeth to make their own holes from under the sea ice, but this one was smart and used the hole the scientists made. After they come up to breathe and can then stay underwater for around 30 minutes to fish!
Pretty cool!
Windspeed (knots): 6
Sunrise: irrelevant
Sunset irrelevant
Finally some early summer action with Weddell Seals! Yesterday on our way out to the Ice Runway a young seal was in the road, poor thing seemed lost and confused and should have been with it's mother. We had a big 2 day snow storm, it must have lost it's hole. By the time I came back from the runway, it was gone so hopefully it got back where it needed to be. The first video is that young seal and a man who was WAY too close. We are not supposed to impact the behavior of the animals at all down here. If they approach us, we need to slowly back away, but this man was excited and getting really close to the scared seal. You can sort of hear me trying to politely tell him to back away.
These videos are from my coworker Ricky (the one who saw the penguin!) who went Ice Fishing with a scientist yesterday and they had a visit from a seal. The scientists drill holes in the Sea Ice so they can access teh water, and then carpenters build fishing huts that are warm on the inside around the holes so they can fish, go diving, etc...This seal used the hole to breathe for a bit. Normally seals have to use their teeth to make their own holes from under the sea ice, but this one was smart and used the hole the scientists made. After they come up to breathe and can then stay underwater for around 30 minutes to fish!
Pretty cool!
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