Entering the Ross Sea

We are now at 70°S in the Southern Ocean, approaching the Antarctic continent to our west and south and entering into the Ross Sea.

The approach has been appropriately celebrated with our first penguin sightings in the Antarctic – a group of Adelie penguins, which curiously watched us as we ran our plankton nets in the water and collected water samples. The Adeliesare frequently seen, as our icebreaker breaks its way through the heavy pack ice, and anytime we stop the ship to take the zodiac out or to gather samples – they are very curious animals, and quite funny, too. Unfortunately, our first water sampling attempts did not yield enough phytoplankton to run our extensive grazing experiments, where we introduce crustaceous zooplankton, such as copepods and krill, into size-fractioned water samples containing different species of phytoplankton. The water here is just too “blue” and not productive enough; largely the result of all the ice that is covering the seawater here. We will try again tonight, and again tomorrow morning, when we will be just several miles from the coast of Antarctica, albeit separately by an extensive ice sheet (so we won’t actually see any land).

It has become an enjoyable hobby of mine to go up to the bridge and keep a watch out for wildlife as our icebreaker moves through the pack ice. I frequently spot Adelie penguins and crabeater seals on the passing ice floes. There is now 24 hours of daylight, which is very interesting to say the least. Although the sightseeing is fun, we are all very anxious to begin our experiments.