More Whales of the Great South Channel

Whales of the Great South Channel

2-night whale watch offered by CRESLI and the Viking Fleet; August 2010

Summer of Opportunity

This summer has nearly been my busiest yet, despite not having to sample for the first time in 4 years! I have realized that living on Long Island is one of the best places to conduct marine science, or to savor a passion in marine science. Long Island is the land of opportunity for young, budding marine scientists. With its proximity to New York City and a thriving economy and population of its own, Long Island offers what some other marine metropolises can't - opportunity! Having gone to school in Maine for my undergraduate degree, I learned very quickly that what Maine made up for in beauty, it lacked in prospect. Opportunities for research and internships were few and far between, and while this may have changed in the years since I graduated, there is no doubt that Long Island is ripe for marine science possibility. Take for example, the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation. Located just behind Atlantis Marine World aquarium, the Riverhead Foundation is New York state's only sea turtle and marine mammal stranding program. Devote some time and energy with this great organization and you will be working hands-on with sea turtles, seals, and the occasional dolphin or porpoise, or perhaps conducting necropsies on whales that have washed ashore.
Long Island is of course, an ISLAND, and we are literally surrounded by water, something made easy to forget by our expansive bridges and ferry systems. With all that surrounding water comes beach, and opportunities to monitor horseshoe crabs and diamondback terrapins with the DEC, or count returning alewives and seine for tropical fish (brought to Long Island by the warm Gulf Stream) with Seatuck Environmental Association. You can catch a seal cruise in the winter out of Freeport with the Riverhead Foundation or catch a whale watch out of Montauk aboard the Viking Fleet in association with CRESLI (Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island). There's the Blue Ocean Institute founded by local author and conservationist Carl Safina and for those of you willing to get more than your feet wet, there's Long Island Diver's Association (LIDA). Stony Brook University now offers a marine science undergraduate program (something not available to me while I was going to college) and Suffolk County Community College teaches marine biology, oceanography and many other environmental and biological courses to get you on the path to higher knowledge about our local marine ecosystems.
This summer, I had the privilege of working with many of these fine institutions, and I realized that in fact, I could have done much more. For there is so much to be done and so much manpower needed to do it. Many people simply don't realize the opportunity that exists on Long Island. While much of it is voluntary, the rewards are great! If you share an interest in any aspect of marine science, I encourage you to contact the organizations I have mentioned and pursue your dreams. You will be helping our fragile marine environment, while gaining valuable insight, experience, and the gift of doing what you love. :)

It's officially the off-season!

Well, ctenophore sampling that began at the start of May has finally ended! Mnemiopsis persisted well into the fall and actually peaked again in abundance in Great South Bay in October! As an added treat to a recent nighttime sampling endeavour in chilly temperatures, the ctenophores were abundant enough to be seen bioluminescing as the boat made her way through the water. Although, I have many zooplankton and ctenophore samples still to process in the laboratory, I am pleased to have completed another year of weekly sampling! Now, its officially the off-season, and I can catch up on gear repairs and general lab duties. It may be hard to believe, but it has now been 2 full years since my incredible Antarctic adventure, and I am still finishing up some of the zooplankton samples collected at the bottom of the world. So, while its chilly outside, I am inside working at a microscope, warmed by the memories of my time spent in the southerly seas.

Undergraduate assistants Lauren Schnal, Madalyn Murray (and Mnemiopsis!)

Counting and measuring ctenophores

Frankel scholar (and undergraduate assistant) Madalyn Murray on the RV 'Three Quarter Time'

Jellyfishing

It's been a long, busy summer. "Cteam Ctenophore" (consisting of myself and several undergraduate assistants) has been running weekly plankton tows from the boat in Great South Bay and collecting ctenophores for numerous laboratory 'experiments', such as gut content analysis, growth rates, feeding rates, and egg production. The ctenophores bloomed in late July this year, about 2 weeks later than 2008, which agrees well with a general lag in Long Island waters of 2 weeks likely due to the very cool (and long) winter we had, followed by an unusually cool spring and summer. We ran a few large-scale mesocosm experiments in the bay, until the ctenophores became so abundant they infultrated all of our tanks, including the non-ctenophore treatments! We will continue boat sampling through October to monitor the population dynamics of Mnemiopsis leidyi as well as any other ctenophore species which may appear in the bay. The ctenophores decreased zooplankton abundance very quickly in the bay and subsequently declined in abundance themselves. Once zooplankton abundance increases, we suspect that we may get a second pulse, or bloom, of M. leidyi unless Beroe ovata, a predatory ctenophore that feeds on M. leidyi, arrives as it did in the fall of 2008. Stay tuned....

Rain, rain, go away

As we enter our fifth week of sampling, we have encountered some wet (and potentially dangerous) weather delaying this week's research trip. As we did last week, we do go out in some rough weather (although I prefer the term "adventurous"), but thunderstorms are another thing altogether. So far we have not caught a single ctenophore, although there are reports of the winter/spring sea gooseberry Pleurobrachia pileus in Peconic Bay, which is to our east. This makes sense since we witnessed a dramatic crash in Mnemiopsis at the end of the sampling season in 2008 due to predation by a third ctenophore Beroe ovata. With fewer ctenophores surviving in the bay, it is likely that the seasonal bloom will occur later this year than usual, although the term "usual" is something of a misnomer since Mnemiopsis seems to bloom two to three months earlier in recent years than in previous studies conducted 20 years ago. The waters now are teaming with copepods, a good food source for ctenophores and other gelatinous predators. We have been catching our fair share of the "lion's mane" jellyfish Cyanea capillata, which interestingly enough, also eats Mnemiopsis, and some small hydromedusae. The lack of Mnemiopsis is good news for now, since it gives us time to prepare for the busy experimental season ahead (once they appear). So stay tuned for new updates and photos...

Pleurobrachia pileus and its copepod prey

The "sea gooseberry" Pleurobrachia pileus in Long Island Sound

How zooplankton biologists obtain "volunteers"!

Sampling season 2009 is underway!

Hello,
It has certainly been a busy winter and spring as the results of our 2008 season are still being analyzed. Hundreds of thousands of zooplankton have been counted and countless Excel graphs have been created. Our 2008 sampling season, however, is only one half of the picture. Data to be collected this year (from May through October) will add to our knowledge of ctenophores and other gelatinous zooplankton in Long Island estuaries. Last year at this time, we experienced a very large brown tide bloom, which likely had a large impact on the plankton dynamics in Great South Bay. Brown tides disrupt the normal ecosystem of marine environments by crowding out other, more nutritious algal species, diminishing the available food for zooplankton and benthic suspension feeders, such as clams and scallops. Brown tide also blocks out light available to the submerged aquatic vegetation resulting in large die-offs of eelgrass in Long Island waters. Although brown tide may not affect ctenophores such as Mnemiopsis leidyi directly, the impact on lower portions of the food web eventually impact the ability of larval and adult Mnemiopsis to feed efficiently and may have offset the timing of the 2008 M. leidyi bloom.
This year, our sampling season began on a cool, cloudy morning, but the waters of Great South Bay were clear with a tinge of green, and full of Acartia copepods - a good food source for M. leidyi. It will be interesting to see when M. leidyi blooms (in abundance) this year since the predatory ctenophore Beroe ovata came in towards the end of the summer and virtually wiped out M. leidyi from our sampling stations in Great South Bay. Since adult M. leidyi over-winter in the bay and serve as a source population for the ctenophore summer bloom, M. leidyi may reach peak abundance later in the season compared to years when B. ovata (which is an oceanic species) has entered the bay the season before.
The water is a cool 13.5 degrees (Celcius) and warming quickly. Our field experiments will soon be underway and I have a new team of eager undergraduates who will be assisting in the project this summer. So stay tuned!!!

A storm moves in over Great South Bay during a mesocosm experiment

Estimating biovolume of the predatory ctenophore Beroe ovata

A plankton net full of ctenophores... This tow collected over one thousand ctenophores (Mnemiopsis leidyi) in only two minutes!

Ctenophores galore!

Hello! Sorry that it has been so long since my last posting. This summer has been very busy with weekly ctenophore sampling and two week-long mesocosm experiments conducted in Great South Bay. This season has been an interesting one for ctenophores. In 2006, we documented an increase in ctenophore (Mnemiopsis leidyi) abundance by a factor of two to three in Great South Bay and Peconic Bay since the previous investigations conducted two decades ago. We also found that ctenophores appeared two to three months earlier than previously documented. This year, we did not see the very large ctenophore abundance that we found in 2006 (although still significantly higher) and the peak population bloom occurred approximately one to two months earlier. 2008, however, was met with a large brown tide event throughout Great South Bay in late spring/early summer which undoubtedly altered the dynamics and structure of the planktonic community. What we did see of interest this year, however, was how effectively the ctenophores cleared the water of their zooplankton prey. For weeks following their population peak, zooplankton numbers plummetted and ctenophore egg production dropped as a result of their ability literally to eat themselves 'out of house and home'. Ctenophore populations subsequently dropped and zooplankton appear to be back on the rise. This has been associated with a return of egg production in the remaining ctenophores collected. Too bad for Mnemiopsis, however, that their ctenophore predator Beroe ovata (pictured) arrived a few weeks ago and have been increasing in abundance coincident with decreasing Mnemiopsis abundance. We still have a few more weeks of sampling to go, but it will be interesting to see if Mnemiopsis populations will be able to recover, or will be restricted by predation by Beroe. Continued research includes further gut content analyses, feeding experiments, egg production and elemental composition analyses of Mnemiopsis. Phew!

Launching the Plankton Net

2008 Ctenophore Sampling Season

Hello once again... well, I am back home from Antarctica (what a trip!) and have resumed somewhat of a normal life since my return. A few weeks ago, I began sampling for ctenophores in Great South Bay, Long Island. This year, I began sampling in May and plan to continue through September of this year, in hopes of collecting ctenophores at the times of the year when they are most abundant (late spring into early autumn). Similar to my thesis work in 2006, sampling involves going out on a boat and collecting ctenophores and zooplankton with plankton nets at two sites south of West Sayville, NY. The plankton nets will help us determine the abundance and size classes of ctenophores and other members of the zooplankton (bivalve larvae, fish larvae, copepods, etc.) . In addition to running the net tows, individual ctenophores are collected for gut-content analysis and live feeding experiments back in the laboratory. I also hope to run mesocosm experiments (large outdoor tanks which hold natural water and zooplankton abundances) with adult and larval ctenophores in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for further updates on this exciting research!

Almost Time to Journey Home...

Although it is hard to believe, our incredible Antarctic journey is drawing to a close.

Tonight we begin our transit backtowards McMurdo Station. Once there, we will disembark the Nathaniel B. Palmer, which has been our home for the last six weeks in the Southern Ocean.

Leaving Antarctica will be bittersweet; not knowing if I will ever have the opportunity to return and leaving scientists and crew who have become good friends during our time here. On the other hand, I am looking forward to being home again, and to resuming my own research and studies at Stony Brook University. I feel that I have a renewed vigor for conducting my own scientific research and advancing myself as a marine scientist.

This cruise has been a remarkable experience. Ever sinceI first learned of Antarctica, I had dreamed of coming here, but never thought that it would be possible. This trip has exceeded my expectations, and surpassed even my wildest dreams. I have experienced things that I never thought possible.

Antarctica is truly a special, almost magical, place. The massive effort and time that it takes to make travel to Antarctica possible is well-justified. Many of the scientists and crew who work here return regularly, and for good reason. I, too, hope that this is not my last visit to Antarctica, but I am taking a lifetime's worth of memories from this far-off , magical place, just in case.

Thank you for joining me on this incredible journey.

Geology Rocks!

Hello once again from the southcentral polynya! We are still located in this relatively ice-free region of the Ross Sea while the geologists conduct coring exercises. The coring process involves using a mechanical piston core to remove a long (up to 80ft) vertical section of the seafloor which is later analyzed to determine the different types (and amounts) of sediments which comprise the ocean bottom here.

With 5 days left before we depart the Nathaniel B. Palmer, our lab is busy packing up equipment and finishing up side projects.

Our arrival into McMurdo Station will be a bit interesting, as we do not yet know the conditions of the ice which typically surrounds McMurdo at this time of year. If the ice is very thick, it will take much longer to reach the base and we run the risk of missing our first-scheduled flight. Either way, however, our departure should be quite memorable as the plan is to either lower us down directly onto the ice and have an all-terrain vehicle pick us up, or to have a helicopter airlift us off the ship and fly us backto McMurdo (our ship has a helicopter pad!). Then its onto the airport where we travel on large, all-terrain 'buses' known as Terra Vans to the airport. The airport is actually an ice runway and our plane has skiis which enable it to land in the most remote regions of the Antarctic!

It should be quite the experience and the perfect ending to this incredible adventure.

Penguin in the Polynya

In the Polynya

Yesterday we broke down our sixth and final experiment! We have several more days to go before arriving (and departing from) McMurdo Station, so we are using this time to examine slides, analyze some of our results, and to begin the task of packing up our scientific gear for its return trip home.
Our ship has been remaining within the south-central polynya so that the geologists can use multibeam technology in the relatively ice-free waters here to map out the ocean floor. Here the seas are a bit rougher and despite having been at sea for more than 4 weeks now, many of us have been struggling again to get our sea legs. It can be a very different experience when the ship is in open water, not only for its rougher disposition, but for the reduced amount of scenery. While we are in the pack ice, there are frequent opportunities to spot seals and penguins. Here, however, we are onlyoccasionally treated to a passing ice floe, or a far-off iceberg on the horizon. It reminds us how unique this environment is and how fortunate we are to have the pack ice and ice floes to break up the monotony of open water travel.

Many research cruises spend weeks at sea in the open water without land or substrate of any kind, asituation similar to our experience here in the polynya. It is continuing to get darker each night and the temperatures have dropped slightly. In many areas, we have also seen pancake ice, which are small, pancake-shaped pieces of ice and are the first stages of sea ice formation; all of these indicators of an ending summer in Antarctica, and an end to our time in this beautiful, far-off place.

It's Cold in Antarctica...

Last night we arrived at the Ross Ice Shelf, a towering line of ice which spans the southern Ross Sea and rises 70 or so feet above the water. The air temperature here was the coldest it has been, -13.5°C, a direct consequence of our proximity to the shelf, and the very cold continental winds that blow over it. Once we arrived at the shelf, we deployed the zodiac to collect water and ran plankton nets to identify the phytoplankton and zooplankton communities here.

Unfortunately, what would have been a memorable zodiac ride near the ice shelf was ruined by a thick bank of fog which rolled in just as we were getting ready to depart. That did not stop us though from enjoying the strange entertainment such cold weather provides. For example, we all laughed at the expense of our zodiac captain whose eyelashes were dotted with snow crystals, and at the passenger who made the mistake of going out with wet hair and returning with it frozen solid. The air temperature was so cold, that the seawater in our carboy began to freeze immediately when we scooped up just enough to give the carboy a rinse before taking our
water sample. Another strange, but wonderful phenomenon was the experience of perfectly-shaped snowflakes which fell and landed in perfect geometric patterns (see picture).

Summer is ending here in Antarctica and the sun is dipping lower and lower in the horizon each night. Although the sun will not set here for another 2 weeks, the changes in the sun’s pattern here, creates vivid “sunset-like”colors in the sky each night, with awe-inspiring results.

Today marks two weeks until our return to McMurdo and the end of the second, and final, leg of our cruise (the geologists will stay on for another leg before the ship returns toLyttleton, New Zealand). Our flight from McMurdo is reportedly the last flight of the season. Rumor has it that we land in New Zealand at night and so in the dark, which will be a very strange experience for us, indeed.

Seal Karma

We began our fifth experiment yesterday in an eastern region of the Ross Sea known as the South central Polynya (much of our work was previously conducted in the western section). The polynya (an ice-free region) occurs seasonally and is dominated by a small phytoplankton known as Phaeocystis, which is considered to be – because of its small size and its ability to form gelatinous colonies –inedible to many zooplankton species. This experiment will help us determine what feeds on this small alga and if the structure of the microbial food web here differs as a result.

The other scientific team onboard is conducting seismic surveys of the region in order to distinguish the sediments that lie on and beneath the ocean floor. To do so, the boat travels at slow speeds in a relatively straight trajectory, breaking ice as necessary. This provides an excellent opportunity for wildlife viewing. We have been particularly fortunate in seeing emperor penguins in this region. Yesterday we passed a large ice floe with over 20 emperors onboard. The sight alone was incredible, but to add to the splendor, several of them could beheard calling in that classic penguin language you hear in "March of the Penguins" or any nature special. I even saw a juvenile penguin that was in the process of molting from its very bushy grey down to its sleek black adult feathers. Minke whales have been abundant here as well, and the seismic team must stop their “acoustic guns” whenever they are in the vicinity for fears that the large underwater sound pulses created by the guns may damage their very sensitive inner ears. For this reason, a scientist is always assigned on “marine mammal observation” and a hydrophonehas been deployed to listen underwater for any signs of their presence. We have spanned now the entire width of the Ross Sea. In the dense ice floes, I have even seen the rare Ross Seal, a shy inhabitant ofthe deep pack ice, whose sightings are enhanced through the use of large icebreakers such as theNathaniel B. Palmer. My sighting has caused one veteran crew member to rub my arm seeking some of my “Ross Seal mojo”. I guess all the marine mammal rehab work back home has paid off for me in my seal karma.


In other news, we had regular updates of the Superbowl game from phone calls made home, while we set up our experiment yesterday. All of the Stony Brook scientists applauded when the Giants took the title. It sounded like an incredible game to miss, but what memories I will have when I look back on the game in many years to come. Go Giants!

Leaving McMurdo

Yesterday we left McMurdo Station and traveled a short distance to a new experimental station located near beautiful Cape Boyds. The cape is home to an Adelie penguin rookery and mesmerizing scenery. Our transit out of McMurdo towards this location was equally incredible. Soon after leaving the dock, a flockof Adelie penguins began swimming ahead of our boat as if to bow ride our large icebreaker. In the mix were 2 emperor penguins – a rare and very enjoyable sight for us on this trip. The emperors were noticeably larger than the Adelies and altogether more colorful. They were also incredibly fast. Many Weddell seals could also be seen resting on the fast ice. We also encountered several minke whales (one of which swam directly under our ship – what a sight!) and approximately 30 orcas as we made our way toward the open water of McMurdo Sound and the Ross Sea Polynya.

The backdrop for our fourth and latest experiment is stunning. There is a large mountain chain lining the coast which is shadowed here by Mount Erebus, a towering active volcano on Ross Island. Penguin sightings are common as we collect zooplankton samples from their watery world. A new scientific party joined us at McMurdo and so we will soon be leaving this area to accommodate their research needs and to conduct our own experiments in the polynya.

Minke Whale

Even more photos!!! (I have internet at McMurdo :) )

From top to bottom: Orca, Minke whale, Snow petrel, Cape Adare, Antarctica with Adelie penguin in foreground

Hello from McMurdo Base, Antarctica!

We are presently at 77° 50.730 South latitude, the farthest south anyone can travel in the worldby ship. We arrived here yesterday after breaking ice through the channel leading to McMurdo. Thechannel is a narrow stretch of open water and was created by an icebreaker that previously cut through the thick fast ice here for access to the station. McMurdo is home to the United States Antarctic program and currently houses 1100 people during the summer. It is also an active military base. The base is situated next to a historic hut inhabited by Scott and his men in the early 1900’s during an expedition here. The New Zealand (Kiwi) base is also nearby. McMurdo is a strange place for sure. The buildings are built to withstand the strong winds and winter storms and so are not specifically pleasing to the eye. There are many amenities of home here – a store, hospital, dining services, bars, fire department, and even bowling! There are several dorms and laboratories and offices. There is also a post office. Most of the people currently down here spend on average 3-4 weeks here during the Antarctic summer, but a few over-winter, or continue south for the South Pole station (brrrr!).

The whole trip into McMurdo was very exciting for me. One of the mates from the bridge called my stateroom at 6AM to let me know that we were entering the channel. The channel is notoriously occupied by killer whales, or orcas, which feed on the fish, seals and penguins which are plentiful in the open water created by the ice breakers. Almost immediately upon entering the channel, we saw blows from the orcas. Soon, the orcas were everywhere. The channel can be quite narrow and it was easy to get a good look at these beautiful creatures. The orcas typically maintain family units known as pods and indeed I saw males (with their larger dorsal fins), females, juveniles and even a baby! As the orcas drew near, Adelie penguins could be seen fleeing the water en masse from these dangerous predators. Weddell seals could also be seen on the fast ice. As we watched one group of orcas, we were surprised by a large minke whale, which surfaced from under the ice alongside our boat!It was incredible.

As we drew closer toward McMurdo, our ship spent some time breaking through the ice and re-establishing the channel. Orcas could still be spotted swimming through the large chunks of ice and spy-hopping (poking their heads out of the water) to look for the next available breathing hole in the ice. What a wonderful experience.



Once we got to McMurdo, we headed out to the store to stock up on souvenirs and chocolate! Then I had a chance to head over to the science building to look for my friends who I met on my last cruise in the Pacific and who are here now studying pteropods at McMurdo. It was great to see them again, and even cooler to have friends here at the bottom of the world. We exchanged crew and picked up a new scientific party for the second leg of the cruise, which will began soon as we make our way from the dock.

It’s a nice stopping point, as the cruise is half-way through, and we now have half our experiments under our belts. This is certainly a trip that I will not soon forget.

More photos from Antarctica!

Photos from Antarctica!

More from Terra Nova Bay

Yesterday we began our third experiment (our second in Terra Nova Bay) using copepods and juvenile krill. This meant another day outside running plankton nets. Before the day was through, my colleague and I spent 7 hours outside running the nets, but it felt more like 3. The sunlight here is so deceiving – it changes very little as the sun moves along the horizon and never actually sets. By the time mid rats is served (stands for midnight rations, part meal,part midnight snack), the sun is so bright that you feel like your day is just beginning rather than ending.

The zooplankton samples look great –lots of krill, pteropods, juvenile fish, and even a juvenile squid! – I am looking forward to sorting through them. Today we will be breaking down our second experiment and taking samples as we do so. In the meantime, our ship is traveling farther south towards McMurdo stopping a few times beforehand so we can collect water and a few zooplankton samples.

Turns out we will be arriving at McMurdo a couple of days sooner than originally planned, which is a nice change of events.

A couple of days ago, we had a big treat as our icebreaker stopped in some fast ice (the ice which forms against the continent) and lowered the gangway for us to disembark onto the ice! The ice was approximately 6 feet deep and a couple of experienced crew went out beforehand prodding the snow/ice for holes and setting up perimeters for us to maintain.

The scenery was spectacular and many Adelie penguins could be seen running along the ice. A leopard seal could also be seen resting not far from where our ship came to rest. Once we got onto the ice, a curious Adelie penguin made his/her (it’s hard to tell unless you’re a penguin!) way towards a few of us to check us out. Later, a few more followed. It was incredible.

We are now at 76° South latitude, and a day’s steam away from McMurdo Sound, truly at the bottom of the world.

Terra Nova Bay

We are still in beautiful Terra Nova Bay. The scenery is spectacular. There are large snow-covered mountains rising out of the sea and large sheets of ice that lay trapped against the land.

There is an Italian Base here that gives this place the appearance of a small Scandinavian town, only far grander. We sent over a zodiac with a group of scientists to meet with the Italians and to pick up a microscope which was sent to their base for us to intercept. The scientists (who were served espresso upon arriving) describe their base as "very nice" with wine bottles lined up in the dining area!

Those of us who stayed behind began work on our second full-length experiment to study the impact of grazing by select copepods and juvenile krill on the phytoplankton in the area. Because of this, I have been a bit of a lab rat the past few days. However, upon arriving at each station, I am in charge of the quantitative zooplankton tows (collection and preservation of microscopic animals in large plankton nets, which are later counted to determine abundances) so I get to spend a few hours outside enjoying the excellent scenery. I love it.

Today we have been collecting more water and organisms at several locations within the bay to determine which site is best suited for our next experiment, which will begin tomorrow morning. It looks like it will continue to be a busy week, as we steam south towards McMurdo station in the days ahead.

Experiments in the Antarctic

Today we continued to work on samples collected from an experiment we began 2 days ago. Since our previous sampling sites were covered in ice and did not contain enough phytoplankton to conduct our originally-planned experiments, our chief scientist developed an alternative experiment using the algae that develops on the underside of the ice, known as“ice algae”.

As seawater freezes, only the water fraction is converted into ice, while the salts and other elements leach out into the surrounding water as salty brine. In addition to salt, this brine contains nutrients which phytoplankton require to photosynthesize and grow. Sunlight penetrates through the ice and provides the energy for ice algae to convert carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and carbohydrates.

These algae in turn are an important food source for small microscopic grazers, such as krill. Krill also benefit from the shelter the ‘nooks and crannies’ within the ice provides. Antarctic krill species can live up to 7 years and depend upon the ice cover and ice algae to nourish and protect them, respectively, during this time. Infact, years of low ice coverage have been shown to coincide with years of low krill ‘recruitment’ (the resupply of the next generation). Even penguins and seals depend upon these ice floes for the animals (especially krill and small fish) which inhabit and feed within the small crevices within the ice. For our experiments, we collected‘dirty ice’ (ice containing an abundance of algae, which stains it brown or yellow) by zodiac and water samples using special machinery onboard the ship.

The water samples were run through a series of filters, to establish different size fractions to exclude certain types of zooplankton. Then we added copepods (crustaceous zooplankton) to several experimental containers to determine the impact these grazers have on the microbial community.

The experiments are being conducted in a walk-in freezer set at 0°Celcius for 72 hours. In the meantime, we continue to steam south towards Terra Nova Bay, a relatively ice-free region where we expect to find an abundance of phytoplankton, and where we will conduct our originally-planned experiments.

The waters of Terra Nova Bay are naturally nutrient-rich and support large, ‘juicy’ phytoplankton, which serve as prey for large zooplankton such as krill, which themselves are food for migrating whales, seals and penguins. As such, I had my first whale sighting today –a pod of Antarctic Minke whales! I am hopeful that there will be many more to come in the days ahead.

Officially "in" Antarctica

What an incredible sight – our first view of the Antarctic continent! We reached Cape Adare - a peninsula of Antarctica marking the entrance into the Ross Sea – early yesterday morning. The views were spectacular – snow-capped mountain ranges soaring into the sky and gigantic tabular icebergs lining the coast, each having been stranded by the shallow waters that immediately surround the continent.

Cape Adare has a large population of Adelie penguins, and this was immediately realized by the increased sighting of these birds, which are now frequently seen either resting on ice flows or porpoising (swimming) through the water. A few even appeared to ride the bow of our ice breaker, as dolphins frequently do. Amid the spectacular scenery, our scientific team began our first experiment. It was very special being outside collecting samples and running plankton tows amidst this beautiful backdrop. Having collected many samples in Great South Bay and Peconic Bay on Long Island, it felt unreal to be doing the same in such a far-off place at the bottom of the world. This is a tremendous opportunity, for which I am very grateful.

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.