Leopard Seal

 Went out to see the leopards seals that were hanging out around station today. There were five sitting on separate bergy bits.

 One of them of was injured. Looked like something took a big bit out of his/her ankle. I still don't know how to tell the difference between male and female leopard seals.

 It was really not happy and was having a rough time.

 But we got to see it's teeth which was interesting. They are very intense looking animals.

GSAR Training

We went out looking for cravasses past the safe flag line on the glacier. When we found one we set up two belays and went over the edge to ice climb back out.

 It was a very pretty blue with nice icicles.

 I don't have any pictures of me climbing because I was the one taking the pictures.

 Most of the cravasses have hefty snow bridges over them so we needed to find one with an opening.

 It was pretty deep, maybe 30 feet?

Back on a line to walk away from the crevassed area. It was a very snowy, rainy, and foggy day.

Crossing a crevasse. 

Back in the safe area heading home. It was a really fun afternoon!

Out Boating

 Icebergs have great variety of shapes, every single one is different.

 We found two leopard seals taking naps on little bergy bits.

 This is a water fall coming out of a glacier.

 Baby cormorants!

 This is a weddell seal, not so common here but very common on the McMurdo side of the continent.

 On one of the island we visited there is a crack that starts right at the water line and cut back in to the island. It's just big enough to squeeze into and walk down.

 There were big icicles inside blocking the way where later in the season we will be able to come out of the crack in a different way.

Another awesome day out on the water and roaming islands!

Colombian Navy Visit

The colombian Navy research/destroyer vessel came to visit. They are trying to start an Antarctic research program. They came to tour our station and visit the store. And then they asked if a few of us would like to visit their ship.

This is where the smaller fast boat lives in the stern of the ship.

They had a helicopter in an upper deck bay.

They had a world class free diver and a red bull sponsored cliff diver on board who they were filming swim under icebergs and jump off icebergs and looking at how the environment affected their bodies.

The bridge. 

From the fast boat, called "teboron" (Shark). It was a very cool visit and they were very excited about our program and learning from our station and experiences and it was exciting for us to see the beginnings of another research program and other people who are excited about research and preserving the Antarctic for science.

Sampling with Scientists

 Last monday I went out with one of the science groups to help with their sampling process. They are studying what types of food krill and other small animals are eating and what is available at the bottom of the food chain throughout the season.First they throw this big cone shaped fine mesh net over board and drop it to 70 meters and drive forward as it is reeled back up.

 Penguins are much more graceful in the water!

 This bucket on the end catches everything in the net path and they can survey it and take several samples for different experiments.

 For this particular drag they were looking at size of individuals. This way you can figure out how old the krill are and if they are all one year old krill or multi year krill which is important for the health of the food supply for the penguin colonies in the area.

 Krill!

 For this sample all the organisms that were caught are separated by size and them flash frozen so the pigments contained inside them (and the food they were eating) is preserved for testing in the lab. Liquid nitrogen is used to freeze the specimens and then keep them frozen until they return to the lab.

It was pretty cool to get out on the boats and see what other science was being done on station first hand, although the ocean was very rocky and we spent a lot of time not moving so I got very sea sick. Gross.