November 13, 2002

Bad weather in New Harbor today. After a long run of beautiful sunny, clear days that are ideal for outdoor ice-diving we got reminded today of how the weather is supposed to be in Antarctica at this time of year. We got a restful morning sleeping in and listening to the wind blow outside. Since the weather never let up enough for us to chance dragging divers out to our far site at Cape Bernacchi, we settled for diving at another site near camp which is in the center of Explorer's Cove.

On the first dive Aaron and Andrew went in to explore and take photos. Oliver and Kathy went in to do the same, but by wandering further afield, as he often does, Oliver came across a site where he and Paul Dayton set up a bunch of experiments on a previous visit more than 25 year ago. This was an incredible find particularly because there were some very large volcano sponges growing on the experimental structures that will provide some new insights into the growth and longevity of these species and will provide a contrast of the low-food environment of New Harbor to the higher nutrient sites around McMurdo. Since Oliver was excited to go back to take photos and explore further, Stacy and I joined him for a late afternoon dive. The site which we are calling the Circus is in about 90 ft of water and was a pretty good swim from the nearest hole. There are racks containing sediment treatment experiments that have been running for over 25 years, buoyed lines and settling plates that have been colonized by a variety of sponges and bryozoans.