November 20, 2002

Today was our opportunity to revisit the tagged fish of Cape Evans. Andrew, Aaron, Kathy and Stacy headed up the coast with two hastily recruited dive tenders and made two dives a piece hunting the elusive Trematomus bernacchii.

Actually these fish (bernies) are anything but elusive, they often swim up to us and climb into our buckets or collecting bags. This may be due to their boredom, hunger, or the simple fact that no predators exist in the Antarctic that divers could be mistaken for. However, as the divers were there to collect only the tagged and released individuals that we had first come to collect back on Halloween, the hunting was much more difficult. Meanwhile, I (Dan) was stuck back in McMurdo helping to flag and drill dive holes

and take care of logistics. I wasn't diving because I believed that I would be boarding a plane back to Christchurch the next day. As it turns out flight schedules have a habit of changing changing here more often than not, and I was afforded two extra days to dive and enjoy this incredible place.