October 25, 2002

Greetings!

Today I had my first checkout dive with Rob Robbins, the dive officer, and a good friend since I first came to McMurdo in 1991. Rob is very laid back and his attitude is enough to calm anyone down. I wasn’t really nervous but just concerned that my lingering congestion from my cold was going to prevent me from clearing my ears and getting down. Plus, I have not dived under the ice since 1998. And, my back wrench is a worry as I didn’t know how well it would like having to support an extra 36 lbs of weight belt and 20 lbs of tank. But it all went without a hitch. I took a Sudafed just before going in and I can’t remember having had to even equalize pressure. It was so easy! And I wasn’t cold and nothing leaked and my new split fins were fantastic! And I wasn’t nervous that we were diving on a shoal off Cape Armitage which is subject to strong currents and also that we had to swim about 100 ft. to a cliff face (well just a little at the beginning!). It was pretty dim down there, much more so than in my rosy memory of diving under the ice, thanks to the fact that the ice is three years old (it did not break out last summer or the summer previously) and so is about 12 ft. thick, and also there is a thick snow cover on the sea ice around the station. Rob had his video camera with a bright light, so he was easy to see, and he also brought some extra dive flashers and set them up like bread crumbs along our trail. As soon as we descended to the bottom we were visited by a lovely smooth Weddell seal, gliding and curving around us, sometimes suspended upside down, head bent to watch us, sometimes flat along the bottom as if it was snuffling out the prospects of finding a big Dissostichus mawsoni (Antarctic toothfish) hiding in the anchor ice. It remained with us as we swam along the shoal to the cliff edge and investigated the sponges, soft corals, stars, urchins, ribbon worms, and hydroids coating the rocks. If we ignored it too long it would come along and give a tug on our fins, then curve around to face us. As we gradually ascended back to our dive hole, I noticed a big white blob under a second dive hole and discovered that is was the remains of a toothfish, likely captured by our seal. These fish live at about 500 m depth and that is where the seals have to go to get them. As I swam to our dive line and prepared for a three minute safety stop, it seemed that the seal was getting a bit more than just friendly. That was confirmed when it not only tugged harder on my fin but came face to face with me and opened its mouth and showed off its teeth. Rob started pushing it off by putting his camera light in its face and at that I decided it was time to cut the safety stop short and get out fast so Rob could get out too. Luckily that’s all that happened. This is only the second time I’ve had this kind of contact with a seal. Usually they are wary and disappear. It may be that this is the mating season and our seal was being territorial, though the nearest pupping area is a good 20 km north at Turtle Rock. I suppose it was not pleased with my investigating its fish catch and it figures our dive holes were put there for its breathing convenience.

Now that I have had my dive checkout and my health is returning I can spread the dive tending duties amongst the rest of the group and get out work diving as well. We all went out to Cinder Cones yesterday, which is about 10 km north and all the gang save me dug mud from the seabed into buckets and we hauled them up into the dive hut. Stacy has been very protective of my bad back and yelling at me whenever I lift heavy things, so my only job was being the sensitivity gal. That meant that I held onto the lift line and waited to feel a tug from the diver below, indicating that there was a full bucket of mud on the line for the guys to haul up. Pretty cushy job. It was stinky cold and blowing hard yesterday, though it cleared enough by late afternoon for us to drive offshore to find the flagged route back to McMurdo. We piled our Piston Bully chock full of five sets of dive gear, tanks and bags, and eight bucket loads of mud. John and I drove back while Stacy and the three students (Andrew, Aaron and Dan) took the skidoos. John and I had a great gab all the way back. You only have to ask one question and it gets John going for the next half hour. He’s full of stories, science ideas, laughs, and enthusiasm for life. He is one of the most dynamic people I have ever met. He fills me with awe at times as to what he can accomplish, yet he is so encouraging, particularly of women in non-traditional roles. He certainly changed my life. I said so in the credits of Under the Ice.

There are lots of science groups coming in now. There is a large group that has been studying the limnology and glaciology of the Dry Valleys for six years. I met one of the PI’s (Principal Investigators) in Christchurch, Peter Doran, and it turns out he’s Canadian, though teaching in the US, and he brought along two other Canadians, one of whom is a friend of David Brown’s, my next door neighbour. Small world! The South Pole folks are still trying to get to South Pole. I think it is still too cold there. Donal Manahan, a scientist who I have met here before (and he recognized me, which was nice) gave a terrific Wednesday science lecture about the physiology of Antarctic sea urchin larvae. They disperse through the water in the late winter through to late spring with virtually nothing in the water to eat until the plankton bloom begins in December and they have evolved to be way more efficient than temperate larvae to metabolize and store energy. They just have a wait and see strategy and drift about until something comes along for them to eat, even if it takes months. Temperate larvae could never wait that long.

Dinner tonight was pretty nice for Antarctica: choice of prime rib, spicy chicken or lamb stew, vegetarian couscous, potatoes, snow peas, leafy green salad from the greenhouse in town with tons of fixings and chocolate pudding, with three choices of biscotti. And all to feed 1200! Yow, glad I'm not a cook there!

Well, that’s about all the news for now. I’ll start checking out the local news to fill you in on a broader set of events. It’s great to be back. This is the most remarkable field station I’ve ever visited. It’s incredibly stimulating.

Cheers,
Kathy