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9 November 2003
Stacy writing
We get up at 7:30, make ourselves breakfast, and head out for the morning's diving. We are collecting experiments started last year, looking at the different effects of burial and organic enrichment on seafloor communities. both of which are natural processes but created on a different scale by humans in Antarctica. Burial happens when icebergs and ice shelves plough into the bottom and move sediment, and also where the outfall material is dumped on the seafloor. The natural process is on the scale of kilometers, the anthropogenic one, only tens of meters. Organic material is deposited on the seafloor underneath seal holes, on a scale of 10s of centimeters, and at the outfall, on the tens of meter scale. Our experiment will show us how the community responds to differences in type and scale of disturbance, and help us determine how the responses to human influences differ.
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Collecting one of the experimental treatments underwater. |
There are some unique things about diving in the Antarctic. We have already written about the bulkiness of the gear and the differences in diving under a roof of solid ice, with water temperatures at the freezing point. You've heard a lot about our beloved Pisten-Bully vehicle. Out here at New Harbor, there are further differences. We still don't use boats, but we also don't have our nice warm, enclosed tracked vehicle; instead we have snowmobiles. In other venues, these are recreational, but here they are workhorses. We have Siglin sleds, which also might be very fun to go tobogganing on, but here we drag them behind the snowmobiles, loaded with all of our diving and sampling equipment, as well as the divers. So our mornings are spent loading equipment in coolers, so that it does not freeze, wrapping the divers in tarps, so that they do not freeze, and lashing the coolers and gear to the sleds and snowmobiles. One of our main issues is our masks freezing, the film of ice crystals on the inside making it impossible for us to see underwater, so we have taken to having the dive tender keep our masks inside their clothes until just before we get in the water. This leads to lots of jokes about exactly where in the recesses of our multiple layers of clothing the masks are being stored, warm and dry.
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| Wrapping up as human burritos for the ride out. | A full load. The blue tarp is Jonna and the green tarp is me. Jim is taking his burrito responsibilities quite seriously, but Jennifer is a little worried about the structural integrity of the load |
As one of our target sites is an hour ride away, we are very careful not to forget anything, though this usually requires at least 4 extra trudges up the gravel beach to the lab, or across the slippery ice to the dive shack. Finally, fully loaded, we set out. Being dragged behind a snowmobile, fully kitted up in my drysuit, is one of the oddest ways I have ever gotten to a dive site. The first time it is fun, but after that, the bruises on your backside from the bumpy ice, the nervewracking side swings when the sled skids out on the blue ice, the exhaust from the 2 stroke engine that billows into your face, and on the way home, the fact that you have just spent an hour in –1.8 degree C water and have a 20 mph wind of passage blowing across you, makes it slightly less enjoyable. Still, if you can overlook these minor discomforts, the views are spectacular!
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| A small iceberg decorates our commute, with Mt. Erebus in the distance. | Arriving at our dive site at Cape Bernacchi. |
We are lucky at our furthest experimental site at Cape Bernacchi, in that 3 Weddell seals have appeared and are helping keep the holes open. Their breathing and hauling out activities mean less work with the chipper bar and dip net for us. They are friendly and curious, often closely inspecting our samples and us in the water. During our 3 minute safety stops, we have a chance to watch and envy them as they gracefully slip through the liquid medium that we struggle with.
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| A Weddell breathes in the small space between our "cookie" and the edge of the hole. | Cookie off, a seal hangs gracefully in the dive hole. |
Aside from the diving, our main concern each day is eating. Of course, we also have the ancillary daily exercises of fueling everything, filling tanks, chipping ice for wash water, processing samples, and sweeping incessantly in a vain effort to keep gravel out of everything. Today, it being Sunday, we had a very special meal. Craig made a full on turkey dinner, with a huge bird, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and asparagus, with gingerbread for dessert courtesy of Jonna. After eating ourselves to stupefaction, we are too tired for a hike or a game of ultimate. But not too tired to type!
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| YUM!!! |