At Sea VI

Foggy this morning with an air temp of +1C and water temp of -1C. It's dead calm - you would never guess you were on the roughest ocean on the planet. There were no icebergs in site but the fog was in and out all day so perhaps there were some lingering on the fringes.

Today was a day of lectures. The first one covered the Swedish Nordenskjold expedition of 1901-1904. Another big dramatic Antarctica story with the research team split in 3 locations, the ship crushed by pack ice, two groups find each other in the icy wilderness against all odds and then are reunited with the rescue ship against all odds and then the heros are welcomed at home. A more jaded person would say that they were under prepared for the whole thing and were more lucky than brave...but that's not me.

Next everyone's favorite geologist, Wolfgang, presented Ice, a Very Curious Rock which covered all aspects of glaciers - very interesting to have a suscinct explanation for some of the formations that we've seen. One especially interesting factoid is that, due to global warming the antarctic glaciers are actually growing. Because it's warmer there is more precipitation. The increased snowfall on "the driest place on earth" is adding mass the top of the glaciers. Noticable measurements have been made on the Ross Sea side of the continent.

Not so, with sea ice. In Michael's presentation "The Thrill of Krill" we learned that the sea ice melt is having an impact on the krill population as they feed on nutrients trapped in sea ice. Krill are the shrimp like critters that are the main food source for the great whales and a number of other species down here. The krill in Antarctica are more pure due to the currents of the southern ocean which don't mix much with the impure waters to the north. Apparently krill is being harvested for it's "pure" omega 3 oils as well as for colouring for farmed salmon. Limits on fishing are enforced.

Next was Diane with "Who Owns Antarctica" which covered the Antarctic treaty. Basically signatory countries to the treaty have agreed to use Antarctica for scientific research and to protect the environment. There is a 50 year moratorium on mining. Yeah! Interesting to note that you are not supposed to bring live plants onto the continent yet in Herzog's documentary Encounters at the End of the WOrld (earth?) we see a greenhouse with tomatoes growing at McMurdo station. Enforcement of the treaty is a touchy subject.

The wind is up a bit this evening and a few icebergs have put in an appearance. Looks like our landings over the next 2 days will relate to the Nordenskjold expedition. In the a.m. we land at Paulet Island where a group of the researchers were marooned for a winter. There is a humongus penguin colony here - quite possibly the largest in the world. This time with Adelie penguins - named thus by a French explorer in honor of his wife.

Sweet!

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