January 24th: Days Off and Stormy Weather

Adelie Penguin feeding its chick.

REMUS in front of Palmer Station after today's mission

January 24^th, 2011

Today we started our last week of sampling in the far south.  We had some bad weather drop in on Saturday with 40 mile per hour winds and some light snow so we took the weekend off and gave the REMUS a break.  I guess we didn’t really take the weekend off because we did work on data for most of the weekend.  It was a nice break not having to worry about when or where the vehicle was at during the day though. 

On Friday night the whole station gathered up in the lounge for a talk by one of scientists who studies bacteria and what their role in the ocean is.  His project down here, along with a graduate student, is to look at what role light in plays in the bacteria’s lives.  We know how light affects the plants and trees on land along with life forms in the ocean, but until recently no one knew that bacteria use light to make energy.  It is interesting to think about organisms that utilize light down here because of the fact that half the year there is none.

Saturday was fun watching the storm come through because there really hasn’t been any weather since we have been here.  It was cold when we first showed up, but there hasn’t been any wind.  It gets a little bit cold when the wind blows here considering that it is already 35 degrees without the wind.  The ocean got very bumpy and everyone stayed inside for the most part.  Of course no boats went out so everyone had to find other fun stuff to do in the afternoon off.  We also had our normal cleaning day after a half day of work. 

Sunday was mostly a lazy day in front of the computer.  I did get a chance to go out to one of the islands to put a tag on an Adelie penguin, but after we made it half way there the wind had really picked up and made the ocean rough so we had to turn around.  Since this is the busy time of the year for the birds and birders there is always something to do, even if one job gets shut down.  So on the way back we stopped off at an island called Christine Island where there are a couple of indicator colonies of penguins and cormorants.  We counted how many adults and young birds were in the colony, which helps them keep track of what the population is doing as a whole.  Of course there were little chicks huddled around and I even got to see a cormorant feeding its chick which involves sticking its head halfway down the parent’s neck so it looks like it is being swallowed itself.  Then we moved onto another island and did the same thing, but we also had to measure and weigh a Skua chick, which looks a lot like a baby duck or chicken.  The parents were really unhappy (understandably) and tried landing on our backs and pecking us.  They even took one the scientist hats, but we got it back.  Afterward we headed back to the station and they dropped me off and then went out to a couple more islands to do the same thing.  We were lucky enough to get to watch the football games last night also, which was a special treat.

Today was back to work for us and the REMUS.  We looked to see where the penguins had been foraging over the weekend, which was really close to the station.  The distance the penguins travel all depends on the where the food sources are.  Sometimes the penguins will travel up to a hundred miles or more to get food, but they have been staying within a 5 mile radius lately.  This is good for us because we can cover more area and don’t have to worry about going outside of the boating limits.  We went out to drop the vehicle off and then came back and worked on data while we watched the vehicle fly around over the satellite phone.  Everything went very smoothly and we picked it up after dinner time.

We have been having some big waves here from the storm this weekend and they have been breaking apart the icebergs and moving them around quite a bit.  There has also been some amazing calving on the glacier.  I haven’t really seen any, but I always hear about them from other people. 

Well it is off to work on the computer and talk to the family.  Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Another good blog to look at from our collaborators:  http://coseenow.net/ross-sea/

Good night.