Pressure Ridges and Weddell Seals!

Scott and I had Sea Ice Training today! This is a one day course that teaches us important things like: how to avoid driving over cracks in the ice that are too big for your vehicle, how to anchor a tent to bare ice, how to avoid falling into holes in the ice, how to help someone who has fallen into the ice, etc. We did a small amount of classroom prep, then hopped into the Hagglund to drive over the sea ice to an area that had some cracks in it.

The coast immediately around McMurdo station has remained frozen since around 2000, so we had to drive a way out before we could find ice thin enough to have developed good, measure able cracks. This afforded us some amazing scenery. Also, driving over the ocean is a Hagglund is awesome!

The ice was covered in over a foot of new snow from the blizzard, so our instructor pointed out areas where he had previously GPS marked cracks. Before we could measure the cracks, we had to dig away all the snow. As a general rule, if the ice is less and 30 inches thick in the crack, you can only drive over it if the width of the crack is less and 1/3 the length of your vehicles contact point. For example our hagglund covers 6 feet of ground as it drives, so we could cross a two foot crack, even if it went all the way to the water.

to measure thickness, you drill holes into the deepest part of the crack, and the edges of the crack. You have to keep adding lengths of drill, because the ice is often several meters thick.

Once you hit seawater, you stick a measuring tape with a heavy metal bar tied to it into the hole. When you pull the tape, the bar gets pulled sideways and hits on the bottom of the ice. You can then find out whether or not the ice in the crack is thin enough to worry about measuring the width of the crack.

Although this is all useful information, we do not have vehicles at Cape Crozier. Our main concern will be not stepping into a crack and getting hypothermia. This was covered briefly in the course a well, as we wandered around in the pressure ridges, looking for danger. And seals. Soon to come: Pressure Ridges and Weddell seal photos!!!!

Food selection and Scott Bas

Day 4 at McMurdo:
Today was spent mostly getting our gear together and packing our food for the entire field season. 'Shopping' for that much food was AWESOME. I was surprised at the quality of choices we had. We'll be eating lots of canned, frozen, or dried goods. But no SPAM! Imagine my disappointment.


In the evening we visited Scott Base, the New Zealand Antarctic Station. It is just a 45 minute walk away. On Thusdays they invite the Americans over to their pub. I got to see the closest thing we get to a sunset on the way back home to McMurdo.

Happy Camper and McMurdo Station

Its day three at McMurdo Field Station. I spent the first two days at Happy Camper, a 2 day long training session that occurs on the fast ice near McMurdo. This training is required for anyone spending any time at remote field camps in Antarctica. Basically we were driven out onto the ice and dropped off for 36 hours to build our own camp, set up tents, cook, and keep warm. There were 20 of us, mostly new to the ice, as veterans just take a short refresher course.


First we went over the basics in the classroom at McMurdo: How to avoid hypothermia, frostbite, sunburn, trenchfoot, etc. Then we picked up our lunches and hopped into 'Delta Trucks', which took us to the Happy Camper site. At this point we got issued 'sleep kits' containing two sleeping pads, a heavy sleeping bag, and a fleece liner. This is more or less what I'll be sleeping on for the rest of the season, with the added bonus of a thermarest, Yay! At this point we hiked out to an untouched area of the ice, and began to set up camp.


First we set up Scott tents. These are canvas tents that were invented at about the same time Captain Scott was trudging his way around Antarctica (1901-1912). They are simple, and can handle winds up to 100 miles per hour if anchored properly.


Next was the Quinzhee Hut. This is constructed by making a massive pile of snow and then digging out the inside. We cheated by piling snow on top of all our gear. Next you dig an entrance into the hut that approaches the interior from underneath. This way all the warm air gets trapped inside. It took 20 people several hours to make one hut, and in the end it only held three people. But I'm told they slept quite warmly.

We also set up 6 Mountain Tents, which are a little more intense than your standard backpacking tent. They hold 2 people and use the usual titanium and bungee pole system. They can't handle nearly the wind the Scott tents do, but their small size makes for warmer sleeping. To insure they did not blow away, we quarried large snow blocks from the pristine snow nearby and built a 50 ft long wall to shelter all the mountain tents. We used shovels and saws to get out the blocks, and stacked them like bricks to create a 4 foot tall wind barrier.

We constructed a trench kitchen with a wind wall surrounding it, and used Wisperlite stoves for melting snow to drink and cook with. Dinner consisted of all the dehydrated soup you could ask for and freeze-dried, packaged dinners. Those that wanted to dug individual trenches with roofes on top to sleep in. I decided I didn't want to dig any more trenches, and slept in one of the Scott tents, which was awesome. I stayed warm and would have gotten a lot of sleep if I wasn't so excited. I'm finding that with 24 hours of broad daylight, I have a difficult time unwinding at the end of the day.

The weather stayed nice (15-20 degrees) for most of the day, but around 3 am, the wind came up and things got colder. It was hard getting out of my cocoon of warmth in the morning. Making breakfast and breaking down all the tents took about 2 hours. Then we were picked up by our instructors, who gave us several hours of additional training on VHF and HF radio operation, communication protocol, helicopter safety, and rescue. One exercise involved wandering around in the snow with a bucket over our heads, looking for a lost teammate. The bucket simulated the total lack of vision and sound that occurs during a whiteout. Overall it was an extremely fun experience, but I had to take a long nap yesterday afternoon.

McMurdo Station

The view from the c-17 as we passed over the Ross Sea.




My blinding view of the ice while stepping of the Jet after a 5.5 hour flight.




These jets are large enough to hold two helicopters yet they land them on the layer of 'fast ice' that covers the southern portion of the Ross Sea.


I finally made it to the ice! I will have more to come, but I am very tired from the long flight down in our C-17. We have 'Happy Campers' tomorrow morning. This is the two day extreme climate survival course we all have to take before working out in the field. Also to come is Sea Ice Training. I am anxious to get some rest. It is 10PM here and still broad daylight. I hope I can convince my body to go to sleep!

Getting to the ice

This multi-leg journey to the ice is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I left the Portland International Airport at 5PM Monday for a three hour flight to LA. Then came the 15 hour flight to Syndey, Australia, quickly followed by a 3 hour flight to Christchurch, New Zealand. Arriving in Christchurch at 2PM on Wednesday, I was pleasently greeted with clear skies and the warm summer weather of the temperate Southern Hemishphere. After meeting with my crew to discuss some penguin project details, I caught some much needed sleep at our charming bed and breakfast.

Thursday we all filed into shuttles to be dropped off at the Clothing Distribution Center. This is where we were all giving two duffel bags filled with down parkas, windproof pants, fur gauntletts, extreme weather boots, and long underwear. It is extremely inportant that everything fit perfectly, so it took some time to try everything on and exchange for different sizes.

It is now Friday. After an early morning of getting suited up, watching a safety breifing, and waiting next to our giant, Air Force C-17 for half an hour, we were told that the jet had mechanical problems and would not be flying to the ice. The next available C-17 will come to Christchurch on Monday. Bummer!

I'm going to attempt to make the most of the next couple of days in Christchurch by taking some hikes and attempting to get a glimpse of some native wildlife.

General Adelie Biology

General
For a more in depth look at Adelie biology, check out the penguin science website at www.penguinscience.com. I've included a quick summary of what we know of these birds. The Adélie Penguin is a medium sized penguin (~28in tall, weighing 8-12lbs). It is a carnivorous bird, eating krill, fish, and squid. The Adélie penguin depends on large areas of pack ice because its main prey item, the Chrystal Krill, breeds under the ice. The penguins also rest and avoid predators on top of the ice. They spend their winter months (February-October) foraging far out to sea and they come to ice free land to breed in the summer months (Late October-February). Because of the rarity of ice-free, coastal areas, Adelies nest in dense colonies of up to several hundred thousand pairs. I will be studying Adélie Penguins during their breeding phase.



Breeding Biology
In the spring (late October in the southern hemisphere) the males migrate to the Antarctic continent or Antarctic islands to rebuild their nests and await the return of the females. The male constructs a mound of pebbles with a bowl in the center for eggs. Males will energetically guard their nests from other males looking for a nest site. Space is limited! The females return a few days later and choose their mates. They prefer to nest in the same location as the previous year, and in this way a female often pairs with the same male for consecutive years. About a week later, the female lays two eggs and then departs from the colony to forage for one or two weeks. She may have to walk several miles across ice to get to open water. Meanwhile, the male will incubate the eggs. Then she will return to incubate and the male will go to sea to forage. They will take turns in this way until the chicks hatch.


Chick rearing is much more demanding than egg care. Chicks grow fast and must eat frequently to gain the weight they need to leave the colony before winter. The adults will take turns foraging for food and brooding the chicks. When the chicks are small, they must be kept warm and guarded from predatory Skuas at all times. The Antarctic Skua is a large seabird which nests nearby. At three weeks, the chicks are large enough to keep themselves warm and they are too large for a Skua to drag away. They now need so much food that both parents must forage. The chicks huddle together in large groups called crèches, waiting for the return of a parent with a delicious meal of regurgitated krill. In late February, the chicks leave the crèches and go out to sea. They require no more care from the adults. They will spend the next few years hunting and gaining experience. At the age of 3 or 4, they will come back to the colony of their birth to practice building nests and attracting mates. By age 5 they will most likely have enough experience to raise chicks of their own. Adélie penguins have been known to live as long as 20 years in the wild.

Conservation Concerns
Global Climate Change: Adélie Penguins require pack ice for their survival. Global warming, caused by human use of fossil fuels, is quickly melting the world's ice. Adélie penguin colonies are disappearing from the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Alternately, penguin populations are growing in the Ross Sea, a southern area of Antarctica. The Ross Sea has historically been covered by a massive ice shelf. As this ice shelf breaks apart, it creates pack ice habitat for Adélie Penguins. The Ross Sea is the last refuge for this and many other Antarctic species. If global warming continues, even the Ross Sea will lose its ice cover, eliminating any chance of survival for Antarctic penguins.



Overfishing: Adélie penguins have been shown to have a much greater chance of raising chicks to fledging if their diet contains a high percentage of fish. There is little regulation of fishing practices in the Southern Ocean and many fish stocks have been severely depleted since the 1960's. Researchers think penguin diets now contain a much lower percentage of fish. Although Adélie Penguins can cope with this to some extent, populations of Emperor Penguins, Gentoo Penguins, and Chinstrap Penguins are quickly shrinking.

Preparations for November 2 deployment

My research internship with Penguin Science (http://www.penguinscience.com) will be three months long, starting November 2, 2009 and ending in early February. I will be spending most of the time at a remote field camp at the Cape Crozier Adelie penguin rookery, a short helicopter ride from McMurdo Station, Antarctica's largest community. I'll be living in a tent by night and walking through Cape Crozier ~150,000 strong Adelie Penguin colony by day, tracking individually marked penguins and their reproductive efforts.

Deployment to Antarctica requires rigorous medical screening. Basically, if you get into any health trouble down there, it could be a long time before the weather is suitable to be transported to the nearest heath care facility. After many exams and tests, I was finally 'Physically Qualified' last week. Yay!

I'm currently awaiting my deployment and keeping busy reading Adelie and Ross Sea literature, as well as collecting items for my Gear List. Although Raytheon Polar Services will issue me most of the extreme weather gear, for warmer days I'll want my own assortment of boots, long underwear, jackets, gloves, hats, etc.