Body sledding anyone?

Luckily, there was a break in the high winds and sea ice, so Kim and I were able to accomplish several things this past week! We were able to go out sampling a few times, allowing me to learn more about our equipment and earn some boating experience. So far we have seen several krill aggregations on the echo sounder, and yesterday we were lucky enough to see the krill themselves swimming around under the brash ice! At the moment there are only juvenile Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) in the area, but later on in the season we expect to see more of the large adults. Antarctic krill can live for 6-8 years and can grow up to 60 mm in length. A group of scientists from the University of San Francisco, led by Dr. Deneb Karentz, studying phytoplankton actually caught some krill in one of their net tows and much to our appreciation, brought them back for us! We measured the krill lengths, which we then use with the acoustic data to calculate krill biomass and abundance. All of the krill measured were smaller than 20 mm, which means they are most likely a year old. We have also seen a lot of foraging activity from the penguins and seabirds in the area, it looks like it might be a good year for krill.

Antarctic krill

Echogram

Due to some of our sampling destinations being outside the normal 2 mile boating limit, Kim and I were required to participate in additional boating training. We have the boating limit here at Palmer Station because of the amount of time it takes for help to reach you in the event of an emergency. Inside the normal limits, the Ocean Search and Rescue (OSAR) team can reach you within 10 minutes. However that amount of time lengthens the farther out you are, and extended training allows you to know what to do until help arrives. For training, Kim and I took turns putting on an immersion suit and jumping overboard into the water to await rescue. I was a little nervous considering there had been leopard seal (at least we think) sightings the past few days, but I was a big girl and jumped in. For the first jump, the person in the water is conscious and able to help you get them back into the boat. The second time, however, the person in the water pretends to be unconscious and the person rescuing them has to try to get their body as high up out of the water as possible and lash them to the boat with rope or bungee cord. Since it is only Kim and I boating together, we needed to feel prepared to rescue each other and know what to do in that situation. I feel much more comfortable now driving the boat right up to the overboard victim and getting them onboard. We will both be very focused on staying safe and inside the boat.

After a week of work, we celebrated Halloween at Palmer Station last Saturday. Kim and I decided to host a cocktail hour before dinner, and with bad weather at the end of the week preventing sampling we went all out in our planning. We ended up making an alcoholic jello brain with gummi worms, a pumpkin cheese ball, chocolate vodka/orange juice mimosa’s, and vampire blood cocktails with candy-rimmed glasses. And of course we had a large piece of bar ice (see to my left in the photo) from the ocean to put in our cocktails. You have to use an ice pick and hammer to crack off pieces and I thoroughly enjoyed that part. At the party it was fun to have everyone together and to see just how creative they were with their costumes. I ended up wearing a hazardous material suit to complete my polar bear costume.

Cocktail hour

On the actual day of Halloween, it was Kim’s birthday, so a friend and I decided to make her a cookie krill cake – it was a great success and delicious. After dinner a group of us went to a near by island and did some body sledding down the slopes, it was awesomesauce.

Krill cake!

 Body sledding!