In my dreams...

This has been the season for prestigious visits to Palmer Station. In late January, we received Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne along with her husband. That was an honor and an amazing time to meet her and show her the aquarium and labs.

Yesterday was an even more amazing experience. Paul Allen paid a visit to Palmer aboard his yacht, the Octopus (view the PowerPoint tour of this yacht here). He was joined by his sister, her children, and a few friends including Dan Aykroyd and his wife Donna Dixon.

They toured station for a couple hours, and I had the honor of meeting them and showing them the labs and aquarium. We had time for a couple group photos after the tour.

That evening, we were invited aboard the Octopus for some live music. It was an incredible night I will never forget.

We are all so grateful for the wonderful hospitality Paul, his sister and friends and crew showed us and for the opportunity to show them our operation and hard work here at Palmer Station.

Clogs

My knitting project this season was a pair of felted shoes. I got the idea and pattern from my friend Tony. I finished them last week. I'm hoping to put a sole on them so I can wear them around without worrying about wearing them out too soon.

BEFORE:








AFTER:

More Whales

Last weekend was a little different. A cruise ship was scheduled to arrive on Sunday, so we shifted our one day off to be Saturday and work a normal work day on Sunday, giving tours to the passengers, etc.

The glacier in the harbor has been calving like crazy this past week. This combined with a north wind jammed the inlet and water off station with brash ice. Over breakfast on Sunday morning we spotted 6-8 whales feeding on a giant school of krill just beyond this brash ice in front of station. The krill group was excited about this since they now knew exactly where the krill were to go tow for them and collect samples. They needed an extra hand with the poor weather- after asking for volunteers from the community and being turned down, I dressed up and went out. It was an amazing show for about 30 minutes (tails left and right and we even had a leopard seal following the boat as we trolled for a little while), then we had to get down to business- towing for krill, taking water samples in and out of the school, and doing a CTD cast (measuring Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) in and out of the school.

Photo from station of the three of us in the zodiac, Rubber Duke, beyond the ice with the whales.

We were out for about three hours in the wind and rain. When it was time to come in, it took almost an hour just to push through 300 feet of brash ice being packed in by the strong winds. After a 10 minute lunch back on station, it was time for me to go back out through the ice in another zodiac to give the tour talk aboard the Corinthian II cruise ship. It was a very long day, but the morning was very worth it.

Just a beautiful sunset we enjoyed a couple nights earlier.

Gould

I just wanted to post a great picture of the Laurence M. Gould taken by Zee Evans.

Whales

I was out helping a group tow for krill a few weeks ago, and we were surrounded by two pairs of humpback whales (mom and calf) feeding in the same school of krill we were sampling. They came close to the zodiac just a couple times and we got some good tail shows. It was my first time seeing whales up close, or in general for that matter, besides Shamu at Sea World or the far off water spout on the horizon. Sadly, it wasn't picture time since we were working, so we completely enjoyed the moments without feeling like we had to take pictures, which is perfect.

Yesterday, humpback whales were spotted off station out towards Janus Island- not too far away. At lunch, I found Cathyjean and Bob (two folks I worked with my very first season at McMurdo), we hopped in a zodiac and off we went to find those whales. It was an amazing reunion for the McM 191 Carp Shop Supply crew.

We rounded Bonaparte Point when Cathyjean spotted them off the port side. As we got closer, we saw that it was a mom and her calf. They didn't mind us being around and surfaced right next to our boat as they fed on krill. It was the true moment of awe at their immense size and their calm proximity that drew a tear to my eye. Then, I realized my eyes were watering not because of the beauty in the moment but because we had drifted through the cloud of spray they just blew out their blowholes. I never thought whale breath would smell so incredibly putrid.

You can just make out the mist from the blowhole.

They were so long and wide. It was awesome to see them surface, open their blowholes to breathe, round their backs, and dive back down- all so close to us.

As our clothes soaked up the stink, we enjoyed the rest of our time with them. They would come up right beside us, release a big blow (as we held our breath to let the mist pass), and sink back down into the water, showing us their tails only a couple times. The calf spyhopped us a couple times, too. We were out for over an hour. And of course, the one picture I was right in line to get a perfect backside tail shot turned out blurry.

It's been a while since I've been off station- busy with work and projects, my world feeling small and stagnant- so this was just what I needed.

LTER: Predators

This group concentrates on seabirds- penguins (adelie, gentoo, chinstrap), giant petrels, skuas, and gulls. They perform some basic observation of other birds but focus most of their time and energy on the former. They also do a little bit of mammal census (seals, whales), but another group not tied into the LTER focuses on that. The Birders look at populations, colony changes from year to year, egg and chick success, etc. All this is tied into climate and food source. We are at about the northern limit for Adelie penguins. Just in the past 5 years, this group as seen a major decrease in the number of breeding pairs and colony populations. Chinstraps and Gentoos, which are use to warmer climes, have moved in and compete for food.

Adelie colony census. This includes, checking nests for eggs/chicks, breeding pair observations, etc.

Transmitter on a Giant Petrel. This will record where they go when they switch out on the nest with their mate. Some have been tracked as far away as 800 miles from station for a two week period of time.

Attaching a transmitter to an Adelie penguin. Same kind of tracking idea.