Quick hello….
One more day, so we grabbed a hike in the snow storm.
Anyways – a quick shout out to the everyone back home!
Quick update on the happenings…
Since I’ve posted last, we’ve been working hard, skied on the glacier (which I’m terrible at), had a traumatic injury themed costume birthday party for the station doctor, seen some more wildlife, made some artwork with icefish, and worked hard some more… A few pics from the above events + a beard update for those interested parties.
At sea…
We left station last Sunday morning for 4 days at sea during our last fishing trip of the season. Long shifts (12 on/12 off), but lots of fun. We caught all of the fish that we needed with the exception of one species. We’re all in the process of adjusting our experiments accordingly. We returned to station on Wednesday and immediately resumed work. Until yesterday afternoon I had a wicked case of “dock rock” where you still feel like you’re on the boat. Basically, it felt like a nasty hang over for 1.5 days, but everyone is starting to feel better.
Today a baby seal, apparently alone, was hanging out on station. I’ve got some pics I’ll put up some other time.
Back to work. I hope everyone is doing well. One week from today the boat leaves for Chile… Time sure does fly when you’re having fun and working hard.
Oprah Show
We just found out the Oprah Show – “Where the Skye Are You?” including the interviews with folks here at Palmer Station will air on Thursday May 21st, 2009. Not sure we’ll get to see it, but check it out… you may see someone you know! 🙂
Another week’s-plus worth of updates…
Again, apologies for the delays in updating the blog. I’ve only got two excuses: 1) We haven’t had a full day off since May 9th, so there hasn’t been much to report on other than science and 2) since we haven’T had a day off in so long, we’ve clearly been working extremely hard so when I’ve got a spare moment the last thing I want to do is sit at the computer and update the blog. The first I can’t apologize for because that’s why we’re here and we are darn sure making the most of the tax payer dollars it took to get us here, but the second is just me being selfish, so I hope you’ll forgive me.
Anyways…
Monday May 11-14th, 2009 (Science)
The rest of our group is currently on the boat fishing, so Irina and I are running the science show here at Palmer. In addition to our own work, which I’ll talk about in a minute, we are also responsible for checking on fish which have received surgeries, consoldidating and cleaning our large aquariums for when the new fish come back on the boat, and making sure everyone is well-fed. One species in particular, Notothenia coriiceps (black rockcod), are particularly voracious. They’ll try to bit our large nets and are so hungry that I was able even to hand feed one.
Irina and I used some Chionodraco rastrospinosus (one of the white blooded species that lack hemoglobin, but do have myoglobin) to prepare mitochondria from the heart and to collect brain, pectoral, and heart muscle for the lipid oxidation experiments Lisa and I are working on here.
This was pretty much all of we did for the better part of the 4 days while the rest of our group was gone fishing, but we did rediscover our love the song from the Muppett’s called Manah, manah. It was a great start to the each of the days and was a great pick-me-up when we were dragging a little.
Wednesday May 13th, 2009 (FUN)
Although we haven’t had a lot of time to get out and enjoy this incredibly unique place, we were able to take an hour and assist in some other science on one of the other islands. There is a bird called the giant petrel which weighs between 7 and 18 lbs and has a wing span of up to 7 ft across (I think), which nests on some of the nearby islands. There are long-standing projects interested in the nesting sites and habits of the species since they are listed as a threatened species. As soon as the baby birds hatch in February, scientists and other folks here at Palmer Station begin visiting the nest to weigh and count the number of birds. Each bird is weighed every few days until the fly away for good 4 months later. The birds have been leaving their nests since we arrived and there were only a few left, so we jumped at the opportunity to hop on a zodiac and get out on the water for a little bit. Our jobs were as data recorders; the birds were too large (and angry) for us to handle. You’ll see below some elephant seals, a baby with some down left on it’s wings, researchers weighing one of the birds, two adult birds, and finally one of the birds stretching its wings.
Thursday May 14th, 2009
The rest of our group returned from fishing yesterday with quite a good catch, so we spent much of the afternoon moving fish from the boat to the tanks here at Palmer.
Friday May 15th, 2009
Our science continues and much of the day was spent planning the remaining 2.5 weeks worth of workdays we have left before we leave. It is going to be a packed schedule, but the work has to be done.
We had our House Mouse duties tonight after our long days work. As you can see below, it was so much fun that Lisa (left) and Kristin had to cut loose a little afterwards.
Need a day off or trying to attract some fishing help?
Saturday May 16-19th, 2009
The science has continued at near light speed. Lisa and I finally began processing samples and collecting data. We have 4 days blocks scheduled for the remainder of our time here – Day 1 – process 50-65 tissue samples for 2 different analyses. Day 2 – run those samples through the first part of the first analysis. Day 3 – finish first analysis and do the second analysis. Then repeat with a different species of different set of experiments.
Fortunately we were able to get outside for a bit today. Even though we wont’ have a full day off before we leave, we are trying to get outside as much as possible when we have the time. Remember sunrise is at 09:30 and sunset is at 3:00 pm, so there isn’t a lot of time to explore. We work late in exchange for enjoying Antarctica when the weather permits.
Today we hiked to the top of the glacier again and over to Bonaparte Point. The weather was gorgeous and was just the small break we needed. Back to work…
A week’s worth of news and updates…
I was gently reminded by e-mail today that I have been slacking big time on the blog updates, about a week’s worth if I remember correctly. Here’s my attempt at catching up on the happenings around Palmer Station.
Thursday May 7th, 2009
First off, Oprah… Apparently Oprah has discovered Skype because she is doing a few shows entitled “Where in the Skype are you?” or something close to that. There is a long-standing ban on Skype because it’s not secure and it eats up a ton of bandwidth (which we’re limited on), but when Oprah calls wanting to Skype we made an exception. So last Thursday she spoke with one of our scientists (Dr. Bruce Sidell) and one of the lab’s science technicians (Neal) via Skype about science, global warming, and Antarctica. We took a Station pic (below) and sent it along with others to the show. Scheduled air date is end of May, but when I know for sure I will let you know. You may, or may not, see my pic on Oprah in a few weeks.
Other folks took advantage of the temporary Skype access to bring the Antarctic to classrooms across the country. Lisa and I showed some students in Ohio some fish, Jody and Bruce spoke with Jody’s children’s school, and Megan, the HS teacher spoke with a few different classes. We received a ton of positive feedback from the schools so hopefully this will be considered as an avenue for educational outreach here in Antarctic in the future.
Science is a cruel mistress… things have not progressed on my science since the last updated. In fact Lisa and I today decided that it was no longer worth the effort since I would not be able to get everything planned completed given our both our problems with the equipment and delay in getting fish mitos. So that means a little extra work back home, but nothing insurmountable. Fortunately I can take my materials home and run the analysis there. So for the remainder of the time, I’m joining forces with Lisa because she’s got her hands full with her experiments, especially since her hand is still bothering her quite a bit.
This gorgeous sunset ended the day…
Today was the full moon, I think, and it was crystal clear and flat calm in the evening. After dinner, we rounded up some folks and headed to the hot tub to enjoy the weather. Megan, Irina, Webster, and I sat out there for about an hour listening to the glacier calving, the leopard seal lounging on the close iceberg, and watching the ghosts above Old Palmer Station. A well-deserved break.
Friday May 8th, 2009
Today functioned as Saturday here in Antarctica because the ship will be returning on Sunday, so the station staff were given today and Saturday off. That means cocktails, house mouse and science. Because our science was on-going today, we were assigned house mouse (chore) tasks we could complete anytime. I had to clean the Admin hall including vacuuming, dusting, etc… overall not a bad task.
We had some great Mediterranean-style tuna steaks for dinner today, so Megan, Eric (the cook), and I made up a great drink to go with the meal for cocktail hour. 1/2 jigger of anisette, and fill the glass with club soda and lemonade 50:50. My favorite part was getting to use the ice pick to chip away the bar ice (glacier piece) so that we could have ice in the drinks. This ice is absolutely clear like glass – truly incredible.
Saturday May 9th, 2009
One of the things I guess I haven’t mentioned is that the days are getting extremely short here; we’re losing about 20 minutes of day light each day. The sun typically has been rising around 08:30 and setting around 15:00 – you can do the math, but it’s dark here an awful lot and will only continue to get worse. The declining daylight limits the opportunities to get out on the water and explore here, so we made the group decision to take advantage of the great weather and do some sight-seeing around the lab. We left the lab around 10:00 in Zodiacs to check out some of the wildlife and scenery. I think the pictures speak for themselves… we were 5-15 ft away from all of the wildlife in the pictures. It was truly incredible and with the rough time I was having with my experiments, it was a big moral booster for me. It’s easy to forget the big picture sometimes…
The moon setting before we left for the day.
I spent about 40 mins watching this seal body surf this little cove… we became close friends. It was inquistive, smart, playful, and amazing. She never did haul out for me like I hoped, but as you can see, she did pose quite a bit for pics
End of day… Beautiful end to a Great day!!!!
There are obviously many many more pics… some other day perhaps?
Mother’s Day Sunday May 10th, 2009
The LMG returned to the Station today around 10:00, and today was the end of one of our big experiments. We divided our group up into 3 teams of 2 dissectors and each group processed 5 fish. We don’t like to waste any of the fish, so we sampled gill, heart, white and red muscle, liver, retinas, and kidneys. It was a long day of dissecting fish.
When the boat returns to the lab, the station hosts a “Crosstown” meal where the boat crew all come ashore and eat dinner at the Station. We were on GASH (kitchen cleanup) again. Once a week it comes along…
After dinner we all gathered in the lounge to watch some hot off the press video footage the whaling group shot while they were out of humpback and leopard seals swimming around and feeding. Amazing footage for sure.
The Station Manager Raydene, organized a “friendly” game of Crosstown bingo with some hot prizes at stake. Everyone was well on their way to having a good evening and BINGO was a blast. Our table won twice in 11 games, pretty good odds. Megan won the table a bottle of Tequila, which we enjoyed and then I followed up by winning a bottle of Pisco, the Chilean specialty. The night wasn’t over though, and included some Euchure, pool, dancing… good times were had by all. I’m sure someone has pics, but it isn’t me…sorry.
Monday May 11th, 2009.
And then there were two… Irina and I were left behind as the rest of our group left with the LMG this morning at 08:00 to go fishing. Until Thursday it is just the two of us (plus the whaling group) here on Station. Science continues…
Sorry… forgot the wildlife
An abbreviated Palmer Station photo tour…
The dining hall and science labs are located in the Bio Building which sits directly ashore of the pier.
The dining hall
My lab space
Immediately attached to and behind the BIO building are the aquariums, Hot Tub, and Sauna. Here are two of the outdoor aquaria (green tanks) and the hot tub immediately behind (with red decking). Haven’t tried out the hot tub yet, but sometime soon, hopefully. Arthur Harbor and GWR are in the background.
As you walk behind the hot tub, you are in front of GWR “Garage, Warehouse, and Recreation.” The view from the deck outside the bar is one of the best on station.
GWR also houses rooms, including mine,
the lounge and bar, and the gym (no pics, sorry).
If there is something you would like to know about life at Palmer or something you would like to see, just let me know.
Sunday May 3rd, 2009
The science is finally working, sort of. It’s been tough starting from scratch here with different equipment than we use back home. At home everything works beautifully, but it took us a little work to get it to that point. We were hoping to avoid that problem here at Palmer because they have the exact same equipment that we have at OU, however, they didn’t ship all of the accessory parts to the equipment from Chile so we can’t use it. Major bummer…Â so now I am trying to accelerate the “getting up and running stage” with this new equipment. Time is a tickinG…. TICK TOC TICK TOC! Everyone is feeling the push. In fact, I’m not going fishing the next time so that I can stay behind and work on my experiments.
I did take a little break this afternoon and headed out to the “backyard” to play a bit. By backyard, I of course mean the glacier. Lisa and I headed out to hike to the top of the glacier
You can see that I made it to the top…
Palmer Station is dead in the middle of the pic...
But it wasn’t easy and was super windy, cold, and side-ways sleeting, so I had to dress warm. And, as you can see, I even was even able to accommodate on a special request from back home by licking the glacier. Weird, I know, but that is what I was asked to do. 
I guess this would serve as a beard up-date…
I mean who wants to know what a glacier tastes like anyway? Have they never had an ice cube, slushie, snow cone, Italian Ice, etc….???
Here is a cool rock puddle that I found on the way down. I was impressed.
It was a good break from science, but back to work. Unfortunately progress on the science front has been slow, but we’ll press on.
Saturday May 2nd, 2009
Science, science, and more science, but that is why we are here isn’t it? 🙂
Saturday afternoons here at Palmer Station are scheduled for station-wide meetings and chores…
– At 2 pm the entire station community gathers in the galley and draws their tasks for “House Mouse” the thorough          weekly cleaning of all parts of Palmer Station. There is no custodial staff here, so tasks include cleaning the kitchen, and all of the bathrooms, the bar/lounge, trash duty (during which you get to use the big trash compactor), and other general cleaning tasks. My draw was the Bar/Lounge area with Webster (Cargo and Logistics) and Mark (Waste); those two tackled the bar area and I took the lounge which included vacumming, rearranging couches, dusting, and disinfecting touchable surfaces. Overall, not a bad draw. We were done fairly quick, so I was able to get a workout in before our 3 pm Station Meeting.
– 3 pm Station Meetings cover everything that has happened during the previous week including updates from other US Antartica Program sites.
More science…
– Dinner is pushed back slightly on Saturday nights to accomodate a Happy Hour from 5:30-6:00. In honor of the Kentucky Derby, today’s drink was obviously a Mint Julep. This one was special though, becuse it was made with Bar Ice (pieces of glacier that have broken off and are now free floating). Ryan (the boating coordinator) went out in a Zodiac and grabbed some earlier in the day. Nothing like a little ice pick and glacier ice to make a drink special.
More science until bed…
Lisa took a dive after dinner on the walkway tonigh and sprained her thumb… she now is now sporting a beautiful black brace. Unfortunately it was her pipetting hand.
Tales from the bottom of the world... 
