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…