Iceberg Invasion!

Over the past couple of days icebergs have surrounded the station. It's very calm with very little wind and there's no telling how long they will be around.  At the moment the R/V LM Gould is a couple of miles away "mowing the lawn".  They can't tie up because the icebergs are blocking the pier. 

Beautiful 'bergs though....

Humpback whales in the Neumayer Channel

On the way back to Palmer Station we saw humpback whales in the Neumayer Channel.... there really are no words (or video) to do it justice... but here you go.Click on this link to watch the video of a momma whale and her calf

White-blooded icefish really do have "white" blood!

Now, compare the gills of the white-blooded icefish, Chaenocephalus aceratus to the red-blooded Notothenia coriiceps: the gills of the icefish look white!  Icefish do not have red-blood cells and do not make the oxygen binding protein hemoglobin that is the protein responsible for giving blood its characteristic red color.  Hemoglobin binds oxygen and transports it through the body to the tissues that need it for aerobic metabolism.  Because icefish lack hemoglobin they carry only a fraction of the oxygen (~10%) a red-blooded fish carries. All the oxygen in the blood is dissolved in plasma, which is the fluid part of blood that is composed of water, proteins, small molecules and ions.

Icefish Chaeocephalus aceratus

Red-blooded Notothenia coriiceps

The gills of the icefish C.  aceratus appear white because the blood lacks hemoglobin-containing red blood cells.

The gills of the red-blooded fish N. coriiceps are red because this fish species has red blood cells that contain the oxygen binding protein hemoglobin.

We use otter trawls and fish pots to catch fish

We arrived around 9:00pm on Thursday and immediately started fishing.  We use two types of gear: otter trawls and fish pots. We fish at depths that range from ~150meters to ~200meters in depth. The icefish and the red blooded notothenioids are benthic; they sit on the bottom, which is why we need to do bottom trawls to catch them.

The otter trawl is being hauled up onto the deck.  The metal doors help to hold the net open while it is being pulled through the water. It takes about 20 minutes for the net to reach the bottom, we trawl for 15 minutes and then another 20 minutes to bring the net up to the surface.

Here you can see the entire net hauled up on deck; the  cod-end of the net is the part of the net that holds the fish that are caught. You can see the enlarged cod end that holds our catch. Where we were fishing we were hauling up a lot of macroalgae, so most of what is in the net is algae, not fish.

We set lines of four fish pots and fill a bait bag (the orange sack in the photo above) with mackerel and sardines.  We set the pots and haul them back up 24 hours later.   In each pot we generally catch 0-8 fish, and we set a total of 16 pots.  We use the fish pots to catch primarily the red-blooded Antarctic fish, Notothenia coriiceps (below).

 The common name of N. coriiceps is the yellow belly rockcod.

When you lift the operculum and look in the gill chamber of a red-blooded fish you can see the gills.  The gills are red because of the presence of red blood cells that contain hemoglobin.  Hemoglobin is an oxygen binding protein that transports oxygen through the body.  The only adult vertebrate that do not have hemoglobin are the icefish, which is the group of fish we are studying.  I'll show a photo of icefish gills in the next post, but icefish do not have red blood because they do not have hemoglobin or red blood cells.

But, back to the fish pots.... When we haul up the pots, there are amphipods that are feeding on the bait.

The bait bags are covered with amphipods, which are a type of crustacean.

Below you can see a close-up of a bait bag; the amphipods have scavenged the "meat" off the mackerel and sardine bait, leaving only the skeleton... pretty cool, huh?

On the way to the fishing grounds

The view of Palmer at sunrise as we leave the station to go fishing.

We left to go fishing last Thursday and we headed up to Low Island (see Google Earth Map below), which is a 12 hour steam from Palmer. Also, if you click on any of these images, they should open as a larger version.

To get to Low Island we went through the Neumayer Channel, which is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular places on earth.

I made the Valdosta Daily Times....

I do not  know if this link will work, but the VDT picked up the press release done by VSU and printed it.  This link should take you to the article:  Article in VDT

Press Release from VSU

ttp://www.valdosta.edu/about/news/releases/2015/04/vsus-dr.-theresa-grove-joins-international-research-team-in-antarctica.php

Palmer Station on Anvers Island, Antarctica

This past Saturday was my first day off since arriving to Palmer Station.  We were lucky that it was a beautiful day, and we had the opportunity to take a zodiac to a neighboring island about 10 minutes away from Palmer.  This is a view of Palmer Station when we were coming back to the station as we made our way through the brash ice.

 We headed on the research vessel  LM Gould to Antarctic Peninsula, which is just south of South America.  It took us about 4 days to cross the Drake Passage (the water between South America and Antarctica.  Luckily for us the seas were relatively smooth during the crossing.

 Palmer Station is located on Anvers Island; you can see on the above image where Anvers Island is located just off the Antarctic Peninsula.

And, if you look even closer at Anvers Island, Palmer Station is located on the southern end of the island.

Fish!

We are studying a group of fish called the notothenioids.  One family within this group has translucent "white" blood because it doesn't express the protein hemoglobin, which is the oxygen binding protein found in red blood cells of vertebrates, and it is hemoglobin that gives blood its characteristic red color.  The fish species in this family of fishes (Family Channichthyidae) are commonly called icefish because of their lack or red blood. Below are some of the fish species of icefish.  Chionodraco rastrospinosus is my favorite.

Chaenocephalus aceratus

Chionodraco rastrospinosus

Pseudochannichthys georgianus. By the way the large "spider" is a sea spider (a pycnogonid).  To give you an idea of its size... see below.

Punta Arenas...the largest city south of the 46th parallel

Before we left Chile for Palmer Station we had the chance to wander around Punta Arenas.

The orange and red boat is the LMG.

We moved on board the R/V Laurence M. Gould, and left for Palmer Station on April 7.

Getting gear

Since I now live in south Georgia I no longer have much winter clothing.  However, we are provided with the essentials that include rubber pants, coat, and boots for fishing, hats, gloves, socks, boots, hats, coat, etc.  In Punta Arenas there is a large warehouse with a small part of it that has the clothing we need. We return the gear on our return trip to Punta Arenas.

Inside the warehouse

Lisa and Amanda getting their "cool" Palmer attire.

Clothing checkout window

Getting closer....

We left Santiago yesterday (April 4) and flew to Punta Arenas with a 1 hour stop in Puerto Montt.

The mountains in Chile are amazing, even from a plane!

En route...

My luggage and I arrived to Santiago. It's beautiful flying into the airport because of all the mountains.  We leave for Punata Arenas this afternoon.

I am waiting at the gate in Atlanta's airport....

But at least the sunset was nice. Next stop Santiago, Chile. I take off at 10:00 and land tomorrow morning at 8:30. 

A few links you may enjoy...

Here's the Palmer Station webcam link (click on it to open a new window) for your first glimpse of Palmer; it takes photos every 15 seconds.  Unfortunately, the Torgersen Island webcam that takes photos of the Adelie penguin colony is only online during the austral summer months, so it is currently offline. The research vessel that will take me from Punta Arenas, Chile is currently just off the coast of South America.  You can track the LMG by clicking here, which is a marine traffic website.  If you then click on the green button "Show on live map" you can see where exactly the LMG is.  And, finally for you weather junkies, the current weather at Palmer Station can be found here.  It's a balmy 33F at Palmer... I am really looking forward to the cold and the snow. 

Stay tuned for more more posts.  I am scheduled to arrive Palmer Station on April 12, but I may be able to post en route.  I leave this afternoon, fly to Santiago, Chile tonight, and from there fly to Punta Arenas (P.A.).  We leave P.A. on the 7th.