Journal Entry # 15

February 26-27, 2002

Summary: Port Call of the Laurence M. Gould

       These last two weeks at Palmer have be fabulous!  Palmer is a fabulous station that's like no other place I've visited.  The small number of people working at Palmer give it a real comfortable feel, almost like a field camp.  Yet the fact that Palmer is an established station means that life is really plush.  Don't get me wrong, I loved being in field camps, regardless if they didn't had showers or or if there were limited supplies of food, but to take the best parts of a station and package it on such a small scale is wonderful.
       The best thing that happened in the last few weeks was that I got an extension on my time in Antarctica and am being allowed to stay an extra two weeks!
       So far at Palmer I've been primarily working with one of the Palmer LTER teams that's based out of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, back in San Diego.  Twice a week we go out sampling the water in a Zodiac.  A typical sample day includes bring back water from various depths, performing a CTD cast and completing a plankton grab.  Both the water collection and CTD aspects are similar to the work I did last January in the Dry Valleys.  A detailed explanation of them can be found in my 13-20 January entry.  As for the plankton grab, that was completed by lowering a net in the water, down to maybe 30 meters (it changed every time) and pulling it to the surface.  On the end of the net there was a cod end which is just a plastic container that collected the water and plankton in the water as the net was pulled to the surface.
       Once we completed our samples at two stations, we'd return to the station where the samples are prepared for further analysis.  All the water is filter so that all the plankton in the water is caught on filter disks.  That way, instead of storing 5 liters of water, the team can instead store a small disk about the size of a quarter.  Also, the water from the plankton drag is treated and slides are prepared so that a visual examination of the plankton can be done. 
       Although I work mainly with this scientific team, I also got the opportunity to work with the bird group that studies the different winged species around Palmer station.  The day I went out they were working on Adelie penguins.  Which was awesome because I was able to do some hands on learning about a species of penguin I had been seeing a lot of both at McMurdo and Palmer.
       Another group I worked with was the Krill group.  Most of their time is spent in their Zodiac performing acoustic transects, looking for schools of Krill.  They basically use a sonar system that looks for biological masses.  Going out with them was interesting since there's not much physical labor to be done, it's more always having to pay attention and monitor computer screens (which can be very difficult if there are rough seas).
       The last science group I had the opportunity to work with was a group from William's of Mary College, that was investigating pollutants in various biological median including plankton, water, ice, soil, and even dead animals.
       Since it's the end of the season and science is slowly coming to a close at Palmer, these are the only science groups working now.  In the next few weeks I hope to work with different Raytheon employees so that I can get the Antarctic experience from all views.