Picking up rocks!

December 8, 2009   

hutatlagoon
Lagoon Hut
elephantseals
Elephant Seals at Lagoon

On monday I went for my fourth dive in Antarctica helping Mel out with a little project. There were quite a large amount of icebergs in south cove as it has been blowing a southerly for a few days. We went down to 12m or so and were down for 40 minutes. My fingers were numb after 5 minutes.

While Mel was measuring the bodies of brittle stars on the grid I was bagging up 50 or so limpets for Mel to shuck and use for feeding the urchins in the aquarium at the bonner lab. I was also bagging up rocks with algae for the limpets already in the aquarium to graze on.

We also had a field party going out to Lagoon to get soil samples for a project. So all in all a busy day. I had taken a recreational trip out to Lagoon on Sunday as I was on Marine SAR duty this weekend. It means I can’t go beyond the hanger as I need to be able to launch the boat within 20 minutes. However, if I am already on the water it is OK.
lagoon

riblagoon
Landing point at Lagoon

After the trip to Lagoon we waited for the DASH 7 to land bringing in some new scientists for 10 days. It was a beautiful day so it wasn’t a bother waiting. As we were tied up on the wharf I mentioned to my crew that something was just under the surface of the water. A few seconds later a penguin jumped into the boat! It scared the crew and had a waddle around – there was enough time for me to get a quick video! I told Henry on the phone and he said silly aunty ashley – obviously he didn’t believe me.

We were up at the memorial late on Monday night after the great science talk about aerial photography and we hung out for a long time with a penguin which climbed about 250 yards up to join us following our penguin calls. The penguin stopped about 1.5 meters away from us and proceeded to pick up rocks and talk to us.

 

6 Responses to “Picking up rocks!”

  1. DAD December 9th, 2009 at 1:20 am

    Silly daughter why is a penguin gong to jump in a boat filled with people!!!

  2. mum December 9th, 2009 at 3:26 am

    So what is a penguin call? Is the aquarium you refer to the one we saw on sky? had imagined something entirely different. Is the spider you caught still alive. How big was it, how on earth does it survive in such cold waters when it has such thin legs. Who are the people in the picture?What do the scientists who come for 10 days do? Am getting many questions from friends re what other research is going on…..bril brill pics thank you x mum

  3. admin December 9th, 2009 at 8:38 am

    No idea but it was as shocked as we were to see a penguin flying towards the boat!

  4. admin December 9th, 2009 at 8:39 am

    It is a throaty sound… go on you tube… Alternatively I am sending you a CD with some video clips.

    Yes the aquarium is the one you saw on sky.

    The spider is doing fine. The underwater fauna down here are pretty adaptable being able to live in a wide variety of depths and temperatures.

    The people in the pictures – Me coming out of the hut, The otherside of the seals is Sian (PHD student), Adam (comms), Claire (Doc) and Rebecca (Met), the picture of three is Claire, Adam and myself.

  5. Rebecca December 10th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    Why does the penguin pick up rocks? -R

  6. admin December 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    It is to do with nesting… at least that is what I think! The bird beakers (that is a scientist) are all in south georgia not down here so I can’t ask!