October 20, 2011 One Final Splash

The Diving

It's really hard to put into words the experiences we shared under the ice. The 2011 diving season had some amazing moments for our group. There are too many to try to name, so I'll just leave the diving with a few amazing pictures from my last dive and a couple of accomplishments from our diving group.

A beautiful photo of the underwater landscape, with the ice overhead and the sea floor covered. (Photo courtesy of Steve Rupp)

We saw lots of Weddell seals active in the shallow water on our last dive. (Photo courtesy of Steve Rupp)

We saw this amazing sea star moving with tube feet exposed on our last dive. (Photo courtesy of Steve Rupp)

Another Weddell seal swimming around, with the ice in the background. (Photo courtesy of Steve Rupp)

Accomplishments

• The group logged over 100 dives under the ice.
• We collected both species of worms that we are interested in studying, Capitella and Spiophanes.
• Dr. Adam Marsh completed his 200th career Antarctic dive.
• We captured hundreds of underwater photos and hours of underwater video footage for Dr. Stacy Kim's work.
• Mike logged his 96th career Antarctic dive.

A Big Thank You

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Rob Robbins, Steve Rupp, and Brenda Konar for the countless hours of support and assistance. All of the diving and many of the underwater photos and videos that we shared would not be possible without them. Also, a special thank you to all the dive tenders who helped with all our gear and put on our dry suit gloves approximately 600 times.