Ice!! (4/15/07)
Sometime around yesterday morning (4/14/07) or perhaps the night before (4/13/07), we reached the ice! It was very exciting to finally get in the ice- and once we reached it, the weather definitely turned- it went from sunny and "warm" to WINDY (with sideways snow) and then on to the ice, where the air is so cold (with the wind chill) that our samples are freezing the minute they come out of the water…brrr!!
The type of ice we saw first is called loose pack ice, which is big chunks of floating ice, they're usually slight angular. As we got farther in to the ice, some of it turned to pancake ice (well, this is probably not the technical term for the ice), which looks like GIANT floating white pancakes- they're very round and have ruffled edges (kind of like a pancake!). You can hear the ice scraping along the sides of the hull, and every time the ship hits a big chunk it shimmies back and forth- kind of like riding out an earthquake.
This morning we reached the heavy ice (I don't know what this type is called)- hardly any cracks in this type of ice, and the water showing from where we broke through the ice starts to freeze up immediately. At our stations, we have to send the CTDA research tool that is submerged in the water to measure conductivity (salinity), temperature, and depth. and the multicorer over the side, but first we have to make a large hole for them to go through, because they cannot break through the ice themselves. Sometimes that means moving the station (hence moving the ship) so we can find some ice that is thinner and easier to break through.
The marine mammal group got out on the ice today- we reached a spot that was thick enough to walk on. They lowered them down in the "man basket" which is a large metal frame attached to a crane. 2-3 people climb inside and they lower them down on the ice. They made two trips yesterday, with 4 marine mammal guys and one Coast Guard who was on polar bear watch. They headed off about ½ a mile from the ship to a breathing hole where they'd spotted two adult seals and a baby. Their goal was to tag at least one of the adults- we were told they'd have about a 10% chance of actually tagging one. Unfortunately, the adults saw or smelled them and stayed away- but the baby lay there on the ice. They got some pretty good pictures of it (they're not allowed to tag the babies) and then headed back to the ship. All in all, it was a pretty exciting event to see them out on the ice!!
I've heard that we are soon to be in walrus country, probably in the next day or so. The walrus herds are apparently HUGE- up to 10,000 walrus at a time- if not more. We may also see a polar bear or two if we are lucky. The walrus play a HUGE role in the dynamics of the Bering Sea ecosystem. They feed on the benthic organisms and make a very large disturbance in the mud- leaving large holes where they dig out their food. This is something important for me to consider- because I am interested in how the benthic organisms affect the sediment- and the walrus eat the benthic organisms and REALLY disturb the sediment- so this could be interesting to look at as well. I'd love to be able to go out on the ice and get up close to one- that would be awesome!
I hope to post pictures as soon as I see walrus- We do have a lot of stations coming up which will make me fairly busy, but I will try my best to keep you all updated!! Keep asking questions!
Also- for those of you who have tried emailing me at my HEALY web address and haven't heard back from me, please try emailing me at my normal email address- I think I'm having problems sending and receiving emails right now, but I'm not sure. We do have 24/7 internet access here, although it's limited, but I can check my web mail.
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