Thursday October 20, 2011

Today was a lab day and the rest of the week will probably be the same for Isaac, Marissa and I. Marissa has been analyzing data for most of the week and finishing up her massive project that has been going on since our team returned last January. Isaac and I are already getting prepped to run some experiments on fish that we have caught recently. Today, Isaac and I worked on some of our techniques and prepared the lab so we can each do our own experiment at the same time. Here is Isaac showing me how to collect tissue samples.

Because the fish live at -1.86 degrees Celsius, we have to work in a room that is kept at -2 degrees Celsius. That is why we are wearing hats and two pair of gloves.

We also got some really great news from the Field Safety and Training Program (FSTP). They are the people who go out and check the conditions of the sea ice and keep us updated. Today they said that some of the cracks in the ice have healed enough for us to be able to drive our PB over them safely. Remember, safety is the name of the game here and they would never let us go out if it were not safe. Having said that, we will now be able to access our fishing sites with our PB. The upside to that is we can come and go as we please and we will have our PB to use as a small shelter. The downside is that we may not get to fly in helos now. However, like I have said before, things are always changing and we have to be ready to go from Plan A to Plan B all the way to Plan Q if we have to! Here is what a drawing of our sea ice conditions looks like. Thanks to Sandwich for her talent!

Finally, it just wouldn't be Antarctica without disk golf now would it? My friend Dannie said that she brought four disks in case some break due to the cold. If she hadn't left for New Harbor for the season, I would have a disk and a person to play with. Maybe I can check one out at gear issue :)