Sunday, November 4, 2012

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Well, today was quite a fun day. I went out with B-232 again today to help them recover another tag on  seal. But first, they had to deploy and instrument in to the water to do some water sampling. When we got to the hut, there was a seal hanging out in the hole! 






















I was pretty surprised since I haven't seen a seal in any of our fish huts yet this season! Also, you might be able to notice that my face looks really shiny. That is because it was so so windy. I put Vaseline on my skin so that I don't get wind burn or frost bite. Even though it looks super funny, it works really well!






































Here is Kim deploying her instrument. The seal in the hole didn't seem too bothered by her.





At times both during and after deploying the instrument, there were two seals trying to share the hole. Most of the time they seemed to get along, however, they did push each other around a bit to get better positions every once in a while.


Next, it was time to go collect the tag on the seal. We found the seal in some pressure ridges. These happen when the sea ice bulges and cracks. They can be incredibly beautiful. 



I felt so lucky to be able to go out with B-232 again. Here I am with one of the seals that was near where we were working in the pressure ridges. It was so beautiful!



Finally, I figured that since there aren't any Polar Bears in Antarctica, these Weddell seals needed to at least see one bear in their lifetimes...so they got to meet Pooh Bear! I was pretty impressed. The first time I saw a bear in the wild, I was pretty scared. These seals didn't seem the least bit worried at all!

It really was an AMAZING day!!!








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