Saturday, November 10, 2012

Well, today was quite an incredible day. The first thing that I did was have a video conference with students from back home. Our biology student group has been hosting a "Better know a lab group" lecture series so that students on campus can get to know what different research groups are doing. I did our lab groups talk from my lab which was pretty fun. I talked about our research, where our fishing sites are and some things about life down here in McMurdo. I also showed the group some fish as well. Then, my friend Kim who works on seals also jumped in a gave a little talk about her research as well. It went really well and everyone at home had ice cream during the talk! Here are Kim and I talking to the group back home.

Next, it was off to Cape Royds. We took snowmobiles out because it is almost a 40 mile drive. It took us about 2 hours to get there. I had never fished there before and we were interested in seeing if it was any different that out normal fishing sites. 

Once we found a good spot, it was time to drill and set up our pop up fish shelter!

Our friends Brad, Claire and Michelle had been working out at Cape Royds as well when their batteries on their equipment died. They swung by to help us out after that. Here is my friend Brad (who works on maps down here, not my advisor) doing his first ever ice fishing in Antarctica.

We decided to drill some more holes so that everyone could have a chance to fish.

Then it was time to fish! We didn't have much luck fishing at Cape Royds. We had a lot of nibbles and bites but didn't catch many. One thought we had is that because all of the fish we caught there were so tiny, maybe the hook and bait were too big to even fit in their mouths! It certainly looked that way with the few fish we caught.

When we were done fishing, we went to check out Shackleton's hut. The New Zealand historical society has kept these huts in such amazing condition over the years. We have to clean our pants and boots off and can't touch anything, but we can take a lot of pictures. One thing that is so incredible to think about is that even after over 100 years, the food in the jars etc is still the same. The temperature rarely gets warm enough for things to melt and there are not bacteria etc to cause things to rot, so everything just stays as it was!

That last picture is nothing but table salt. Just look at all that salt!!!

We then went to the outside part of an Adelie penguin colony. It is a protected area so we are not allowed to get too close, but it sure was amazing to see all of those penguins!

Lastly, on our drive home, we stopped by to take some pictures of the Barne glacier. It is so tall and massive! I just love how blue the ice is! It really was an incredible day!