Mike Castellini in Antarctica

Cruise Report

January 3, 2000
2100 hours Lat 76 south, 158 west, Ross Sea

January 2, 2000
2300 hours, Alaska time

Everyone,

We are now two weeks into our cruise on the Palmer down to the eastern Ross sea and over to about 130 west. We were extremely fortunate on our crossing from New Zealand to the pack ice and never had more than about 15-20 ft seas. We arrived at the ice edge on the day after Christmas and immediately began working with seals about 0400 the next morning.

Our typical station is to have a watch all night for large collections of seals along our transect, and barring any mid night stops, go onto station about 1000 hr. At that time, a CTD is run, hydro-acoustics are collected, zodiacs launch to catch seals, helos fly for census work and the ice team goes out for cores, etc. After the station is complete, the krill and fish trawls are done as we leave the site. On that schedule, we have been making about 90 nm per day. Right now, we are on the northern edge of a large coastal lead right at the shelf break and maybe, the shelf front. We have gone over into a more detailed water sampling mode as we cross these zones with CTD, acoustics and trawling stations every 10 nm until we hit the 2500 m depth mark and then stations every 2.5 nm until we come up on the shelf (about 500m). We will then turn east into a zone where the ice covers the shelf break and sample through that area as we try to determine the factors that influence the distribution of seals and penguins.

We have had a very successful time for the lab so far and have handled 21 animals for blood work, blubber chemistry, etc. Included in these are five Ross seals which are very rare and seldom seen. From our data so far, it appears as if the animals in the area north of our present location are not feeding heavily, if at all and may be locating there for molting, which is usually done during a fasting period of their lives. From the midwater trawls, which are turning up mainly with jellies and krill, there may not be the fish in this region to support the deep diving species of seals.

Anyway, we are having a great time and the NBP is a wonderful ship for this kind of work. The graduate students are having quite the experience and we have pulled a few of the 24- 36 hr days which has had us all a little dazed.

More later and I hope all is going well in Fairbanks.

Next Report | NSF Reports

School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences | In the News