Monthly Archives: September 2009

09/14/09

The Wildlife

Chinstrap Penguins Courtesy: © The Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu

Chinstrap Penguins © The Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu

THE Antarctic Conservation Act of 1978 strictly governs human-wildlife interaction to protect native mammals, birds, and plants and their ecosystems.

An Antarctic code of ethics holds that if an animal reacts to your presence, then you are too close.

Sailing through Chile’s Strait of Magellan, we hope to see Humpback Whales, Elephant Seals, dolphins, Albatrosses, Snow Petrels, Sea lions and penguins.

Wildlife at Palmer Station is abundant, making it a great location for biological studies of birds, seals and the marine ecosystem. Palmer has a large and well equipped lab and sea-water aquarium.

We hope to see Leopard Seals, Elephant Seals, Fur Seals, Royal Penguins, Adelie Penguins, Emperor Penguins, King Penguins, Gentoo Penguins, Rockhopper Penguins, Orcas and Albatrosses.

Staff at Palmer are warned to give Orcas and leopard seals a wide berth – leopard seals can be aggressive and have bitten and punctured the speed tubes and pontoons of Zodiac boats!

09/13/09

The Science

Conductivity Temperature Depth Profiler

Conductivity Temperature Depth Profiler

WE will examine how the storms that roar through the region mix the ocean, allowing carbon transfer from the deep sea to the atmosphere.

Scientists hypothesize that the Southern Ocean acts like a sponge, absorbing human emitted CO2 into its surface layers and that as humans emit an increasing quantity of CO2, this sponge is becoming saturated.

At the same time, scientists expect that increasingly strong winds tearing through the region churn up the ocean, bringing natural CO2 up from the sea bed and transferring it to the atmosphere.

By measuring the amount of CO2 in the water, scientists onboard the Gould will gather valuable data to help test these hypotheses. If these phenomena are observed, scientists believe this will provide further evidence of human induced climate change.

I will write more on the science from the ship using our low-bandwith twice-daily satellite-based email system.

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09/13/09

Kit List

  • Panasonic HPX170 camcorder with 2 x 32GB P2 cards
  • Canon EOS 50D camera with 18-200 mm IS lens with 4GB CF card
  • Multiple batteries and chargers (batteries lose power faster at below zero temperatures)
  • Sennheiser stick / wireless mics and transmitters
  • Hard drives
  • Macbook Pro laptop loaded with Final Cut Pro
  • 3 point light kit with extra bulbs
  • Portabrace camera case
  • Kata backpack
  • Manfrotto tri-pod