Monday, March 9, 2009

Back at Palmer Station....

We're out of the weather and back at Palmer Station for 24hrs. We did one trawl last night that got hung up on the seafloor (big rock caught the frame), luckily we both got the trawl back intact and even had a sample! A very muddy one at that, which, when we realised it was the last trawl of the last station of the last cruise, a mud fight ensued. So we're at the station overnight tonight to get cargo and people loaded, then it's off to James Ross Island to pick up the fieldcamp, then back across the Drake passage. We have some landers to deploy enroute to be picked up on another cruise series, but otherwise science is done with. Major operations that is, my larvae are still going, my experiment is still going, but alas the weather has taken it's toll, they are not doing so great. It'll be hard to tease out what were the effects of the experiment and what were the effects of the weather. Bummer really, but you can't help the weather......

The mud crew working on the final trawl haul of the cruise, of the cruise series in fact....

There was actually work going on too......a lot of mud to sieve and get the animals out of. Unfortunately this trawl did not yield much in the way of animals.....

The mud mavens......Kim, me and Rebecca....

And the mud did not stay put on just the people. The side of the cold-van, my home for a long while and currently housing somewhat seasick coral babies....

Clean up only possible by firehose.....

Palmer Station at 7am this morning....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my heavens! Your photos are incredible! i had no idea that so much mud was involved. i have fond memories of palmer Station last year so say hello for us. Is Wendy still making pizza?

PleaseRecycle said...

Wow, the mud looks fun! Anita and I studies for a semester at Bodega Bay and we had to hunt for Urechis worms in the mud flats... so messy, but so fun.