Views From The Ob Tube

The observation tube allows us to sit underneath the ice and observe the penguins when the enter the water. There are other creatures that we can see. Here are a few photos.

First of all, the ob tube collects platelet ice rather quickly. The sea water is at approximately –2 C, which is below the freezing point of water. Any object in this water provides a crystallization site and the water freezes out around it.

This is the observation tube, as seen by one of the camera logger birds. You can just make out the collection of ice crystals on the lower half of the ob tube. Paul and Jessica cleared the ice from the windows the last time they went diving.

There are several species of jellyfish in the water. Paul was able to photograph one as it drifted past. This species isn’t very large, only a few inches across.

Of course, we see Weddell seal frequently. Here’s one that decided to explore the ob tube and swam quite close to it.

 

The real stars of the water are the penguins, naturally. Here are three of our birds. Notice how dark the ice has become compared with the photos taken earlier (above). Algae is starting to grow on the under side of the sea ice and that growth is blocking the light.

Kozue on the Roof

Kozue needs to keep track of her recorder birds, but it is often difficult to do so from inside the lab hut. Here she is watching the birds from the roof -- a good solution, but a bit chilly.

Here is a shot of one of her recorder birds underwater. The recorder logs the 3D profile of each dive that the bird makes. Kozue hopes to understand how a penguin navigates under water.

The Ice Cave

The Erebus Ice Tongue is an ice flow that comes off Mt. Erebus and thrusts into McMurdo Sound. Because the ice patterns of the Sound have been abnormal in the past few years (due to the huge iceberg B15), the sea ice has not broken out around the Ice Tongue for several years. Last year was the first time since about 2002 that there was open water around this ice flow. As a consequence the Erebus Ice Tongue was able to expand and in doing so, formed small gaps in the ice flow. These gaps form ice caves.

Below is a photo of Mt. Erebus with its volcanic plume.

Some of us were able to visit one of the caves last week. The caves were so beautiful that they seemed unreal. This is the entrance to the ice cave.

Paul at the entrance

Interior shots of the cave

 

Kathi

Brendan, Paul, and Jessica

 

   The only bad thing about the trip was having to travel there by snowmobile – my least favorite way to travel. Here is a photo with me in my helmet.

 

The Penguin Ranch Banner

I forgot to post this while I was in McMurdo, but Cass and Jessica had a banner made of this year’s logo. Here are photos of the banner on our Pisten-Bully.

Penguin Cinematography

We have been deploying our camera logger on several penguins this week. The logger is is basically a tiny still camera that records what the penguins are doing under the ice. In particular, the camera logs what they are hunting and how successful they are.

We have been very pleased with the results, even though this is just a prototype model. However, since the camera takes a photo every four seconds, we are capturing the secret world of the emperor penguins, as well. Below is a sample of the photographs our penguin camera person has taken.

Emperors have very flexible necks and even though the small camera is on their back, they can stare at it. Here is a self-portrait of  our camera bird.

Our penguin took the other birds’ photo while swimming.

Penguins in the dive hole. Notice how the water beads on their feathers.

The penguin view of the observation tube.

Photo of Jessica taken by our penguin

And one of Cass

Busy Day

Today, we deployed several dive recorders. My small backpack camera was one of them. Here is a photo of the bird with the little camera on its back.

The camera worked great! We were able to see the bird capture a small fish called a bork just under the sea ice. Unfortunately, our camera doesn’t have a flash and Shorty also liked to hunt at depth, where it was too dark to record anything. We suspect that he is hunting something like squid since there are many squid becks in the guano.

The camera bird also took photos of Kozue’s recorder bird returning to the hole.

In the evening, we removed the camera from the bird.

One More Time Into The Breach

Paul and Jessica decided to do another dive around the Ob Tube to finish cleaning it.

Paul suiting up.

Who is that masked woman? You also see the interior of our sleep hut with its bizarre blue walls.

Brendan in the Ob Tube, taken by Jessica from the water.

Jessica’s photo of Paul in front of the Ob Tube. I think that I’m the person that you see in the window.

Paul holding the tether line.

Jessica in the water

Both divers. The yellow tank attached to one of the lines is the pony bottle, which is an emergency supply of air in case a diver runs out of air before reaching the surface.

Paul exiting the dive hole. Jessica is already on the surface. There are still small plates of ices floating away from the Ob Tube after cleaning it a second time.

Cleaning the Windows

Our observation tube’s windows are becoming obscured by large plates of ice crystals (see below) Those crystals are making it difficult for us to observe our birds underwater.

Paul and Jessica went into the water to clean the windows.

Paul, Jessica, and Brendan are discussing the set up for the dive under the ice. Since we are standing over 1500 feet of seawater with ocean currents, there are a number of safety precautions that need to be in place so that a diver doesn’t get trapped under the ice.

Here is Paul suiting up for the dive. He is a wearing a dry suit and is getting very hot, which explains the scowl. (I hope.)

Kozue helps Jessica enter the dive hole.

Here’s Jessica entering the dive hole.

and Paul entering the water (those are Brendan’s feet, who is acting as the dive tender for both divers). The boards are in place to help the divers exit the hole when they are done.

They install a line with blinking safety lights that are set at regular intervals to mark the depth, as well as, the location of the exit hole. You can see Paul holding onto one of these safety lines with the blinking light (the small yellow, flashlight item on the line). I took these shots below from inside the Ob Tube.

Jessica with Jerry’s underwater point-and-shoot camera.

A photo of me in the Ob Tube taken by Jessica, who is in the water.

And a photo of Kozue, also taken from the water by Jessica.

A photo that Kozue took from the Ob Tube of Jessica with a penguin diving behind her. The light area behind Jessica is under the penguin corral.

Our windows are clean! Here’s a shot I took of our birds after the ice was removed.

Penguin Maintenance

Keeping birds in a corral, even for a short period of time, requires a lot of work. The dive holes have to be maintained or they will freeze shut, the snow that the birds lie on needs to be cleaned daily, and their snow wall, which the birds like to climb on (and eat) needs frequent renewal.

Brendan hauling away the ice from the dive holes.

Cutting new snow blocks for the wall

Paul and Kozue cleaning the corral with a watchful audience.

Kozue Drives the Pisten-Bully

Today, Kozue drove the Pisten-Bully to Penguin Ranch. She also had to checked us out with Mac Ops, which is no mean feat given that English is not her native language. There’s a lot of military jargon involved with the radio transmission and she did great.