2013-02-26 (Tuesday). After a night of hard work, I was hoping to
sleep until 10:00. However at 09:30, Julian Gutt wakes up me by a phone call,
because there are different things to fix before dealing with the technical
aspect of the traps. I take a shower, put my clothes, quickly eat a pancake,
drink a cup of coffee (I cannot sart without a cup of coffee) and runs to the
office of the meteorologist. He tells me that the weather for the coming days
will be windy (for short periods up to 8 Beaufort) and with waves (for short
periods of time up to 4 m high). Not optimal conditions, but this is still OK.
I got to the bridge and discuss with the pilot (Carola Rackete). We fix an
approximate position for putting the traps (at 180 m depth) and decide of a
time for getting them up (in a time interval of 24-48h). She told me that due
to the bad weather conditions, the system should be improved for removing the
lander more easily out of the water. I say that in such coçnditions, we
should add a rope with a buoy to the upper
frame. She says this would be OK. I see the boatman (René Schröter) to
see if he has such a gear. he confirms me that he has it. We untie the lander
and its ropes. We fix the acoustic releaser to the ballast of 100 kg. We have
to put the gait (fishes) in the traps. I have defrost them yesterday (for the
second time). They stink horribly. Marie put rubber gloves and cut them into
pieces with very shears and put pieces of fishes in boxes with small holes,
which are fixed in the traps. I am a bit ashamed to leave this unpleasant task
to Marie but there are several things to do quickly at the same time and other
urgent duties called me. I test the radio beacon with Carola. It works very
properly. When I am back I see that Marie has received the kind help of Annicka
Elsheimer for cutting these horrible fishes into pieces. Their stench is so
intense that it has escaped the wet lab and is now spreading int the
corridor... I was fearing the justified irritation of colleagues but nothing
like that does happen. We bring the trap outside and fix them on the frame of
the lander. Then we screw the radio
beacon to the upper frame of the lander. Everything is almost ready. I hurry up
for eating (it is 11:40). I go as soon as possible back into our lab. I prepare
my camera (I have to change the battery and the objective). I put the radio
beacon and the flash on. I note and photograph the frequency of the radio
beacon. I fix the antenna of the radio beacon. Everything happens now very
fast. The system is put at water very quickly, in advance of the time schedule.
It should have started at 12:30 and the operation finished at 12:25. Marie did
not realized that. So she can see the immersion of the traps ... only on my
videos. just the time to write these lines and the Agassiz trawl is up. It is
13:25. Bottom consisting in fluid mud with gew small stones. Mud not smelly.
Sample not very diverse. Very big Paraceradocus
gibber. Some Liljeborgia georgiana.
I keep the fishes, which I freeze almost immediately, when I return inside
(just the time to photograph the colourless gills of an ice fish species
without hemoglobine). Next trap operation, I want to have fresh fishes, not the
horribly stinking fishes of this morning. the trawl for tomorrow was supposed
to be in the afternoon. So we hoped to be able to sleep longer than usual after
our previous short night. But at 20:21, Bruno David inform us that it will be
put in the water at 08:00. So not a too long night for us, poor exhausted
amphipodologists. I need to seat and to have one drink to relax a little bit.
Philippe Dubois erupts in the room and tell me with a big sardonic smile that the
trawl will start not at 08:00 but at 07:00...
Note to the layman, who reads those lines: such difficult time
schedules are absolutely normal in oceanographic cruises.
(Cédric)
The fishes of the family Chanichytidae belong to the notothenoids (or ice fishes); they are only found in the Southern Ocean and are characterized by their absence of hemoglobin. Their blood is colourless.
Mouth of the same fish. Neither the gills nor anything else is red as its blood is colourless.
Lander ready for its first immersion. The traps are the white plastic boxes at its lower part.
Labidaster annulatus is a common giant multi-legged starfish of Antarctic seas. It is sometimes over 50 cm leg span.
We would have liked to present more non-amphipod Antarctic marine organisms but unfortunately we rarely have time to take pictures of them.We also regret that the updating of this blog is very irregular but it cannot be done otherwise as we have a lot of work and it takes a lot of time to upload texts and (small) photographes from Antarctica (by a poor satellite connection).
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