30.01.2013 - A blue iceberg in a soup of snowballs

30.01.2013 (Wednesday). Again a foggy day into the ice. Again the ice is shaking the ship.Early in the afternoon, there is ice everywhere around us. Everything is white. This is a harsh world: a world of ice. I go outside. It is cold and windy. White landscape all around me. Big plates of ice interconnected by a magma of fluid or pasty ice. The whole is slowly moving, slowly undulating under the wind or internal waves. I really have the feeling that the Polarstern is riding the back of a gigantic ice-scaled sea monster. I take some videos to record the feeling. 

 World of ice

Soon after that I came back into my cabin, Marc told me that we are leaving the ice. I look again by the window. I see a galaxy of half-molten snowballs swimming into a wavy sea. I have to photograph this. So I run outside. To starboard, I see a very beautiful iceberg, elegantly striated by straight oblique lines, and partly tinged with blue. A small group of pinguins are resting on this drifting island. Just in front of the iceberg, there is an abrupt frontier separating the soup of snowballs and the real open sea. The snowballs are fast behind us. I go aft, to the helideck, where I am rejoined by Bruno David, Chantal De Ridder and Phipippe Dubois. Our eyes follow the blue iceberg drifting away. Sometimes huge waves explodes on its right side in a plume of foam. Just after that, we see whales blowing far away. And then a group of pinguins came close to the ship, swimming and jumping out of the sea, just like dolphins. Then it becomes too cold for me, and go back inside, as the Polarstern continue her journey towards Elephant Island.  

A blue iceberg in a soup of snowballs. 

A very pretty iceberg.

Wave exploding on the blue iceberg.

Cape petrels.

Cape Petrel, ventral view.

Jumping pinguins.

In the evening, we start to identify the samples from the dredge and the Agassiz trawl. Since we have not much material and a lot of time due to the krill survey, we will try to identify this material as carefully as possible. We manage to work efficiently, despite the ship is moving more and more under the swell. As concerns the material, which we will collect during the second part of the cruise, we will get a lot of samples in a very short period of time and we will probably have very little time for identifying specimens.

After 22:00, I go to the fitness room. I am biking in facing the swimming pool. It is stormy outside ...and inside. A huge wave rythmically goes from one side of the swimming pool to the other, roaring like thunder. The system is well conceived because the water is really confined within the pool system and there is no inundation resulting from the wavy condition. In our cabin the beds are superposed and I am on the upper bed. We have belts in the beds for stormy conditions and I consider that this night it is safer to put them on.

(Cédric)

After lunch, I’m heading outside. I love when we go through ice, you never get tired of watching the ice-breaking of the ship, the slow up-and-down movement of the ice-plates above the remaining waves and the crab-eater seals or colonies of small funny penguins resting on them. There’s always something to see. One could think it’s always the same story, it’s just water and ice everywhere, all the time. But somehow, it manages to be always different: the shapes, the lights, the movements. I’m going to the bridge after some time outside. Some people are already there, watching with the binoculars, taking pictures. It was the right time to come: soon the complete ice-covering is replaced by a layer of crushed ice interspersed by small remaining ice blocks. This thin layer of very small ice fragments makes the surface of the ocean very shiny and with the blue sky and sunny weather, it gives a summertime feeling, despite the cold temperatures.  From afar, we can see a very big iceberg, getting closer and closer as we´re approaching open-water. Soon, we can see that this ice-monster is covered by small dots : a big colony of penguins . With the binoculars, I can see them clearly, moving around, swimming in the water nearby, sometimes jumping out to get on the iceberg and sometimes missing it and slipping back into the water. At the top of the iceberg, a cloud of birds are flying around. A lot of life on this bare floating island. The boundary between the ice and open-water is really abrupt, there is a clear line marking the limit of the frozen world. This view was really spectacular, all the elements were there to build an amazing atmosphere. It is so far the most beautiful landscape I had the chance to admire during this cruise, and probably of my entire life. But the adventure´s not over yet! 

We keep busy trying to identify the small amphipods that we catched during the last samplings. We didn´t have the time to look at that, so put everything together is the same jar. It´s usually the case, when we´re sampling everything has to be done fast, so we identify first the bigger animals. If we really have to rush it´s at the family level and genus-species level only for the best known-most common ones. Now we can sit down and watch those tiny little crustaceans under the stereomicroscope and look in the literature to identify them as precisely as we can, and it´s very formative for me. 

(Marie)

29.01.2013 - Testing and mounting the acoustic larger

Cape petrels drifting on the side of the Polarstern (picture by Marie).

29.01.2013 (Tuesday). I wake up late as I thought that I would have little to do today. A supposition, which will turn out to be definitely wrong.  Outside, in the morning it is quite foggy and the ice coverage of the sea is weak at that time. I look at one of the wall screens displaying the time schedule of the day. I see that we will have to test our acoustic larger today at 12:30. It is important to test if it works properly before fixing it to the lander. Indeed, it is a very expensive gear and we should take as little risk as possible to loose it. I have a bit of apprehension because I have little experience with it (six years ago it was my colleague and friend Henri Robert, who operated the system). However, everything works properly. We fix the hydrophone to the telecommand. We put it on. We send the command of opening the hook of the larger. It opens properly. We close it on a metal ring, which is supposed to be released during the test. Then the larger is attached to a cable. The large and heavy (30 kg) cylinder of the larger dives to 200 m depth.  The hydrophone (attached to a 10 m cable and connected to the telecommand) is put in the sea. We put on the telecommand. We successfully send (1) the message of loading and (2) the message of releasing. Two very long seconds and the telecommand makes a bip, which indicates that the larger has received its message. The  larger is lifted up. the hook is open and the ring has been released to sink forever into the abysses. So, so far, so good. But...

Testing the larger (picture by Marie).

Now that we know that the acoustic larger works, we decide to fix it on the lander (the cubic cage, where the baited traps will be fixed). We soon have a confirmation of a problem, which I was fearing. When trying to insert the heavy larger between two bars of the lander, it does not enter. The lander has been constructed very carefully by Luc Trevels in Belgium and everything was calculated to the millimeter. When it was sawed and resoldered, the lander became a few millimeters too short, hence the larger can no longer be inserted at the right place. With the help of the crew, we try to increase the space of insertion. First with a huge hammer: it does not work at all. Obviously, an even more drastic method is required... The bottom of lander is firmly fixed to the deck with rope and the top is pulled upwards with a crane! By this process the top of the lander is slightly twisted upwards and now it should become possible to insert the larger. Yes the lander now enters but another problem arises. Due to the recent harsh treatments it has recently endured, the lander is now slightly distorted. There are holes (for bolts) on the larger and on the lander which are supposed to be in a straight line (4 upper ones and 4 lower ones). This, I can only be checked in laying on my back in the cage, just under the larger. In this position I fix a first bolt. Then I see that the other holes are no longer in a straight line. I remain on my back under the cage to control the situation, with a bolt in my hand. With the help of the crew, we twist the lander once again (now the inner bars) to rectify the position of the holes. As soon as a hole of the larger is in the straight line of the corresponding hole of the lander, I insert a bolt and start to screw it. I put the This proves to be very difficult for all of us. With great difficulties we managed to fix the four lower bolts. We have even more difficulties to fix the last upper bolts, and we only manage to fix three on four of them (but this should be enough). The larger is now almost ready for use. There is just to fix one more buoy, the flag, the radio beacon and the flash, but that should be easy operations and we have time. We will not use the larger before several days but the most difficult task is now behind us. 

Stretching the lander with a crane...

Cédric entering in the cage.

Cédric in the cage.

Cédric trying to insert a bolt inside the cage, with the help of two memebers of the crew.

Larger seen from inside the cage.

Bottom of the larger with one (of four) bolt fixed: that is what you see when you are on your back in the cage. 

Once insereted, the bolts still have to be screwed. 

During all these painstaking operations, we are enjoying an extraordinary scenery. We are again deep into the ice, but whilst so far the sea was calm, now there are low waves. So the iceflows slowly go up and down as if they were colossal white scales covering the back of some mythological reptilian sea monster. This is a sight I will never forget.

Ice dolmen

At the daily general  meeting at 19:30, we are informed that we will get rough weather tomorrow. maybe winds of 9 Beaufort. So during the evening we attach all our stuffs properly. Or at least we hope we have attached them properly enough (we are scientists not sailors...).

At 22:45, I look by the window of my cabin. We are completely stuck into the ice.

(Cédric)

28.01.2013 - Into the world of ice

28.01.2013 (Monday). All the night (and still in the morning), the ship is steaming towards the Eastern side of Joinville Island. I do not sleep well: all the night, we are hearing the shock of iceflows against the hull of the ship. Sometimes these shocks makes the ship really shaking. I wake up with a cloudy weather.There is a bit of snow falling down, which turns later on into a slight drizzle. We are deep into the ice. Except for rare polynias (i.e. pools of open water into the ice), everything is white: the white of the sky merges into the white of the ice. No special duty this morning, so I can rest a little bit; the last two days we did not had a second to rest; I think that Marie is still sleeping; my colleague of cabin definitely does. Claude De Broyer (now retired) of our institute uses to say that on the Polartsern you live at 200 km/h. His metaphor very adequately describes the situation we are living. Writing this journal helps me to keep the notion of the running time. Otherwise I would no longer know if we are Monday or Tuesday...), as we are working 7 days per week. From the bridge, I see a group of about ten pinguins, fleeing the approach of the ship, in a comic and somewhat clumsy danse. True little avian clowns! Unfortunately I did not had my camera at hand at the right moment. During the whole day, we see a lot of so-called crab-eater seals gliding on the ice. I have no idea about the origin of their strange name. As said already said on another page of this blog there are no crabs in Antarctica. Sometimes we see overturned iceflows. Their underside is brownish due to the occurence of microscopic sea algae (ice diatoms). A significant part of the Antarctic marine food web depends on them. 

Due to the ice condition, which does not improve, the trawling and dredging operations planned east off Joinville Island have to be cancelled in the afternoon. Only scientists working with gears operated vertically (boxcores and multicorers) are able to work today. Tomorrow the planktonologists will start their ten days krill survey, which does not concern us (or only very marginally), which means that we will have little field scientific work to do for a while.

I am informed that several people on board have a kind of flu. I know from first hand how it can be an unpleasant experience. Six years ago, I got a terrible flu on the Polarstern and was sick for more than one week. This time I was vaccinated to prevent this problem.

The white of the ice merges into the white of the sky.

The inappropriately called crab-eater seals.

Ice chaos. 

 

 The stripe of brown ice got its colour from microscopical diatom algae. These ice algae plays an important role in the Antarctic foodweb.

 

(Cédric)

28.01.2013 (Monday)

After lunch, I go outside. Everything’s white ! We are surrounded by ice and the sky is foggy so we cannot see the horizon’s line. My eyes are closing because of all that bright white everywhere. The boat stopped, so everything is still and very quiet. It’s a very relaxing atmosphere. Later on, I see some crabeater seals resting on the ice through the window of my cabin and some penguins swimming away from the boat! The AGT and RD of today are cancelled because of the ice. We are informed later that the krill survey is planned for the next ten days, so it will be very quiet for the benthos people. We will sort out in more details what we already catched and prepare the very intensive work waiting for us after those ten calmer days.

(Marie)

27.01.2013 - Second day of sampling

27.01.2013 (Sunday). ...00:00-03:00 : we sort the sample of the second Agassiz in our dry lab (no time for the material of the Rauschert dredge which is stored in a cooled container). Most specimens are photographed with my new camera Nikon D5100 combined with a Sigma 150 mm objective mounted on a rail. Very powerful gear but I have problems for getting enough depth field. Specimens are then fixed either in absolute or in 95% alcohol and put in the freezer at -20°C. At the end, we are both completely exhausted. I sleep until 10:00. Morning: weather cloudy. The sea remains very calm. Examination of the GOPRO videos from yesterday: very disappointing. All images are taken with a fish eye effect, which can apparently not be removed. Most sequences are just good for the bin. Agassiz trawl at the North of Joinville around 15:00, deeper than yesterday: around 450 m depth. A lot of serolid isopods (even bigger species than those from Patagonia): Ceratoserolis group trilobitoides (up to 60 mm long! - some with eggs in their brooding pouch) and two Serolis bouvieri (about 35 mm); some scavenging isopods of the genus Natatolana; many shrimps (mostly Notocrangon antarctictus mixed with some Chorismus antarcticus); some Antarctomysis (bigger than yesterday); not many amphipods (e.g. big Eusirus spp.). Rauschert dredge at 17:30 (a little bit of snow); bag of net not tied properly and we lost a part of the catch. Still interesting species like Parepimeria major. After sorting the remaining muddy gravel, we take the sample of the dredge of yesterday (as said earlier, we had no time for that yesterday and had to put it in a cooled container). Most animals are already dead despite they were put in a cooled room (probably the traumatism resulting from their capture). Work finished at 23:30. Around midnight, I hear strange noise. I look by the window: the ship enters into the ice...

Sample from the Agassiz trawl as it arrived on deck. 

Marie working on deck

Ceratoserolis group trilobitoides. We got a lot of specimens from that species. Some were about 60 mm long. There are two or three very similar species in the area and i cannot identify them on board with the literature at hand.

The pink disk is the ventral brood pouch full of eggs of a big female of Ceratoserolis group trilobitoides.

Serolis bouvieri is a less abundant and rather different species of Antarctic serolid. It is about 40 mm long.

The Rauschert dredge is a smaal gear (a bit more than 50 cm wide), which is very efficient for collecting small crustaceans in Antarctic seas.

Parepimeria major: a rather uncommon Antarctic amphipod collected in our dredge.

Rhachotropis antarctica is a very common Antarctic amphipod. However it is very fragile and usually we only get badly mutilated specimens. The legs of this one are nearly intact.

(Cédric)

Still in Joinville North, we are going to sample at a deeper station, around 430 m. The Agassiz catch is not as impressive as the second one of yesterday. When the subsample is withdrawn, we look in the mud for big amphipods but I can only find a few. We sieve some of the mud, but there’s not much more in it. The Raushert Dredge opened on one side, so we probably lost part of the catch. As a result, the samples obtained are not very abundant as well. A lot of tiny amphipods, but not many Epimerids and Iphimedids. We finish to sort out this catch around 23h. We then gather in the red saloon with some other students and suddenly hear a roaring sound like thunder and the boat is trembling. The ship is going through the ice! We head outside to look at the spectacular sight of the ice breaking under the power of the boat, passing under it and then projected on the sides. The ice is pale blue underneath, sometimes brown from the sympagic algae, quite thick. During the night, I wake up from time to time because of the sound and the trembling from the ice-breaking. 

Hauling the dredge

(Marie)

26.01.2013 - First sampling stations

26.01.2013 (Saturday). North of Joinville Island. Morning sunny but fairly cold (I guess around 0°C). Sea very calm. Scarce small iceflows and the two first tabular icebergs of the cruise: not very high but yet nice to see. Test of the camera with the Sigma objective on the photographic board. Problems for getting enough field depth (my knowledge of this gear is still very basic). The first Agassiz trawl has been postponed to 15:00. We are all impatient to get our first samples but, as said yesterday, I fear that the first time it will be a little chaotic. Early in the afternoon, from a control room of the ship, we look at images taken by OFOS submarine camera at around 200 m depth. The bottom looks flat and muddy, with a lot of life: Flustra-like bryozoans, sea stars, ophiurids, crinoids, irregular sea urchins, sea anemones, etc). A bit after 15:15, the Agassiz trawl is put at sea, at 62°34'S 56°29.5'W at about 250 m of water. I will record this with my GOPRO video camera mounted on my helmet. When it comes back on board, we are all very excited, but this is a poor catch. The material is sieved and sorted in the wet lab. Not so much crustaceans: small cirolanid isopods, a few arcturid isopods, mysids (Antarctomysis spp.), shrimps (Chorismus antarcticus), some amphipods including a young Paraceradocus gibber of only (!) 50 mm. Pablo Lopez gets a huge ten-legged pycnogonid (leg span about 20 cm), looking like the larva of the Giger's alien monster. When we have just finished the sample pre-sorting on deck, some whales come fairly close to the ship. We see them blowing several time and we also see their backs and once the tail of one of them. Then we use the Rauschert dredge (20 minutes on the bottom). Also poor catch except for crinoids. Difficulties to remove the front weight of 30 kg: we have to (re-)learn a lot of things. The material is sieved, put in water and stored in the cool container with an aquarium bubbler, as we have no time to sort it now. Then we got the second Agassiz trawl. Huge catch: mud, stones and bryozoans. A lot of organisms of every kind. We only sort them roughly on deck because it is already late and we have little time. Some interesting amphipod crustaceans, including epimeriids and iphimediids (big ones): very beautiful crustaceans which will be very useful for Marie's thesis. Then we have to throw away the hundred of kilograms of mud, stones and remaining organisms left on deck. We use shovels and bucket. To my surprise, Marie takes a very active part to that job, which is quite hard. We are close to midnight. Sunset. The moon is full. Little pieces of ice are drifting in clusters on a sea calm as a lake. A small iceberg crowded with pinguins is drifting close to us. We go to the labs for processing our samples from the Agassiz trawl. It is midnight...

 Our first tabular iceberg.

Emptying the second Agassiz trawl.

Paraceradocus gibber is a common giant Antarctic amphipod. This one is only 50 mm long but the species can overreach 100 mm.

Epimeria aff. macrodonta. This fairly common Antarctic amphipod is closely related to Epimeria macrodonta, but the species remains so far undescribed.

Ice cubes clustering at dusk on the sea.

(Cédric)

Today’s the first day of sampling. We are all set and enthusiastic. Waiting for the first Agassiz Trawl, we go up to watch the OFOS videos. It’s an underwater camera that drifts with the boat and films the bottom of the sea, so I can get a first idea of what it looks like.  I’m surprised by the quality of the pictures. We can see a rich sessile fauna on a muddy ground, and ophiurids, seastars, urchins, crinoids as well… The trawl is deployed around 15h. All the benthos people gather on the working deck. But the first catch is very poor, not even enough for the 50 kg subsample, which was supposed to be thorouyghly examined. A few amphipods. 3h later we put the Rauschert Dredge in the water. The catch is quite small also, a lot of crinoids but not so many amphipods. We are then told that the Agassiz will be re-deployed to compensate for the disappointing catch. The second try is the good one : the net releases on the ground of the working deck a huge amount of mud filled with all kind of organisms. Then begins the dirty treasure hunting: we all search in the mud  for our organisms of interest. Every now and then, you hear a shout in the crowd : “ophiurid”, “sea urchin”, “amphipod”, everytime someone finds something interesting for a colleague. We put all the amphipods, isopods, decapods and mysids we can find in a jar with sea water. We spend a few hours like this collecting our samples. Then, we have to clear the mess we’ve done on the deck. We put the rest of mud and animals in buckets and throw them overboard. We don’t have the time to sieve, to look for smaller organisms. Amphipods are quite difficult to spot in the mud. Then we clean the deck with water. It’s almost midnight and the sky is still so clear. It’s difficult to keep track of time in those conditions. Your mind seems to tell you that it’s still day-time and you don’t really feel sleepy. But when we get back inside in a darker and calmer environment, I begin to feel that it’s already late. We sort out roughly the catch in the common wet lab, then we head to our personal dry lab. We identify the amphipods by family and when possible, by genus or species. We then fix them in ethanol, so they can be used for molecular studies. We catched some Paraceradocus gibber, which is a big species, very tough. They are impressive and very nice to look at alive. We work until around 3:00 in the morning. The shifts will be quite irregular, sometimes we won’t avoid the night-time working because everything has to be fixed as soon as possible or the material will be degraded and not useful for DNA studies anymore. 

(Marie)

25.01.2013 - Ready for the first sampling

25.01.2013 (Friday). Sunshine in the morning. The weather has seriously cooled down. We see a lot of Cape petrels and a few giant petrels. Two strong guys of the crew brings us two 50 kg rails from the hold (ballast for the lander). It was really painful for them to climb the trap with them. The holes in the metal plate for fixing the rails are not exactly at the right position for the bolts, so the guys of the workshop have to enlarge them. In the end our 100 kg of ballast (2 pieces of 50 kg of rails fixed on a metal plate) are ready for use (but they should not be used before two weeks). We mount the trap system, except the acoustic larger, which has to be tested later on before fixation on the lander. A lot of bolts and nuts have to be used for fixing the buoys on the lander. Now it is easy because we have an electric screwer, but 6 years ago, we had to do everything manually and it was a terrible job. At the beginning of the afternoon I see my first iceberg: a small one far away. We mount four small lamps IKEA (model Jansjö) with flexible neck as light source for photographying specimens. We are almost ready and become excited in expectation of our first samplings of tomorrow: Agassiz trawl (twice) and Rauschert dredge (once). I feel that this is too much (for me and Marie) for doing everything as I planned and I guess that we will have to skip part of the processing of the specimens. I also fear there will be a lot of improvisation and chaos, as it is often the case during the first sampling day. Around 18:30, we are just north of King George Island (which we do not see), but the sea is still totally free of ice. However, around midnight, I have a look at the window of my cabin and I see that there are scarce drifting iceflows everywhere on the sea.

Fixing Buoys with bolts.

  Lander partly assembled

(Cédric)

Last day of travel to station Joinville North, we should arrive around 2:00 during the night. I’m quite impatient to begin the sampling and see what we can find at the bottom of that opaque dark blue ocean.  Early in the morning, we meet in the corridors of the working deck to build the Amphipod Traps. This sampling device is a big metal cage, with 6 buoys attached on the sides and the traps fixed on the bottom, a lander in the middle to release the weights at the right moment, which are 2 heavy rails fixed to the cage with a chain. A superior frame is also attached with a rope to the roof of the cage and to the upper side of the lander, it has also 2 big buoys fixed on it. We spent a good part of the day fixing the buoys and attaching everything together. Before we use this device, we will still have to test the lander, to make sure that it works properly because this equipment is very expensive and we can’t lose it in the Antarctic waters! Then, we’ll fix it in the cage, as well as the radio beacon which will be used to find the cage back after the release. But this has to wait, as we won’t use the traps at the first station. As we assemble the cage, I take a look outside and see a whole group of Cape petrels floating just besides the boat. All black and white, middle-sized, very beautiful birds. All along the day we will see them around the ship, many of them flying everywhere. I wonder if they follow us, maybe hoping to catch some fishes from our nets. We also spot an iceberg in the distance with a whole bunch of small funny penguins on it.   

(Marie)

24.01.2013 - Into the Drake Passage

24.01.2013 (Thursday). We wake up under a gray sky. Sea fairly wavy as yesterday. We are well into the Drake Passage. For breakfast, we get a warm dish consisting of pieces of chicken swimming in molten cheese. Excellent ballast for the stomach. No more seasickness. At 03:00, Olaf Ziemann calls me. He tells me that he sawed the lander in two parts. It was not easy to remove them from the hold. However the two parts have been re-soldered in their workshop. At first glance, Olaf  and his team did a great job. On the bridge, I observed that one of the front windows show cracks. One of the second officers (Igor Hering) explains me why: during the previous cruise, the Polarstern had to go deep into compact ice and the cracks result from the intense lateral pressure of the ice against the ship. Despite the cracks, he says that there is no risk that the window collapses. At the daily meeting of 19:30, Julian Gutt tells us that we will arrive at Joinville Island on 25.01.2013 and will sample on 26.01.2013 at about 100 m depth: Agassiz trawl (AGT) at 12:15, Rauschert dredge (RD) at 15:00.

The lander has been re-soldered in the workshop.

The Polarstern in the Drake Passage.

(Cédric)

The day goes quietly. We are still heading to our first station which will be at the North of Joinville Island, to the tip of the peninsula. Outside, the sky is cloudy, the air is very wet. We can clearly feel a change in temperature. I can’t stay outside for much more than 15-20 min anymore. I finish some work on the computer. In the evening, I go outside for some more sightseeing and to my surprise, see my first iceberg! I wasn’t expecting to see one so soon.

(Marie)