sights and sounds at weddell a holiday cheer world get ... · made sure he brought flo, his pink...

December 22, 2002Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program

www.polar.org/antsun

Harvesting theunderside of ice

Page 7

“I think if we were better adaptedto our environment we’d bedumber.”

In the spirit ofthe season...

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Quote of the Week

— Employee comparinghumans to penguins

Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun

INSIDE

By Mark SabbatiniSun staff

For the most part they lay aroundlooking like large sausages on the ice,scarcely distinguishable from rocks. Atleast that’s the surface impression.

But look deeper and it turns out agood part of their time is spent fightingwith a gladiator-like ferocity for neces-sities like food and air, often causing aruckus that surpasses the volume of anyrock concert.

Such is the view from “WeddellWorld,” a roving field camp nearMcMurdo Station where a team ofresearchers has amassed an unprece-dented collection of data about Weddellseals during the past five years. Relatedprojects may lead to advances in thehuman world as well, such as treating

heart ailments and dietary deficiencies.One of the keys to their National

Science Foundation-funded project isnew technology including small videocameras mounted to the heads of thesea mammals.

“It wasn’t just the underwater video– it was the data being matched to thevideo,” said Terrie Williams, a biologyprofessor at the University ofCalifornia Santa Cruz who is one of theproject’s three primary investigators.“We’re seeing for the first time what noone else has seen.”

Williams, who made the comparisonof sausages with seals at rest, said thataccounts for only about 10 percent oftheir time. Much more of their life is


James Battaglia knew the chance to greetthe country on national television was anopportunity not to be taken lightly. So hemade sure he brought Flo, his pink flamingo.

They joined about 40 people crammed ona deck overlooking McMurdo Sound to tapea 15-second holiday greeting for ABC’s“Good Morning America.” Battaglia hopes itwill be a lucky break in his quest for Fred,Flo’s kidnapped plastic mate.

“Some unscrupulous person stole Fredfrom out in front of our campsite,” explainedBattaglia, a first-year electrician’s apprenticewho said he has spent a year and a half try-ing to solve the kidnapping.

A few other people wore colorful hats or

Skuas devour anabandoned penguinegg at Cape Royds,where extensive sea

ice is forcing pen-guins to leave theirnests for the second

year in a row.Researcher David

Ainley believes thecolony may be

dying. See story on p. 9

Sights and sounds at WeddellWorld get seal of approval

See Weddell on page 12 See Greeting on page 17

A holiday cheerfrom Antarctica

The Antarctic Sun is funded by the NationalScience Foundation as part of the United

States Antarctic Program. Itsprimary audience is U.S.Antarctic Program participants,their families, and their friends.NSF reviews and approves

material before publication, but opinions andconclusions expressed in the Sun are notnecessarily those of the Foundation.

Use: Reproduction and distribution areencouraged with acknowledgment of sourceand author.

Senior Editor: Kristan HutchisonEditors: Melanie Conner

Mark SabbatiniCopy Editor: Liz Connell, Wendy Kober

Publisher: Valerie Carroll,Communications manager, RPSC

Contributions are welcome. Contact theSun at [email protected]. In McMurdo, visitour office in Building 155 or dial 2407.

Web address: www.polar.org/antsun

2 • The Antarctic Sun December 22, 2002

McMurdo shopping Least expensive item at McMurdostore: Bazooka bubble gum - 5centsMost expensive: Fleece vest - $50Most popular gift item: One-of-a-kind “Sweetlids” handmade hats($19 each)Estimated number of souvenir-typeitems sold at shop: At least 300Estimated number of clothingitems: 25Types of candy: 68Types of toothpaste: 6Busiest day this year: Nov. 20($10,370.85 in sales)Least busy day: Oct. 22 ($783.35in sales)Last possible day at McMurdo or theSouth Pole to send a gift certificatefrom an online merchant to the U.S.in time for Christmas: Dec. 26 (dueto the International Date Line)Source: Jay Fox, retail supervisor

Cold, hard facts

Ross Island Chronicles By ChicoWow, what a cute penguin. I bethe’ll look great around all theChristmas ornaments.

Sure is a lovely day, isn’t it?

Yes it is. Oh, he’s so cute. I wonderif he’s hungry?

I can’t believe he would runaway. Boo hoo hoo...I bethe’s all alone and hungry.

The sardines were good,but do you think youcould add some rum tothe egg nog?

Across1. Community trash clean-up at McMurdo5. Stuff contaminated by bodily fluids10. A category that requires extreme caution12. Newspapers, posters, anything not white16. Unbroken bottles, jars, etc.17. Less fun than sand, but good for spreading onfloors during a country swing dance18. Saran wrap, six-pack holders, etc.19. Leftover scraps from the kitchen

Down2. One person’s trash; another’s treasure3. Get even with these after all those crashes4. Cans in this bin, yes; foil, no5. Paper, foil, other “hot” items6. Leftovers from the builders7. Hazardous waste that includes fingernail polish8. Just don’t put your issued gear here9. Stuff targeted by the Paperwork Reduction Act11. Open ‘em, then break ‘em down13. Includes sheet metal, but not screws14. Shared cleaning duties at Palmer Station15. May your Walkman’s power source RIP

Solution on page 8

Katabatic Krosswords: Sorting through the types of trash

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December 22, 2002 The Antarctic Sun • 3

By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

Regardless of what’s on the menu,there will be plenty of holiday hamon stage this year.

own version of the classic Dicken’s story“A Christmas Carol” to McMurdo at 2p.m. Christmas Day.

“It’s a gift to the community,” saidSteve Petraitis, who plays the Ghost ofChristmas Present.

The actors have been rehearsing sever-al times a week for a month in the oldMechanical Equipment Center, a partiallygutted warehouse-style building sched-uled for demolition. They work around thefrozen puddle on one side of the room, andkeep their coats on because the heat wasturned off two weeks ago.

“It used to be warmer,” said JaimeYelvington, the play’s director, author andproducer.

The play is a credit to Yelvington’s per-sistence, optimism and boredom.

“I was bored at work one day and Idecided to put on a play,” said Yelvington,administrative coordinator in the Chalet.She acted and directed a bit in high schooland college.

She hung up signs seeking actors, thenwaited two weeks before getting aresponse. At the first meeting, a cast offive men showed up.

“You could see it in her eyes, ‘What didI get myself into?’” Petraitis said. “But she

really took it and made something with it.”Yelvington let the actors choose their

own parts and brainstorm ideas for ascript.

“We started with ‘What is a ChristmasCarol? It’s three ghosts and a transforma-tion,’” Yelvington said. “We tried to retainthat and not necessarily Tiny Tim.”

Quickly they had a long list ofMcMurdo-based references and jokes toinclude. Even the ghosts have a polar theme.

Tiny Tim is gone, but his famous lineremains “God bless us all, every one!”Amid the in-jokes and Antarctic refer-ences, the cast wants to spread Christmascheer.

“I just noticed the people who I workwith didn’t really seem reallyChristmassy,” Yelvington said. “I’ve beencounting down to Christmas for 55 daysand everyone was ‘Humbug, humbug.’”

Yelvington took the ideas home andtyped them into an hour-long play with 20parts, trusting her ability to persuade 15more people to join the play.

“I’ve been in positions before where Ihad to get down on my hands and kneesand beg,” Yelvington said.

She heard Damien Henning speakingwith a mock Irish accent at a party, andasked him to be Bob Cratchet. They werewell into rehearsals before Yelvingtonfound a female lead, sending an “ambas-sador” to ask Elizabeth Shier to play thelove Scrooge loses as he becomes a work-a-holic.

“He made it sound very low key,” Shier

said. “He made it sound like ‘Hey, weneed a few people for the party scene.’”

Even with all the characters cast,rehearsing has been difficult. Several ofthe actors work night shift, and the fire-fighters work every other day.

The script continued to develop as theactors improvised their lines, adding evenmore references to McMurdo life. ZacWillette wrote himself a narrator’s part inverse.

A few of the allusions are subtle, likethe cigar-smoking, Scotch-drinkingScrooge, two traits Yelvington slipped inas a reference to her father, TomYelvington, Raytheon Polar Services Co.nprogram manager. He is shipping a fewcigars down as props. The other props andstage pieces were found in MEC or donat-ed by the Waste Department.

While Barb Clampet and Nancy Farrellare pulling together the most exotic cos-tumes, all the actors are keeping their eyeout for people wearing useful costumepieces, a practice they’ve dubbed “hostileskuaing,” said Michael VanWormer.

VanWormer plays Scrooge, adding theclassic miser to a list of other crochetylead roles he’s played in high school andcollege, including Capt. Ahab and HenryHiggins.

“It was one way for me to stay in theChristmas spirit and for me to get up andentertain people,” he said.

The Christmas Day performance willbe a bring-your-own-beverage, pillow andblanket event in the gym.

Playing with traditionsMcMurdo cast creates local version of the classic Christmas Carol

Belle (ElizabethShier) and BobCratchet (DamienHenning) embraceas Scrooge andthe Ghost ofChristmas Presentlook on, observedby director JaimeYelvington on thecouch withDrew Merritt (farleft) and DaveWeimer.

Photo by Kristan Hutchison/The Antarctic Sun

A cast of 20 will bring their


Perspectives Perspectives

By Eric Muhs

Back in Seattle, I told my high schoolstudents, “I’m going down to theSouth Pole to work on AMANDA”.That got a lot of laughs. Note for

physicists: when choosing acronyms forfuture experiments, don’t use people’s firstnames.

I came down to the Icethis year as part of theTeachers ExperiencingAntarctica and the Arctic pro-gram run by the NationalScience Foundation.

AMANDA is the acronym forAntarctic Muon and Neutrino DetectorArray. My new friend, Belgian physicistand AMANDA collaborator PhillipeHerquet, wonders why physics is so fasci-nated with acronyms, “These acronymsdon’t save any time or space. Wheneveryou’re writing, you end (up) having toexplain the acronym in a long parentheses.What’s the point?”

Maybe he’s right, but choosing theright acronym seems to be crucial to anymodern experiment. The next big thingafter AMANDA will be called ICECUBE.To my mind, that’s a much betteracronym, with more “street credibility”and toughness. However, like AMANDA,it creates problems when you try to findeither project’s Web sites. Imagine the hitsyou get from searching on AMANDA. OrICECUBE.

AMANDA is a big international astro-physics project. The goal is to “catch”neutrinos from energetic events out in theuniverse. The technique is to melt 1.2-mile (2 km) deep holes in the South Poleice. Then lower strings of detectors downthe holes, and collect the very faint lightthat results from the one-in-a-trillion neu-trino which makes secondary particles asit passes through the detector array.Neutrinos are very difficult to detect, asthey rarely interact with ordinary matter.Trillions have passed through you sinceyou began reading this article.

But AMANDA has found high-energyneutrino events, and demonstrated how tobuild a deep ice detector. ICECUBE is“Son of AMANDA.” It’s based on thesame principles, but with refined tech-

niques based on the lessons garnered fromAMANDA, and it will be much larger,encompassing a cubic kilometer of instru-mented ice. ICECUBE construction isprojected to begin in 2004.

This summer, I met a lot of the U.S.collaborators, including AMANDA prin-

cipal investigator Bob Morse, ICECUBEprincipal investigator Frances Halzen andJim Madsen, my personal mentor and neu-trino guide, all from the University ofWisconsin. Great folks all, and very com-mitted to communicating the goals andscience of the project to the greater world.That’s why they brought me along.

But coming down to the Ice, I had thefortunate misfortune of getting stuck atMcMurdo for nearly five days with twoEuropean AMANDA collaborators, wait-ing for a ride to the South Pole.

Phillipe Herquet is a physicist from theUniversite de Mons-Hainaut in Belgium.He’s got a son who’s a theoretical physi-cist (that means he’ll probably never gethis hands dirty and cold on a real experi-ment down on the Ice), and a wife whowas not at all eager to send him off for hisfirst trip to the Pole. It’s been fun gettingto know him. Folks seem to get jaded onAntarctica pretty quickly. “Oh yeah, sun-dogs. Oh yeah, Scott’s Hut. Whatever. I’vebeen here before.” So it’s been good to bewith someone who, like me, is taking it allin for the first time.

Phillipe also claims that french fries arereally Belgian and that Belgian waffles arenot served as a breakfast food. And the tri-color Belgian flag at the South Pole is notreally in use anymore, as there are two dis-tinct flags in use in the two distinct lan-guage regions in Belgium. There’s somework to be done here at the Pole, to getstraight on all things Belgian. Plus he andI both need some espresso.

Christian Spiering, a German physicistfrom the Desy-Zeuthen Institute in Berlin,has been south a number of times. So we

were lucky to have him along, because heknew how to rescue our bags from thecargo of the delayed plane. Thanks to him,we all got showers and clean clothes, andeveryone at McMurdo seemed friendliertoo us after that.

What do you do at McMurdo for fivedays ? Well, I got to watchthe physicists fret a little.They’re on a tight scheduleat the Pole, with crucial cal-ibration work to do beforethe next winter seasonbegins. And now they’re

behind. We checked out Hut Point, Observation

Hill and Crary Lab, flew kites and stum-bled into a party at the coffeehouse forAlaskans. I also got to explainThanksgiving and football while we ateturkey on Turkey Day.

Using my laptop, we recorded Russianand French versions of a 5-minute movieabout AMANDA. And Phillipe andChristian talked about the physics experi-ments they’d been involved with over theyears.

These are two very experienced exper-imental physicists. Their paths overlappedmany times in Russia and Switzerland,and during the Cold War. Both had ridicu-lous and funny run-ins with the secretpolice. Their combined experience in neu-trino physics is quite astonishing and itwas a rare privilege to sit in the galley outon McMurdo’s sea ice runway during asnowstorm flight delay. I got a two-hourpresentation on the current state of neutri-no experiments worldwide.

Two professors, one student (me), weakcoffee — a nice morning in Antarctica.

Eric Muhs teaches physics at RooseveltHigh School in Seattle. He was part of theTeachers Experiencing Antarctica and theArctic program this year.

Your words hereThis page is reserved forcolumns up to 900 words by scientists and other members ofthe Antarctic community. E-mailsubmissions to [email protected].

Teacher becomes student on Ice

We all got showers and cleanclothes, and everyone at McMurdoseemed friendlier to us after that.

Bumpy ride to Ross SeaBy Chris KenryNBP correspondent

The Nathaniel B. Palmer’s voyagefrom New Zealand to the Ross Sea was attimes bumpy. Shipmates came stumblingdown the hall to the two main bathrooms,faces green, their hands covering theirmouths. They would emerge a few min-utes later looking pale and wretched.

Ah, seasickness. That aqueous miserycaused by some confused little hairs in theinner ear. Little hairs that control your equi-librium, and don’t know what to do whenthe world you’re on is suddenly unstable.

Initially, when we reach open waterand the boat starts pitching around I think“Wow. Fun! Just like the Tilt-A-Whirl!”But after a few hours (or on this particularcruise, weeks), the only thought is“Arrrgh! Make it stop!” Imagine the worsthangover you’ve ever had and then imag-ine it not going away. For days. It’s notpretty. You lose your appetite, you have aheadache, your arms and legs feel leaden.The only thing you want is to lie in thedark and sleep, but even that is miserablebecause then your body feels like a giantHefty Bag full of water sloshing from oneside of the bunk to the other. As N.B.Palmer EMT Steve Tarrant put it when hegave me a transderm patch and some pills:“Seasickness is the fear you’re gonna die,compounded by the fear that you’re notgonna die.”

The main reason for seasickness is howthe inner ear reacts to the motion of theboat, but that’s not the only reason. Manyof the seasoned sailors (both men andwomen) on the N.B. Palmer and the L.M.Gould would have you believe it is alsocaused by testosterone deficiency.According to them it is a little girly-mansickness that real sailors don’t get. Andespecially not in wimpy little seas likethis! For that reason when people do getseasick on this boat they aren’t reallyvocal about it. They just silently disap-pear, one by one. It’s almost like they’vebeen knocked off, a la Agatha Christie,

and you only notice who’s missing whenyou rendezvous at meal time in the galley.

Now, to give honor where honor is due,the N.B. Palmer cannot claim the supremetitle of “Poseidon of Puke.” That crowngoes to her smaller, bouncier, sister ship,the L.M. Gould, on which I have also hadthe pleasure of spilling my guts. Granted,the two ships have to cross the mosttreacherous seas in the world to reach theirdestinations and they do an admirable job,but that’s little consolation when you’reon your knees hugging the toilet.

I remember at the pier in Punta Arenas,Chile, I used to laugh at all the elderly peo-ple tottering off the behemoth cruise shipswith their walkers and canes and all withlittle round seasickness patches stuckbehind their ears. I’m not laughing any-more. Nor am I laughing when I see some-one the color of Kermit the Frog come bar-reling down the hall to the bathroom. I’mnot laughing because that just means whenit’s my turn and I start to lose it, I’ll have torun to one of the bathrooms on the upperdecks and hope that I make it in time.

On Dec. 16, the N.B.Palmer crossedthe Antarctic circle near Cape Adare, andthe seas seemed to settle, followed by thestomachs.

Library gains historyBy Anne LewisPole correspondent

The South Pole library has some wel-come additions. Cliff Dickey, electronicstechnician and team member of the U.S.Navy during the first South Pole winter inthe International Geophysical year of1956-1957, recently presented a historicphoto and book to our library. The photoand book will ultimately be placed in thenew elevated station when the administra-tion and communications wing is done.

The photograph is from a slide byDickey of the original 18-member wintercrew, including both science and U.S.Navy support. The photograph was signedby those still surviving. The second addi-tion to the library is a honeycomb book

titled “The South Pole Yearbook 1957.” Itis a chronology of the South Pole StationOperation Deep Freeze 1, including theautobiographies of all 18 men, historicalaccounts of the extraordinary efforts bythose men, a summary of the South Polescience program as well as a summary ofthe Naval support program.

As we move toward occupancy of thethird South Pole research station, theseitems are a timely reminder of how it allbegan down here at the South Pole.

We’ll have plenty of time to relax in thelibrary after our big Christmas Eve Dinner.In preparation for the meal, the communitywill join in pie baking and potato peelingnights. We’ll kick off the holiday with theannual gift exchange on Dec. 23.Handmade knit hats and other Pole cre-ations will be exchanged. The Race Aroundthe World begins at 10 a.m. on ChristmasDay. In this annual event, every availablemode of transportation cruises around thePole marker in loops for a total distance ofthree miles (5 km). The first man andwoman to cross the finish line on foot aredeclared the winner. Last year saw someinteresting entrants, though not qualifiedentrants, including fat tire bikes, skidoospulling banana sleds, a van, a bulldozerpulling five pallet sleds loaded with peoplestanding on the sled pretending to jog inplace, and even a Twin Otter, which madebig loops around the Pole.

While some are gearing up for the hol-iday at hand, South Pole science maintainsits steady push forward. Installation of thetrend laser receiver is complete and testingnow begins for this Dark Sector scienceproject. This latest addition to theAST/RO suite of receivers will allowastronomers to take advantage of theclearest “seeing” days occurring in mid-winter here at South Pole.

“From AASTO (Automated Astro-physical Site-Testing Observatory) toDome C” was the title of a science lecturegiven by Michael Burton (UNSW) andPaolo Calisse (Viper winter crew). Thelecture illustrated the similarities and dif-ferences between the astronomical poten-tial of Dome C and the South Pole.


around the continentSHIPS

McMurdo StationHigh: 33F/0.5C Low:6F/-14CWind: 52 mph/83 kphWindchill: -36F/-38C

Palmer StationHigh: 41F/5C Low:27F/-3CWind: 71mph/114kphMelted precipitation: 50 mmSnowfall: 2 cm

South Pole StationHigh: -16F/-27C Low:-31F/-35CWind: 20mph/32kph

the week in weather

See Pole on page 6

SOUTH POLE


What would be themost useless gift youcould receive inAntarctica?

“A renewal to theNational

Association of NudeRecreation.”Dennis CalhounSouth Pole heavy

mechanic from RapidCity, Mich.

“Maybe a recipebook for fresh

vegetables or hedgetrimmers

or cat food.”Rhoda BonneauMcMurdo fuels coordinator fromSheridan, Wyo.

“Probably quininepills or antivenom— anything else

here would eitherget used or

reincarnated.”Emily Lindsey

Palmer volunteer withLTER from Portland,

Ore.

In addition, progress on the ItalianConcordia Station was discussed, alongwith the potential for the first winterinhabitants there in 2004.

The drillers for Ice Core DrillingService finished up their second hole to adepth of 980 feet (300 m), allowing theU.S. Geological Service technicians tobegin installation of the borehole seis-mometers. Drilling began on the third andfinal hole this week. This hole will be usedas a spare in the event of a collapse ofother vertical blockage in the first twopopulated shafts. The first phase involvesfour-inch coring, followed by two stagesof reaming for a final core diameter of 12inches. The cores will be catalogued andpacked up for analysis by the ITASEgroup.

From the South Pole, warm wishes thisholiday season.

Studying the seaBy Tom CohenourPalmer correspondent

The ocean does not give up its secretseasily.

An understanding of the ocean has beengained over generations, through perse-verance, stamina and devotion. Someenjoy the time spent at sea and othersendure the hardships of field work inexchange for the knowledge gained.

To expand the scope of existing long-term physical oceanographic observationsnear Palmer, an autonomous profilingvehicle was recently deployed off ofBonaparte Point. The instrument gathersdata about water temperature, salinity, flu-orescence and available light in a vertical

column of water.These measurements expose the move-

ment and mixing of water masses, explainedoceanographer Kim McCoy and FieldSupport Engineer Graham Tilbury. Bothmen deployed the instrument as part of theLong Term Ecological Research project.

The water profile reveals the differentlayers of water. At the bottom is heavierwater, usually cold and salty. Above, in thehigher layers, the land provides somenutrients, the atmosphere provides someoxygen and the stage of life is set forreproduction.

The water profile measurements sup-port long-term physical and biologicallyimportant observations related to coastaland near-shore dynamics. Radio transmit-ters on the instruments make it easier toestablish the location and retrieve the data.

The sea and land are at battle in thecoastal zone. It is an ideal location toobserve the ocean’s internal waves dissipateenergy within shoaling waters. Antarcticresearchers are attempting to collect a year’sworth of vertical profile data. After the firstfew phases of the moon, the ocean’s com-plex structure will become evident. Thiswill produce a long-term data record from

an under-sampled environment. The autonomous instrument transports

sensors vertically through the water col-umn, usually starting within a meter fromthe bottom and continuing to the surface.Typical profiles are separated by one-hourintervals during which the instrumentremained near the bottom. The samplerates are at one sample per second (1 Hz)during profile segments and one minuteduring the bottom intervals.

Implementing an instrument mooringthat could survive brash ice and smallbergs was a challenge. They first had toidentify locations where there are fewlarge icebergs likely to knock it out.

By all accounts the profiling was a suc-cess. The autonomous profiling vehiclecompleted more than 700 profiles travel-ing from the ocean surface to depths of180 ft. (55 m) between one and three timesper hour.

Initial data indicate a tidally forcedthermal signature in the bottom boundarylayer. During periods of strong stratifica-tion, internal wave propagation may beinferred in some of the data sets. These arethe first significant efforts to correlatephysical data of this type from the Palmerarea. Historically, Palmer data sets havebeen biased toward the collection of bio-logical information.

It is a long-term goal of the LTER is toexpand the amount of biologically signifi-cant physical oceanographic data. Severalcandidate sites are being identified wherelong-term autonomous profiling vehiclesand acoustic doppler current profilers couldbe deployed. Deployment in water deeperthan 330 ft (100 m) is desirable. Surveys ofthe ocean depths of outlying areas havebeen undertaken and need to be expanded.

Pole From page 5

PALMER

Photo by Graham Tilbury/Special to The Antarctic Sun

Kim McCoy deploys an autonomous sensorin Hero Inlet.



The idea of using fish parts to improveeverything from ice cream to cell tissueshas been pursued for years. Now JamesRaymond is hoping for similar resultsusing algae found in Antarctic sea ice.

The algae and certain types of fish inAntarctic waters produce proteins thatoffer protection from the freezing condi-tions. There are significant differencesbetween the two, but Raymond said thealgae byproducts are much easier to obtainand may some day be useful for protectingthings such as food and blood cells fromthe adverse effects of freezing.

“An often-heard suggestion for ice-binding molecules like fish antifreezes isto use them for keeping ice creamcreamy,” said the biology research profes-sor from the University of Nevada LasVegas’ Department of Biological Science.“When ice cream sits in the freezer for along time the little crystals fuse into bigcrystals, which aren’t very appetizing.”

It’s possible the molecules could beused to improve other consumer productsthat now have “do not freeze” labels onthem, ranging from mayonnaise to paint.

“During the freezing process you getseparations,” he said. “If you can preventthat separation from occurring during thefreezing process you have something thatcan be handled much more cheaply.”

The potential of the algae byproducts is“pure speculation at this point,” Raymondsaid. He is spending several weeks this

season at McMurdo Station gathering andanalyzing the byproducts, known as ice-active substances (IASs), which are pro-duced by a class of algae known as sea icediatoms.

“You really can’t kill millions of fish toget the antifreeze,” he said. “With the icediatoms you have the ability to grow themin mass cultures in unlimited amounts. Ifan application is found, it’s reasonable toexpect that large amounts could be pro-duced.”

Antifreeze proteins protect fish by low-

ering the temperature at which they willfreeze in the presence of ice, according toArt DeVries, a biologist who has spentmore than 40 years studying Antarctic sealife. The proteins in the diatoms have adifferent function.

“The IASs do not substantially lowerthe freezing point, but still absorb to iceand alter the surface of growing ice crys-tals,” DeVries wrote in an e-mail. “Theirfunction is probably to make diatoms stickto the ice surfaces where there is moresunlight than on the bottom.”

Or, as Raymond puts it, “the IASs don’tactually try to prevent the freezing, butthey try to minimize the damage when thefreezing does occur.” In addition, “theymay protect cell membranes from damageduring freezing, so there’s a hope theymight be useful for preserving cells andtissues.”

Another important difference, accord-ing to Raymond: While researchers havebeen studying the potential of fish proteinssince the 1970s, pure molecules from theIASs have been available only for the pastyear or so. As a result, much less is knownabout them.

The diatoms appear as dark spots andare distributed widely in thinner layers ofsea ice where the sun is able to penetrate.The IASs are mostly found in Antarcticwaters, reaching their highest concentra-tions in November and December, butRaymond noted a sample has been foundin Arctic waters near Resolute, Canada.

Getting the diatoms from the ice at var-ious sites near McMurdo requires help

See Ice secrets on page 8

Ice may hold anti-freezing secrets

James Raymond, right, scoops up algae-rich sea ice samples as a large drill, shown atleft, extracts a heavy flow of ice and water as it rises to the surface.

Photo by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun

A microscopic image of the sea ice diatom algae James Raymond is studying.Photo courtesy of James Raymond/Special to The Antarctic Sun

from station workers who use a large-truckmounted drill to bore through the surfaceice. The drill is then raised slowly, bring-ing a rush of sea water and sea ice chunkswith it.

Raymond and his two assistants, post-doctoral student Mike Kuiper and gradu-ate student Mike Janech, then collect thediatoms before the ice crystals they areattached to can melt. Raymond said thereare a number of different species ofdiatoms in the waters, each of whichappears to have ice-binding molecules, buthe tries to seek out samples where onlyone species is present so a better analysisof each is possible.

The researchers then test the ability ofthe IASs to protect the sea ice diatomsfrom cell damage. Some of the work isoccurring at McMurdo and will continuewhen they leave the Ice.

“We’re going to subject the cells tofreezing and thawing, and then look attheir viability, or their health, to take upcarbons through photosynthesis,”Raymond said. “The plants use CO2 forphotosynthesis. We’ll use that uptake todetermine how well they survive.”

“The other main goal is to purify thesemolecules and characterize them and findout exactly what they are,” he said.

A new technique will be attemptedwhen purifying the molecules by freezingthem very slowly, Raymond said. He saidimpurities tend to be pushed away aswater freezes, and hopes slowing theprocess will drive more of the foreign sub-stances out.

The IASs are made up of a combinationof proteins and carbohydrates, which mayprovide protection for the diatoms bybinding to the ice crystals. But their make-up, in addition to differing in functionfrom fish antifreezes, also make some labwork more difficult, Raymond said.

“It’s more difficult to purify them thanfish antifreeze because (the IASs) have ahuge amount of carbohydrates,” he said.

Molecules with carbohydrates sufferfrom, in the simplest of terms, an attach-ment problem, DeVries noted.

“For the antifreeze glycoproteins whichhave sugar side chains, one can make themby synthetic chemistry, but it is costly andthe yield is low,” he wrote.“Microrganisms can’t be used to makethem because they cannot attach the sug-ars. Yeast, however, can, but it is not yetknown how to control the attachment ofthe specific sugars, galactose and galac-tosamine. Thus the fish know somethingthe scientists don’t know.”

Raymond said he plans to work atMcMurdo until mid-January before

returning to the U.S. to continue hisresearch. He said he hopes to learn withina couple of years whether at least some ofthe potential applications for the antifreezeproteins are possible, but it will takelonger than that to evaluate all possibili-ties.

“Not that much has been tried withthem,” he said. “So far I think I’m the onlyone who’s been looking at them.”

A presentation by Raymond about hisstudy is scheduled at 8:15 p.m. today inthe McMurdo dining hall.

Ice secrets8 • The Antarctic Sun December 22, 2002

From page 7

Mike Janech analyzes sea ice diatoms in alab at McMurdo Station.

Photo courtesy of James Raymond

Graduate student Mike Janech breaks uppieces of sea ice near McMurdo Station.

Photo by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun

Thank yyou tto aall wwho eentered the AAntarctic PPhoto aand WWriting ccontest.

We rreceived mmore tthan 1100 eentriesThe jjudges aare hhard aat wwork

and wwill ppresent tthe wwinners iin TThee AAntarctic SSun next wweek.

Find the photo youwished you’d taken atphoto library.polar.org

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Making of a ghost colony

Adelie penguins pepper the dark hillside of Cape Royds like smooth, ovalblack rocks as they lie on their bellies under the 24-hour Antarctic sun.On his stomach, a penguin lies in a pebble-lined nest, incubating the egg

beneath him. Hungry skuas circle above, waiting for him or any bird to moveslightly, exposing an egg just enough for it to get snatched.

A skua descends and lands amidst a cluster of penguins, pecking and squawk-ing at them in an attempt to intimidate penguins into leaving their eggs.

Hungry, because his mate should have relieved him from nest duty 10 days ago,tempted by the idea of food in the distant sea and tired of the tormenting skuas, thepenguin loses hope that his mate will soon return. He heads to the sea for food,leaving his only egg for skuas to eat and his space inside a penguin cluster for skuasto occupy.

“That never used to happen,” said David Ainley, of H.T. Harvey & Associates,ecological consultants based in San Jose, Calif. “The nests used to be thick enoughthat if a skua dared land in there, the penguins would not allow it.”

The sparsely populated penguin colony is a result of the increased extent of seaice, which impacts the penguins’ ability to breed and feed normally.

For the second year in a row at Cape Royds, the amount of sea ice has increasedthe distance between the colony and open water, where penguins forage for krilland fish. Open water located 26 miles (42 km) away and a penguin walking speedof only about 0.5 miles (1 to 2 km) per hour add a critical two days to the journeybetween the nests and food. After reaching open water, penguins then have to findfood and feast long enough to regain their weight after three to four weeks of fast-ing, before returning to the colony.

Normally, the birds migrate to their breeding grounds on shore from the pack icein the eastern Ross Sea. At the colony, the female penguin lays an egg in a pebble-lined nest, then travels back to the sea for food while her mate incubates the egg.The male penguin stays with the egg until the female returns and relieves him in

Photos and story by Melanie Conner

Cape Royds penguins losing battle against sea ice and skua

See Colony on page 10

A skua, left, circlesover the penguincolony at Cape Royds.The colony has beenshrinking in the lasttwo years as extensivesea ice puts the pen-guins hatching groundsfurther from the water.

A penguin stretches and repositions, making itsegg momentarily vulnerable to skuas.

just a few days. But for the second year ina row, incubating birds at Cape Royds areleaving their nests after becoming hungryand impatient. If the foraging bird returnsat all, it often finds its mate gone and thenest empty.

At the end of the laying season on Nov.20 of this year, there were 3,800 nests witheggs. Now there are 1,200, leaving justover 30 percent left to potentially producechicks. This is a significant loss in com-parison to 2000, the last year of “normal”ice conditions, when the number of eggsdropped only from 3,800 to 3,620.

With the peak-hatch period expected totake place around Christmas this year, andthe number of eggs decreasing at a rate of7 percent a day, it is not likely that chickswill be produced this year, Ainley said.However, the incoming U.S. Coast Guardicebreaker or strong southerly winds couldbring open water closer to penguins.

“We’re in a big race now betweenhunger and how fast the icebreaker can gethere and do it’s thing,” said Ainley.“Although it’s coming to save McMurdo,not penguins.”

Ultimately the icebreaker can’t reallysave the chicks, because they are hatchingso late this year. There is almost no chancethey will survive with the onset of winter,added Ainley.

Despite the grim outlook, surprises arenot unheard of. Last year, Mother Nature

smiled upon Royds penguins, and on Dec.14, 2001, she delivered a four-day, mid-December storm. The strong katabaticwinds blew enough sea ice out to shortenthe journeys for foraging parents, just asthe eggs were beginning to hatch.

“The storm saved the efforts of a fewCape Royds birds last year,” said Ainley,who had predicted seven days earlier thatthe Royds Colony would “fail totally.”

Instead of failing, the storm allowed thecolony to produce 200 chicks, comparedto the usual 4,000 chicks.

Although the colony has not yet failed,researchers are learning that the process isunderway because older birds are dyingand are not being replaced by young birds.Cape Royds is not producing chicks andprevious chicks are not returning there tobreed.

Of the chicks produced before the2001-02 season, it is doubtful they willreturn to Royds after spending many for-mative years at sea. Deserted by theyoung, Cape Royds is increasingly


Colony From page 9

See Colony on page 11

A skua tries tochase a penguinaway from its eggat Cape Royds.Below, the pen-guins huddle overtheir eggs in nestsbuilt from pebblesand rocks. Thenests are morewidely spaced thisyear because thecolony has beenshrinking, leavingroom for theskuas to land intheir midst.


becoming a penguin ghost town.“There is nothing going on at Royds

anymore, the new birds don’t want to bethere,” said Ainley. “It’s just like a teenag-er who would rather go downtown thanstay at the farm. The exciting places areattracting new recruits.”

But the young penguins’ pursuit ofactive colonies is not all that easy. Whilethey may be assuring their reproductivefuture by not returning to Cape Royds,they are overcrowding penguins in otherareas, such as Beaufort Island, the colonyclosest to the ice edge. With over 50,000pairs, and the influx of young penguins,Beaufort Island is facing overpopulation.

“Beaufort Island has had an injection ofactivities. It has reached its space limit,”said Ainley. “There are penguins every-where. (The island) is brimming over withpenguins.”

As a result, the wayward Royds birdsare showing up at Cape Bird and CapeCrozier, both of which still have plenty ofspace. The researchers know this becausethey’ve banded chicks at all the coloniesover the past eight years.

In what appears to be a transition fromone colony to another, Ainley and his col-leagues are more excited about the possi-bility of witnessing penguin responses toextended sea ice conditions and climatechange.

“What is going on in the McMurdoSound area is showing how sensitive theyare to conditions of sea ice. They hadalready been colonizing new areas thatwere becoming ice-free,” said Ainley.

By tracking the birds’ movements,using satellite telemetry and banding, theinformation could ultimately provideinsight into the biology, resolve andresilience of these birds.

“The system is showing us how sensitivepenguins are to climate change,” saidAinley. “We thought that they had a reallyhighly developed sense of philopatry, or

faithfulness to their place of hatching. Wethought the formation of new colonies wasnot all that easy. But their sense of wherethey were born isn’t as strong as we thought.They’ve been quick to abandon Royds.”

Hopeful that current penguin trendswill allow him to study the past, Ainleydescribed information on extinct colonies,such as ones at Cape Barne and MarblePoint, as “abstract and hypothetical.”

Now we are witnessing the process firsthand,” said Ainley, “It is driving homelessons about how wild creatures respondto the forces of nature.”

Colony From page 10

A lone penguin makes the long walk from his nest at Cape Royds to the sea, abandoning his egg in search of food.

The shell of arecentlydevoured penguin egg isa sign of theshrinkingcolony atCape Royds.

12• The Antarctic Sun December 22, 2002

spent hunting and traveling hundreds ofmeters deep under the sea ice, holdingtheir breath for as long as 80 minutes at atime as they exert themselves.

“Our question is how the heck are theydoing it?” she said. “How can they saveenergy by being a predator?”

Research at Weddell World revealedplenty of answers, such as the seals’ abili-ty to save energy by diving with littleexertion. But plenty of questions remainwhen project members, who departedAntarctica earlier this month and arespending next year off the Ice, seek toreturn in 2004.

Randall Davis, the project’s lead inves-tigator, said one of his main goals is tostudy how seals hunt in dark conditions,either during the winter or under thick seaice.

“We think vision is important whenambient light levels are fairly high,” themarine biology professor from TexasA&M University said. “Might there beother sensory systems coming in, evenwhen ambient light is high, that we don’tknow about?”

Going out strongThis season the team doubled its video

data from last year, witnessed the limits ofa seal’s eating ability and got a solid readon the role of blubber. One might say theywere in Fat City – if that wasn’t the nameof a nearby camp conducting research onthe digestive process of the mammals.

The home of Weddell World this yearwas near Tent Island, about 10 miles(16km) north of McMurdo. Finding open-ings in the ice where seals had surfaced

proved to be somewhat of a challenge.“We were surprised at how ‘tight’ (lack

of natural cracks) the ice was,” notedShane Kanatous, a University of TexasSouthwestern Medical Center researcherworking on a separate project at the camp,in a journal documenting the season. “Itturns out not all of the ice in the soundbroke out last year.”

The main building for the camp was a136-foot (42m) Jamesway shelter, thelargest such structure used by any of theremote camps in the U.S. AntarcticProgram. Rooms included a kitchen, sepa-rate sleeping areas for men and women,and a lab filled with technical equipmentand computers linked by satellite to theInternet. At one end was an observationroom where a hole was drilled into the seaice, allowing seals to surface for air andresearchers to place in Weddells theycaught to observe their behavior.

Weddell World researchers spent thepast two seasons observing seals in a free-ranging environment, attaching camerasto them at the camp and allowing themammals to swim to whatever holes theymight choose. The first three seasons theirhabits were studied in a more restrictedenvironment, with camps located at isolat-ed ice holes too far away from other holesfor the seals to reach.

“The seal was able to dive as deep andas long as it wanted to, but it still had tocome back to this location,” Davis said.

The free-ranging sites allowedresearchers to observe more naturalbehavior, but also meant more risk anduncertainty after attaching the cameras

and other equipment – worth about$25,000 – to the seals.

“This was a big step for us because weessentially were going to give up any con-trol we had of the animals,” Davis said.But he said the chances of losing track ofthe animals was relatively small as long asthe equipment worked, since satellite andVHF radio signals broadcast the seals’location when they returned to the surface.

Researchers used nets to capture sealson the ice surface – preferably non-preg-nant females, who tend to be more docilethan males. The seals were then broughtby sled to the Jamesway shelter at WeddellWorld, mildly sedated and hooked up tothe cameras.

In earlier years it wasn’t always easy tocatch the seals, which can reach lengths ofnearly 10 feet (3m) and weigh up 1,100lbs. (550kg).

“We all got whacked by the fins or theback end because we were looking at thehead thinking that was the dangerouspart,” Williams said.

Experience with the animals and thelatest in modern technology played a largerole in this season’s success.

Cameras attached to seven seals pro-vided about 100 hours of underwatervideo this season, Davis said. He said inpast years a camera would be deployed ona seal only once, while this year theyfilmed each seal two to six times.

“What we were trying to do this yearespecially was to get an adequate samplesize,” he said. “The way to do that is to loglots of underwater time, as much as we

Weddell From page 1

Photos courtesy of Randall DavisA sign, above, greets those

arriving at camp as researcherson the sea ice, right, use a net tocapture a Weddell seal that will

be outfitted with a camera.

See Weddell on page 13


can.”Researchers have studied the diving

and hunting behavior of seals since the1960s, primarily using depth and timerecorders. But the cameras used atWeddell World proved to be a break-through.

The 8mm computer-controlled camerasautomatically turned on when a seal dovemore than 160 feet (50m) deep andswitched off when the mammal spentmore than 10 minutes on the surface.

Up to six hours of video could berecorded at a time on digitalmemory cards at depths ofnearly 4,000 feet (1,000m).Other sensors providedcontinuous data about theseal’s depth, speed, com-pass bearing, water temper-ature and flipper frequency,plus sound from the dives.Illumination for the blackand white videos camefrom infrared lights.

“The infrared is invisi-ble to the seals and theirprey, so we’re not alteringtheir behavior,” Davis said.

The primary prey for theseals are small silverfisheaten by the dozen andlarger toothfish up to sixfeet (1.8 m) long whichmay take three hours toconsume. More than 1,000captures were recorded dur-ing the five-year study,allowing researchers togenerate three-dimensional maps reveal-ing hunting strategies, sensing abilitiesand other aspects of seal life not possiblewith previous data recorders.

One map shows a seal making a slow,gradual descent for about four minutes,then changing speed abruptly at about1,300 feet (400m) in depth and turning tothe right, somewhat away from a toothfishbeing pursued. The seal then drops twometers below the fish and attacks it frombelow.

The camera mounted on the seal’s fore-head allows viewers to see the struggle asit grabs the toothfish by the upper jaw, but“in the end the fish gets away in this case,”Davis said.

The depth the seals hunted at varied byabout 390 feet (100m) by the time of day,apparently due to variations in light inten-sity, said Lee Fuiman, a professor at theUniversity of Texas who was the thirdprincipal investigator at Weddell World.

Generally the captures occurred at 650to 1,300 feet (200 to 400m) below the sur-

face, but some prey were found at unex-pected depths, he said. Previous researchby others indicated toothfish would befound below 980 feet (300 m), for exam-ple, but “of the 26 encounters we had,only one was below 300 meters.”

It typically takes less than one-third ofa second for a seal to catch a silverfish, sothose videos need to be analyzed frame byframe, Davis said. He said they learnedseals generally eat about 20 silverfish at atime, take a few breaths, then go backdown. A seal that ate 30 in one dive appar-

ently exceeded its limits, regurgitating themeal at the surface.

“We don’t know the reason, but theredoes seem to be some limit there,” he said.Energy conservation

All those fish add up to a lot of calories– exactly how many is a topic of futurestudy – but it takes a lot to spend hourshunting and swimming in frigid waters. Atthe same time, the seals also have to makethe most of the oxygen in their system asthey spend extended amounts of time

under water.Figuring out how the seals maximized

their energy resources has been the mainfocus of Williams’ work at WeddellWorld. Among the discoveries she’s madeis the seals can save anywhere from 10percent to 50 percent of their oxygenreserves by essentially sinking, rather thanswimming, when they descend beneaththe surface.

“They don’t need to stroke every timeon the descent,” she said.

Digesting their chilled prey requires upto 45 percent more energythan a seal who isn’t feed-ing, however, and thatextra need for oxygen canlast nearly five hours,Williams said. That cutsdown drastically on thedistance they can swimbefore they need moreoxygen.

“The problem isWeddells don’t alwayshave access to air, so wewill be looking at theirstrategies,” she said.

She said seals need tostart making a decisionabout where they intend tosurface after about 20 min-utes. That gives themenough time to return totheir point of origin, if nec-essary, and alert otherswho may be competing forthe air hole.

“They start to vocalize,warning the others they are coming up andneed to take a breath,” she said. Otherseals don’t always get out of the way,however, and “sometimes it gets a littlerough.”

Energy usage is also a concern on thesurface. Williams said researchers broughta portable ultrasound machine to WeddellWorld this year to analyze skin, blubberand fat, with the blubber layer on one sealmeasuring 2.6 inches (6.71cm).

Infrared camera readings show a widevariety in body areas where seals lost andretained the most body heat, despite theircoating of blubber. Baby seals, who strug-gle to survive for a number of reasons,have very little ability to retain warmth.Mature seals lose a considerable amountof heat while sunbathing, but for a differ-ent reason.

“The seals have to lose excess heat orthey would boil in their own insulation,”Williams said.

One remaining mystery is how their

Weddell From page 12

A Weddell seal, above, with a head-mounted video camera feeds on a tooth-fish. The chart belows shows how the seals’ are tracked.


racquetball-size eyes stay warm when div-ing, Williams said. She said high blood-flow in the membrane in the lower part ofeye may allow it to retain heat.

Sounds from the SoundThe sights at Weddell World may be

impressive, but the sounds at times areabsolutely mind-blowing.

The seals perform social, courting andcompetitive calls at volumes as high as178 decibels – or about 60 decibels higherthan an eardrum-shattering rock concert.Jesse Purdy, a professor fromSouthwestern University, said Weddellseals have 12 calls with 34 different typesof acoustic variations such as pitch, repe-tition and harmonics. A tape of the sealscontains sounds from high-pitched trills todeep thuds that have the rhythm and toneof a bass drum track on a dance club song.

This season’s goal was to find a maleseal who would defend the hole and attractfemales, Purdy said. Within 10 minutes ofdrilling the hole at the Jamesway, a malewho would be nicknamed “Pink 841” sur-faced and made his claim to the territory.

Purdy and the other researchers intro-duced five male seals and nine femalesinto the hole during the season. The inter-actions with other males were generallycompetitive, but Pink 841 held his ground.

“You’re going to be hearing a largenumber of jaw claps and thumpingsounds,” Purdy said at the beginning of ataped segment featuring the males.

“These bites don’t sound too bad untilyou see the animals on the surface andthen you realize the game is being playedvery seriously,” he added, noting someanimals had significant flesh wounds.

Interactions with females typicallycontained a much larger number of chirpsand there was a greater willingness ofPink 841 to allow them to surface, Purdysaid. The seal proved to be an attractivelure for females, at one point courtingthree of them at one time.

The sound studies have taken placeduring the past two years. Davis said theseals may have the ability to hear noisesover a six-mile (10km) area, in essenceturning the local waters into “a massiveparty line.”

“Much of McMurdo Sound may beaudible to these seals,” he said. “That’ssomething we haven’t even begun toexplore or understand.”

Muscle mania and Fat CityThree other projects involving the

study of Weddell seals are taking place inthe McMurdo region this year. One is anongoing long-term effort to record thepopulation dynamics of the area, while theother two involve shorter term research ator near Weddell World that could result inmedical findings beneficial to humans.

Kanatous, the University of TexasSouthwestern Medical Center professor, isstudying the skeletal muscle developmentof young seals in an effort to learn how the

muscles end up highly resilient to lowoxygen levels.

“That takes them from land mammalsthat can’t dive to one of the elite divingmammals of the world,” he said.

His work on the Ice involved collectingmuscle biopsy samples from newly weanedpups five to seven weeks old and adultseals. He will use the samples to test the the-ory that seals begin developing the neces-sary muscle structure while nursing andcontinue to develop as they learn to dive.

The muscles may not develop com-pletely until they are several years old,however, meaning they can’t dive as deepfor prey as adults, he said.

Kanatous is also studying the seals’genetic regulation of myoglobin, a highlyconcentrated hemeprotein. He said learn-ing how seals maintain a normal aerobicmetabolism in conditions that are lethal tomany animals, including humans, mayhelp lead to the development of muscleprotections that could aid in the treatmentof ailments such as heart failure.

While Weddell World researchers spentmuch of the season learning how sealscatch their prey, Michael Castellini was afew miles away studying the next step.

“They were looking at how animalscaught the fish,” the University of AlaskaFairbanks professor said. “We were look-ing at how do they process it?”

Observing how seals utilize the marine



Lee Fuiman, right, andKate Willis, center, workinside the Jamesway that

houses researchers atWeddell World. It is the

largest such shelter ofany of the remote camps

in the U.S. AntarcticProgram.


By Kristan HutchisonSun staff

While the scientists at Weddell World observed theseals, artist Bob Marstall was observing them both.

elephant by each examining a small part – the side, the tail, atusk, an ear, the trunk, a leg. Like the blind men, theresearchers each focus on some aspect of seal biology or phys-iology.

“There are several scientists with differentangles all looking at different aspects of theanimal. All of those aspects add up to thetotal package,” Marstall said. “WhatLarry and I are doing will add to that.”

Sometimes it takes an outsideobserver, like an artist, writer orgeneralist scientist, to see the ani-mal as a whole. Marstall looksat the seals as an artist, try-ing to transfer the living,breathing animal to anillustration. He andLaurence Pringle have aNational Science FoundationArtists’ and Writers’ grant toresearch a nonfiction children’s book on Weddell seals, thefifth such book the illustrator/author team have collaboratedon, including An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a MonarchButterfly, which won the Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction.

Unfortunately Pringle, who originally thought of applyingfor the NSF grant and asked Marstall to join him, wasn’t ableto come to Antarctica at the last minute, so Marstall camealone.

Marstall’s way of approaching art is similar to a natural sci-entist, and he sees art and science as closely entwined.

“The relationship between art and science is actually ofgreat interest to me,” Marstall said. “At its purest level, goodart and good science are two sides of the same coin.”

Both artists and scientists must be creative, looking at thesubject of their study in new and different ways, Marstall said.

Both are trying to figure out something about life and whatmakes it work.

“They (artists and scientists) are both observing nature,”Marstall said. “It’s what they do with that information that isdifferent.”

Sometimes the boundaries between art and science growfuzzy. Was Leonardo DaVinci an artist or a scientist when he

sketched the human body?Pencil sketching is a traditional tech-

nique in science, not only as a record, butalso as a tool for seeing more clearly.Having to draw something focuses themind on the details and structure, Marstall

said.“There’s this big jump in

your ability to see and under-stand what you’re seeing whenyou draw. There’s a physical

connection between the handand the eye.”

At the same time, as an artist,Marstall must understand much of the funda-

mental anatomy and biology of whatever he is drawing.For previous books, Marstall has collected dragonfly eggs,examined dragonfly jaws under a microscope, and raised hun-dreds of monarch butterflies in his studio.

“I do that with every book,” Marstall said. “I work from theinside out. To get the details right, you have to understand thestructure, the underlying structure.”

Marstall spent most of his time with the seal researcherstaking photographs, which will prompt his memory as hedraws and paints seals back in his studio in Northampton,Mass. His richly detailed watercolor and oil paintings bring hissubjects back to life on the page, reflecting the depth of hisunderstanding for the subject. As an artist, his experience isvery much like the researchers who find that every answerleads them to ask more questions and discover more areas ofstudy.

“It’s certainly true with artists, the more you look at some-thing the more you see. That’s what keeps it interesting,”Marstall said. “I’m never ever bored.”


The science of art: Another way to look at seals

One of Bob Marstall’s preliminary seal sketches.

lipids in their prey, which are rich inomega 3 fatty acids, may provide clues tohow humans benefit from consumption ofthe same lipids, Castellini said. He notedEskimos and Natives in Alaska tradition-ally ate a high-fat diet consisting of ani-mals caught in the area, but their healthhas declined during the past 60 years asWestern influence has replaced thoseitems with other fats.

This is the first year of his study.Castellini says he will do most of theanalysis on lipid samples he has collectedfrom seals once he is off the Ice, and hewill return next year to take different mea-surements, such as how fast the seals can

absorb the lipids.The long-term population study has

been led by Don Siniff of the University ofMinnesota, with more than 80 percent ofthe seals born in the region identified andtagged during the past 30 years. The pro-ject’s principal investigator this season isBob Garrott of Montana State University.Although the group was not directlyinvolved in Weddell World, they did pro-vide some advice, such as tellingKanatous where juvenile seals were likelyto be found.

Future years will try to expand on whatthe Weddell World researchers have discov-ered. Equipment is also likely to improve:

Davis said a next-generation video cameraset to debut in a year-and-a-half will be halfthe size of the ones used now.

Some of the future research is likely togo beyond feeding habits, Fuiman said.

“We’re pretty confident we know whata foraging dive is,” he said. “The chal-lenge is now figuring out what those otherdives are for.”

The research was also useful in gather-ing more information than expected abouthow the prey of seals live. But Williamssaid there may also be some interest infocusing more effort on creatures otherthan seals.

“I think all of us are saying ‘We’ve got


The researchers reminded him of the fableabout five blind men trying to understand an

It is amazing how Christmas comes, even here in Antarctica.

the plateau on meager rations of pemmican, biscuit, seal meat andhoosh.

“It is not enough, and hunger is gripping us very tightly,” Scottwrote in his journal on Dec. 22, 1902. “I never knew what it waslike before, and I shall not be particularly keen on trying it again.”

The dogs that were left were too weak to pull, and the men them-selves weren’t much better. Already Wilson had found signs ofscurvy in Shackleton’s “angry-looking gums” and all three of themsuffered bouts of snow-blindness. Their nostrils, lips and fingerswere chapped and cracked.

“But all our ailments together are as nothing beside our hunger,which gets steadily worse day by day,” Scott wrote Dec. 23.

It was not the white Christmas we dream of, with glistening treetops and sleighbells ringing. Sleds aren’t as fun when you’re thehorse.

“Tonight is Christmas Eve,” Scott wrote. “We have been thinkingand talking about the folk at home, and also much about our plansfor tomorrow.”

Plans for tomorrow? What kind of sugar-plum dreams couldthese starving men have? If they hung their stockings they’d justfrostbite their feet.

But somehow Christmas came, without ribbons, without tags. Itcame without packages, boxes or bags…

“For a week we have looked forward to this day with childishdelight,” Scott wrote on Christmas. “When we awoke to wish eachother ‘A merry Christmas’ the sun was shining warmly through ourgreen canvas roof. We were outside in a twinkling, to find the skygloriously clear and bright, with not a single cloud in its vast arch.Away to the westward stretched the long line of gleaming coastline;the sunlight danced and sparkled in the snow beneath our feet, andnot a breath of wind disturbed the serenity of the scene. It was a glo-rious morning, but we did not stay to contemplate it, for we hadeven more interesting facts to occupy us, and were soon inside thetent sniffing at the savoury steam of the cooking-pot.”

They feasted all day.For breakfast each had a pan full of biscuit and seal liver, fried in

bacon and pemmican fat, followed by a large spoonful of jam,which “left a sense of comfort which we had not experienced forweeks, and we started to pack up in a frame of mind that was whol-ly joyful.”

That day they found their burdens lighter, the snow firmer, theirsteps easier. With a break for lunch – hot cocoa, a whole biscuit andagain jam – they covered nearly 11 miles. Then they indulged in a“Christmas wash and brush-up” before laying into a Christmas stew,with a double serving of everything.

“Meanwhile I had observed Shackleton ferreting about in hisbundle, out of which he presently produced a spare sock, andstowed away in the toe of that sock was a small round object aboutthe size of a cricket ball, which when brought to light, proved to bea noble ‘plum-pudding.’ Another dive into his lucky-bag and outcame a crumpled piece of artificial holly. Heated in the cocoa, ourplum-pudding was soon steaming hot, and stood on the cooker-lidcrowned with its decoration.”

The men spoke of home and friends, not wistfully, but gaily.They wondered if Christmas back in England could have possiblybeen any better than theirs. And as Scott smoked his second pipe hewrote “for us this has been the reddest of all red-letter days.”

We at The Antarctic Sun can only wish that your holidays are asmerry as their’s was.

Out to the cargo line, in our festive best, Parkas, large shoes, and polka-dot vests.

There to chop out a tree from the stacked plywood forest,The spirit of Yule made our tree not the poorest. A silence lay on the flat, white Christmas land, Broken only by chainsaws of our merry band.With hands full of Sharpies we decorated with care,Hoping our senses to fool with thin air. On came the 931 with a clatter and Off jumped our cook with a bowl full of batter.

A Christmas you want, a Christmas you’ll have Off she went to the stove, our spirits to salve.After a big Christmas meal that couldn’t be beat,We all had another and agreed it was neat.We hung up our stockings over the Preway with care,And hoped by the morning they’d be dried by hot air. Ken Borek Air was all snug in their beds,AN8 fume—induced visions danced in their heads.My hot water bottle & I had just gone to bed,

When the roof of the Jamesway groaned with great dread.From the weight of the Nansen sled teamed by Adelies,

Loaded with Anti-Claus and gifts made in New Delhi.I went to the Preway to check on the heating,

Whence from within there came this odd greeting.“You there,” he said, “why are you awake?”“You should be abed, dreaming of steak!”Dressed all in green, trimmed with black fur,

He slapped his great bulk and shouted out“BRRRRRR!”

He came and he laughed at our miserable tree,“It’s the thought that does count,” and he laughed

“tee hee hee.”He left us some gifts, fresh onions and whiskey,And with a puff of smoke he was off up the chimney.His troupe silhouetted by a full midnight sun,I heard him cry out in a voice filled with fun.“A polar Christmas to all,

And to all a bright night.”

Doug Ruuska is a meteorological technician at Onset D field camp

on the West Antarctic plateau.

An Onset D ChristmasBy Doug Ruuska

Ghost of Antarctic Christmases past


A hundred years ago three men were alone in this colddesert, following a compass point as if it were a star. Scott,Wilson and Shackleton struggled to pull 170 lbs. each across

items of clothing, but most were con-tent to be part of the sea of standard-issue red parkas gathered outside of theChalet administration building atMcMurdo Station on the windy after-noon of Dec. 15. They spent about halfan hour recording several takes of thegreeting, similar to messages beingrecorded by U.S. personnel worldwidefor ABC’s morning news show.

There is no guarantee “GoodMorning America” will air McMurdo’sgreeting, said David Bresnahan, theNational Science Foundation’s repre-sentative at McMurdo, during a pre-tape briefing. But he said his gut feel-ing is there’s a good chance it willappear sometime during the holidays.

“They’re looking for something dif-ferent or unique,” he said. “My guess iswe’ll fit.”

The McMurdo script called for aclose-up shot of Bresnahan welcomingviewers and passing on a brief greetingto his wife Carolyn and their daughtersMegan and Briana. The camera wouldthen pull back and everyone would say“Happy holidays and Good MorningAmerica!”

The first time the group tried theline, from the warmth of their chairsinside the Chalet, it sounded rather ten-tative. Bresnahan told them they’d

need to do better once they got outside.“If we don’t do the ‘Good Morning

America’ with enthusiasm they’re notgoing to play the clip,” he said.

Once outside, a few members hoist-ed the Chalet’s collection of interna-tional flags as McMurdo BroadcastTechnician Eric Sturm set the greetersup (“If you’re tall, stand in the back; ifyou’re short, stand in front.”). Battagliamade sure he and Flo were kneelingnear the front. Then it was time toshoot and shout.

Bresnahan delivered his openingand the group chimed in its greetingwith all the enthusiasm one could hopefor – a little too soon. The encore, withthe aid of a hand signal from Sturm,went smoother. A third take for safety’ssake was shot and the gatherers wereallowed to scatter, wondering when thesegment might air and who might rec-ognize them.

“My mother watches ‘GoodMorning America,’” said Kerry“Summer” Snow, a second-year sci-ence cargo worker from Chicago whowas wearing an “alternative Santa hat”made by her mother featuring purpleand leopard spots. “She would be verysurprised to turn on the TV and (seeus).”

Greetings From page 1


“They’relooking forsomethingdifferent

or unique.My guessis we’ll fit.”

— Dave Bresnahan,NSF representative

McMurdo Station Broadcast Technician EricSturm, above, videotapes a group of about 40 peo-ple who recorded a holiday greeting for the ABCshow “Good Morning America” on Dec. 15.Below, James Battaglia, center, displays his pinkflamingo Flo and Kerry “Summer” Snow, bottomcenter, wears an “alternative Santa hat” made byher mother as they participate in the greeting.Photos by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun

The last time BevinGumm coordinatedother people’s livingarrangements was at

a refugee camp in T h a i l a n d .It was also her most

challenging. Gumm was in Thailand,

working as an Englishteacher in 1992, when fourborder camps unexpected-ly closed and 18,000refugees arrived overnightat the camp, whose popula-tion was already at 13,000.

Gumm, now housingcoordinator at McMurdoStation, spent nine monthsin 1992 in the ChonburiProvince, Southeast ofBangkok teaching Englishto Laotian, Vietnamese andCambodian refugees in Thailand. The refugees were going toAmerica and had six months to learn English and cultural andwork orientation. The classes aided the success of refugeesthroughout their relocation to America, said Gumm.

“It was horrific. The displaced refugees were bussed in atnight and they had to be roped off, so that they wouldn’t beinjured or tortured by guards,” said Gumm. “The chaos of thesituation haunts me to this day.”

With the arrival of the refugees, the health of the camp dete-riorated quickly.

“Everyone was sick, including myself,” said Gumm. “I waslosing hair and losing weight. I was down to 100 lbs.”

“When I came home to the USA and got off the plane, mymom just cried because my health was so poor,” said Gumm,

The living and working conditions were so poor that the onlyother American working there, a small handful of students fromHarvard University, left the camp clandestinely during the night.

Living was tight. But the refugees and workers were versatile,and flexible, said Gumm.

She was paid $30 USD a month and given a mat to sleep onand rice to eat, until eventually foreign aid for the camp was cutin 1994, forcing the camp to close and sending refugees back tothe countries from which they came.

“It was very sad,” said Bevin, “They thought they were ontheir way to America. Their ticket for a new life, which hadalready been envisioned for over a decade, crushed by reality ofbudget cut.”

Gumm’s Thai experience was not overly foreign to her. Shewent there after finishing her first stint of volunteer work inNepal where she started out arranging housing for interns.

Modeling her work after her own study abroad experience inKenya as an undergraduate student at St. Lawrence University inCanton, N.Y., she placed students with families throughoutNepal.

After taking a year off from graduate school and spendingthree summers in Nepal and a year in Thailand to continue herless-academic education through volunteer work, Gumm fin-ished her graduate studies. She earned a master’s in educational

counseling and a master’sin educational psychology.Formal education behindher, she returned to Nepalto teach at the FrenchInternational School.While there Gumm decid-ed to put all her teachingand volunteer skills to thetest by starting a Nepaleseschool for local villagechildren, who had no otherclassroom education avail-able to them.

“The trekking guideswe got to know from previ-ous years had so many sto-ries about how happy theywere to speak someEnglish and they wantedtheir children to learnEnglish too,” Gumm said.

With the closest school a six-day walk away, Gumm and herteam decided to build the school in Laprak, where her trekkingguides were from.

From Katmandu, Laprak is a 12-hour bus ride over winding,bumpy and narrow roads to the town of Gorka and another three-to six-week walk on twisting and ascending mountain goat pathsin the Himalayas.

“The village is very isolated from the holiday trekkers’paths,” said Gumm. “We didn’t see any foreigners.”

The making of the school became a community-wide effort inthe village of 6,000 people.

A voluntary tax-system provided everyone with a job or duty.“The local community had to contribute somehow to the

school through work, books or money, like taxes. Everyonehelped with construction too,” said Gumm. “We bought land andlocal materials and carried stuff from Gorka and teachers wereall locally recruited.

After three years of negotiating and working with Nepalesegovernment officials and businesses to obtain funds, permits,land, building equipment and materials, the Lapral CommunitySchool finally opened in 1994.

“It started as a private school, and it took five years of goingthrough the permit process to finally make it a public school,”said Gumm. “Teacher ’s salaries of $40 a month come from thegovernment’s pay scale so I don’t have to raise funds for theirsalaries, and the school now follows the Nepalese curriculum”

After finishing her school and leaving Nepal in 1998, sheconsidered settling down into a career and a domestic life in theStates.

But after four years of suppressing her wanderlust, Gummtook a job as housing coordinator for McMurdo Station inAntarctica, where she juggles dorm beds for scientists and staffas they pass through McMurdo on their way to field camps andlistens to the complaints of unhappy roommates.

While handing out dorm keys in Antarctica lacks the altruismof volunteer work in Third World countries, she said what shelikes most about Antarctica is the people.

“They have such incredible stories. This is not a normalcross-section of society. I guess that is why I like it.”


ProfileBy Melanie Conner/Sun staff

Housing hundreds around the world

Bevine Gumm, center, and her parents visit with her Nepalese friends inMuktinath, Nepal, a village in the Annapurna Mountains.

Photo provided by Bevin Gumm

sights and sounds at weddell a holiday cheer world get ... · made sure he brought flo, his pink...

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