We’re over a month into our deployment and we just made it to Palmer Station, Antarctica! We left Portland, Oregon on April 26 and three weeks, four Covid tests and five seasons of Selling Sunset later, I left my hotel room and we embarked on our trip towards Earth’s final frontier. Our ship is the Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP): a 94-meter research vessel with the ability to break through ice. The trip began by heading westward through the Strait of Magellan in Chile and then turning south and crossing the Drake Passage. Lovingly referred to as “the Drake”, this stretch of water has some of the roughest seas in the world as the currents remain unobstructed by land, giving them the ability to pick up incredible speed. Fortunately for us, the swell was manageable during our crossing and the number of passengers that fell victim to seasickness was low.
Once we got through the Drake, we made our way towards the continent. We arrived at Palmer Station at night, and in the morning, we were rewarded with views of ice-covered mountains that were painted pink and orange as the sun peeked over the glacier. An entrancing sight that words, nor pictures, can fully capture.
Our next stop was Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctica! Six hours from Palmer Station, we geared up early the next day and took off. This was the first place where we went in search of Antarctic krill. Similar to our 2019 winter field season, we needed to collect juvenile krill to carry out long-term feeding experiments at Palmer Station. My advisor, Dr. Kim Bernard, is leading the Palmer field season and is joined by two on our all-women science team: Julia Fontana (a seasoned Palmerite), and Giulia Wood (a new, but uber excited krill researcher).
Unfortunately, we had recently learned that a krill fishing fleet had just been fishing in Wilhelmina Bay. We were worried that they had taken all the krill from the area, and our worst fears came true as we stared at a blank echosounder* screen for 12 hours. After a daytime nap, we were at it again the next night. Before we started night operations, we were greeted with cotton candy skies and breaching whales as the sun set below the mountains in Wilhelmina Bay. A good omen for night two of net tows.
As we were getting ready to head to another area in search of krill, team member Andrea Nodal (also a new and VERY passionate krill researcher) noticed a blip on the echosounder. The blip turned into a blob and we quickly put on our waterproof bibs and jackets and got ready to put the net in the water. It was a success! Two net tows later and we were swimming in krill! Salty hands and frozen faces, we were smiles all night long.
We thank these krill for their sacrifice for science and are excited to see what they can teach us! Andrea, Giulia and I are headed down the peninsula towards the southern part of Marguerite Bay, Antarctica to see how krill behave throughout the winter. We are planning on doing ship-based growth and respiration experiments and will do several net tows to get an idea of krill physiology and available prey items during this time of year. We will be aboard the NBP for another month or so and are excited to see what’s to come. Giulia will join us for the cruise and once we’re finished, she will be dropped off at Palmer Station to assist in the completion of the experiments there. We’re ready for another kriller season at the western Antarctic Peninsula!
*An echosounder is a tool that uses sonar to determine bottom depth and to track aggregations underwater. They are especially useful when trying to find swarming species, like Antarctic krill.
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