Least used phrase in the English (or Norwegian) language: “Quick grab the survival suits before the walrus sits on them!”
Today is Saturday and we have almost actually had a bit of a weekend day. We are steaming for most of the day today. We woke up in Middle Earth today, or perhaps Koom valley if you follow Pratchett. It was the most astonishing view ever, and again worth the 6 hours sleep.
Today is Saturday and we have almost actually had a bit of a weekend day. We are steaming for most of the day today. We woke up in Middle Earth today, or perhaps Koom valley if you follow Pratchett. It was the most astonishing view ever, and again worth the 6 hours sleep.
Not to mention all the awesome glacier action going on, you can actually see and hear them in action which is amazing. They aren’t just a static image on a powerpoint presentation somewhere. The frustrating thing about them is that you need to have been watching them about 10 seconds BEFORE they made a sound because that’s when it actually did something. Why? Because of the speed of sound v.s speed of light, kids ask you parents about it (parents remember that’s the whole deal with the thunderclap lagging after the lightning bolt, if you’re still having troubles email me).
Our day was also heralded by clouds which look a whole lot like the carapace (helmet part) of the shrimp we have been studying, we saw this as a good sign for science for the day.
Where we were hanging around, near an old Dutch whaling station called Smeerenberg (literally “Fat City”) there is a permanent dive station where they are taking photos of the benthic ecology and seeing how is changes over time and with different events and inputs. They are also testing different “treatments” or experimenting with different “what if” scenarios. To do this, in some areas, they clear a small section of the floor (less than .5m2) and then photograph it as often as they can to see how the communities reinhabit the area. Which plants and animals come first, which ones come second and then what the community looks like when it has returned to normal. This can take any time between 10 and 30 years, so as you can imagine some patience is required when researching. It’s also important to have these records so that we can see how things like a decrease in ice-cover are changing the sea floor communities (first glance it looks like algae is taking over, rather like a manky fairy floss covering the sea floor). More to come on this later, because I find it particularly interesting, however it does involve these guys heading out to dive in the few degrees of water and taking photos with a camera.
After this we got some awesome news, we get to go ashore! To the land, ho! Specifically we get to visit the ghost town that is Smeerenberg, and see where the Dutch whalers, around 200 people at peak, lived, hunted whales and boiled them down for oil. They even used the whale bones to fuel the fires, so there wasn’t too much remaining from the city. A few logs and old metal bits and pieces. So it was a beach party, minus the bikinis and sun oil.
First spot of the day, POLAR BEAR FOOTPRINTS! There have been bears here, and fairly recently when you can still see the prints in the sand. So proof, and proof of the reason why there were guys wandering around with rifles. It is slightly confronting to be on land and considering that there could be something hungry out there hunting you, it’s a very different part of the world.
It was also interesting to see the detritus on the beach, there was quite a lot of small pieces of plastic. Just to clarify, the Dutch whalers did not use plastics, there was no tuppaware to keep the left over pieces of whale in. This plastic is new, it has drifted in from different places, and mostly appeared to be broken down pieces of industrial plastic. Just to show, humans have impacts everywhere, and I still feel massively guilty about the chip packet I dropped in my first year of school and didn’t retrieve.
To demonstrate some more of the drift we even found a plastic barrel which appears to have fallen off a ship along the way. It was of particular interest to everyone because it had been enthusiastically colonised by a couple of species, primarily “opportunists” who aren’t fussy about where they live or what they eat. It’s interesting to note these things because it’s transport like this that can bring in new species to an area. Mostly this doesn’t cause any trouble because southern species being transported North just die because the conditions are too rough for them. But, with a changing climate and less sea ice maybe some of these hitchhikers will be able to survive and will start colonising new areas. Just goes to show, there’s a lot of factors to consider when you think about how things are changing and how humans impact the natural environment.
There was also some bones. Looking all the more dramatic because of a filter on my camera. There has to be some bones at an ex-whaling station, even if they aren’t whale bones.
There was also a huge beautiful diversity of moss. Not having seen trees for weeks I’m really starting to appreciate some of the beauty in moss. Again, it is amazing to consider such soft small things surviving out here through the dark months of winter. It’s also amazing to think that the moss survives with much more ease than we would, and much more ease than the Dutch whalers did. On their first winter 6 people died, one of whom lost his leg before dying. They didn’t have a good time of it, but the lure of whale was still worth it to them. The things we do for resources.
There were some cool relics from the olden days. Again, the mark of man in such a cruel place.
The real excitement for all the biologists was the walrus though. There were two, one having a solid nap on the beach. He didn’t have any tusks, which wasn’t so great for him. They use their tusks to shuffle through the sediment where they find clams and suck the meat out of the clam. This, as you can imagine, used a serious amount of suction power. There are rumours of walruses sucking seal pups straight out of their skin, just saying, I’m not going to cross one of these fellas. There was also a walrus, and a few seals, observing us from the water (left tusked walrus clearly, it’s left tusk has been worn down much more than its right, again from shuffling through the sediment). It certainly appeared that they were curious about us and watching us. I have my suspicions that they went home to their families at night and told them all about how there were these weird creatures watching them from the shore, making funny high pitched “ohhhh, wowiee walrus!” noises. At least I hope so.
It was all very exciting. The rest of our day was spent analysing out data and collating a quick presentation to show the rest of the groups what we have been up to. Overall a very satisfying Saturday. Stay tuned for tomorrow where we are moving down into the world of sediments.