Sue-Ann's Antarctic Adventure

Leaving Antarctica

2007-03-04T20:16:00.000-03:00

Adam and I have left Antarctica! We're in the BAS office in Stanley in the Falklands after a 5 hour flight from base. Its positively tropical here and the air smells of plants and i saw a small insect on the floor of the toliet which was a novelty. I was so sad to leave all my friends there behind for the winter. They're a great bunch of people and will have a fantastic winter at Rothera. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of all their winter trips and sea ice travel expeditions.

Leaving Rothera

2007-03-03T15:46:00.000-03:00

Today was my last day at Rothera. We have spend most of this last week packing up all the scientific samples and equpiment for export back to the UK on one of our research ships. We have also been busy diving for animals to take back to the UK in the Transport Aquarium, which is a container that will take live animals from Antarctica across the tropics and to their new home at the British Antarctica Survey HQ in Cambridge, England.

Tonight we are having a Ibiza sunset party in the boatshed!

Ice climbing

2007-03-03T15:45:00.000-03:00

Last night we went ice climbing - it was super fun - but REALLY cold!!!

Lagoon Island

2007-02-26T16:57:00.000-03:00

I have just spent a fantastic couple of days on Lagoon Island. It was like a little holiday away from base as I haven't been out to the field this season. It was a bit cold in the hut - I had on Mrs Puffy!

Humpback and Killer Whales!

2007-02-24T09:19:00.000-03:00

Humpbacks

Humpback diving

Killer whales

This morning we saw 2 humpback whales off the wharf and yesterday we saw 5 killer whales (orcas). Very exciting!

International Polar Year Youth Website up and running!

2007-02-23T19:10:00.000-03:00

The International Polar Year (IPY) Youth Steering Committee (YSC) website is now up and running thanks to James Cheshire from the University of Southampton. Check it out at:
http://www.ipyyouth.org.uk/

Science minister's visit on the news

2007-02-23T19:09:00.000-03:00

Check out BBC Science and Nature for news of the VIP visit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6386357.stm

Meeting the Science Minister and Lord Oxburgh

2007-02-23T12:27:00.000-03:00

Yesterday the UK Science Minister, MP Malcolm Wicks, and Lord Oxburgh came to visit the Bonner Lab. I told them about my research here and in a wider context and then we took them out on the boats to show them how we monitor water temperature in the bay using the CTD. The BAS Director was also there taking lots of photos! Hopefully, they'll take their enthuasiasm for Antarctica back to the Houses of Parliment.

Diving Hangar Cove

2007-02-21T20:05:00.000-03:00

Our dive boat Stella navigating through the icebergs to Hangar Cove

On site for the dive

Kitting up

Extreme sunset skiing - Stork views

2007-02-21T19:50:00.000-03:00

View from the top

Climbing to the summit

We use roped travel on the way up in case a crevasse is accidentally encountered!

Extreme sunset skiing - the climb!

2007-02-21T10:43:00.000-03:00

Preparing harnesses for the climb

At the top of Stork Bowl

Ali our marine assistant

Ooops, somebody falling down the mountain!

Antarctica from the air!!!

2007-02-21T10:42:00.000-03:00

Boarding our Dash 7 aircraft - she's called Daisy!

Adelaide Island from the air!

Rothera!

South of our island

Yesterday (Tues 20 Feb) I got a place on the Winter Trip Familierisation flight on the Dash 7. What an exciting day - a flight and climbing and skiing!

Cruise Ship Visit

2007-02-21T10:39:00.000-03:00

On Monday we were visited by a German cruise ship, the MS Bremen. She docked alongside our wharf (the Biscoe Wharf) and scientists from the Bonner Lab showed guests around our aquarium and research facilities.

Anchorage Island

2007-02-18T17:43:00.000-03:00

Here are some of the view from Anchorage Island towards Adelaide Island. It was a beautiful day!

Sleeping in a melon

2007-02-18T17:20:00.000-03:00

The melon hut on Anchorage Island

Inside the hut

My mega expedition sleeping bag

Earlier this week I stayed a night on Anchorage Island to help a terrestrial biologist called Merlyn with her research. The island is about 5 km off base and we stayed in a melon hut. It was very cold at night but we had good sleeping bags!

My Experiments

2007-02-13T17:19:00.000-03:00

Measuring the amount of oxygen the animal uses

Clams in the respiration chambers (glass jars!)

Measuring the oxygen content of the water with an oxygen sensitive foil inside the jar

The data feeds into the computer generating graphs of oxygen consumption

I'm researching the metabolic rates of Antarctic marine animals. Animals in Antarctica are very slow growing and have low metabolic rates. Some of the animals I'm studying are over 40 years old! To measure their oxygen use, I keep them in glass or perspex containers for about 6-8 hours and measure the amount of oxygen removed from the seawater over that time.

My Animals

2007-02-13T17:08:00.000-03:00

Antarctic brachiopod with youngsters attached

Antarctic clams called Laternula - these live in mud and clay and a lot of digging is involved whilst diving to get them out!

Antarctic sea urchin

One of my holding tanks in the Bonner Lab aquarium

The animals I'm studying have limestone (calcium carbonate) shells or skeletons. These include animals like snails (gastropods), clams (bivalves), sea urchins, brittle stars and brachiopods. I'm researching differences in shell thickness and the type of skeleton animals have in Antarctica. Because the water is very cold here it is difficult to remove calcium carbonate from the surrounding seawater. This is why I'm measuring the amount of energy animals have to use to make their shell or skeleton and comparing these measurements to data from other parts of the world where the water is warmer. It's easier to make a shell or skeleton in warmer waters, but there are more predators to defend against - so shells need to be much thicker!

Diving around a big ship

2007-02-12T12:23:00.000-03:00

Me and Helen the Rothera marine assistant in front of our dive boat Stella

Manoeurving around the JCR in Stella

Getting through the icebergs

Just about to go diving - Shack's Crack is the butress behind me

Diving went ahead as normal around the James Clark Ross. There was lots of ice around the wharf so it was a bit tricky to launch our small dive boat - Stella. We went to dive Shack's Crack again to collect sponges for the Rothera marine biologist Jade Berman.

Return of the Royal Research Ship

2007-02-12T12:18:00.000-03:00

The RRS James Clark Ross called into base again after a research expedition with the remotely operated underwater vehicle called ISIS. ISIS was exploring the deep sea around Antarctica providing samples and images from the sea bed 3500 m deep. I meet some of my friends Abi and Emily from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton on the ship and showed Abi some of the work I am doing in the aquarium at the Bonner Lab at Rothera.

Sunset in Antarctica

2007-02-05T12:10:00.000-03:00

The sun is finally setting here at 67 degrees South.

Seals and Lagoon Island

2007-02-04T18:16:00.000-03:00

Sundays are days off! Today we went boating to a nearby island - Lagoon Island. It's about 5km from base. There's a hut there with 4 bunk beds and some people from base had stayed there last night. There were elephant and Weddell seals on the island and also 1 fur seal. This was the first fur seal many of us had seen in Antarctica. They start to arrive on base at the end of the summer.

After the trip to Lagoon, I walked around Rothera Point. This is about an hours walk behind base. There were lots more Weddell seals hauled up on the beach and a big ellie seal right next to Bransfield House, the main building on base.

Co-Pilot Flight!

2007-01-28T17:14:00.002-03:00

Today I got up at 7am (despite not going to bed until 2am after the party) and went to the Met briefing to see what the weather was like. The weather was fine for flying so I got my first Co-Pilot flight to the other side of Adelaide Island. It was beautiful seeing Antarctica from the air.

We deployed a field party of 2 people and lots of camping and science kit. Then we flew back to base down a glacier. It was soooo cool! We also flew really low over the sea and icebergs!

Gould Night

2007-01-28T17:14:00.001-03:00

A big party in the sledge store!

Gould Visit

2007-01-28T17:12:00.000-03:00

The American Antarctic research ship the Laurence M. Gould came to visit Rothera yesterday. Marine biologists from Rothera went aboard the ship to take water measurements around the bay.

Burn's Night

2007-01-26T11:13:00.000-03:00

Last night in fine Scottish tradition we had a Burn's Night. This was the first one I've been to and the Ceiligh dancing was very interesting. We ate haggis which was very yum, one of Cyril's best dishes so far. Photos coming soon.

Sunset

2007-01-26T10:28:00.000-03:00

The sun is finally starting to set at Rothera - very late at night. This is a shot from the glacier down to the station. I was driving a ski-doo back last week around 10.30pm. Autumn is coming to Antarctica.

Science in Antarctica

2007-01-22T20:59:00.000-03:00

Here's a sea spider. I picked him up when I was collecting other animals on a dive and this is him just before I returned him to the sea.

My Antarctic address

2007-01-19T12:47:00.000-03:00

Here's my address on base if you would like to write! Post can take around 3 weeks to arrive and comes into Antarctica on a BAS flight or ship from the BAS office in the Falklands.

Sue-Ann Watson
Rothera Research Station
British Antarctic Survey
Stanley
Falkland Islands
South Atlantic
FIQQ 1ZZ

James Clark Ross second call

2007-01-18T19:36:00.001-03:00

Only hours after the Endurance left, the RRS James Clark Ross arrived bringing my supervisor and friends from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.

Diving in Antarctica

2007-01-18T19:35:00.000-03:00

Here are some photos of us diving in Antarctica taken by Jim the boatman. Today Dr Simon Morley and I dived one of the best dive sites in Antarctica - Shack's Crack. It's a steep wall of rock extending from the top of the mountains near base (called Reptile Ridge) into the sea to 200 m deep. We dived to 18 m to collect animals called brachiopods that can be found there. These animals are often found in deeper water and occur in shallow water on the undersides of overhanging ledges on the cliff face. There is an abundance of sponges and other marine life there too.

HMS Endurance

2007-01-18T19:33:00.000-03:00

After the Winter Olympics we had a BBQ on the aft deck of the HMS Endurance. I was the coldest BBQ I'd ever been too - in Antarctica with 50 knot winds, but the food was much nicer than on base! After the BBQ, John from Southampton showed us around the ship and we got to look at the helicopters. HMS Endurance is apparently the only Naval ship with 2 heli's and the tails fold up to fit in the hold.

The Winter Olympics

2007-01-18T13:04:00.001-03:00

Rothera joint winners with the Royal Marines of HMSE

The Royal Visit

2007-01-18T13:03:00.000-03:00

A VVIP came to visit Rothera this week - HRH the Princess Royal. It's the first time a member of the royal family has visited this side of Antarctica. HRH came to see the Bonner Lab where we work and talked to all of us about our science work. We had a special dinner with HRH as well. She got a mountain range on our island named after her to mark her visit. Here the Princess is learning how to drive the ski-doos and below is a photo of our SCUBA diving demonstration in action.

ITN

2007-01-18T13:02:00.000-03:00

Filming

THE STORY SO FAR!

2007-01-14T12:44:00.000-03:00

Here are some blog post to show you what I've been up to so far! We've done lots of things like diving, skiing, boating and field training. There's also some photos of my journey down to Antarctica across the Southern Ocean in the Royal Research Ship (RRS) James Clark Ross.

10 km run

2007-01-14T12:42:00.002-03:00

On New Year's eve we had a 10 km run around the runway. Here's one member of our novelty team - guess who's at the back!

Girls boat trip

2007-01-14T12:42:00.001-03:00

The marine team at Rothera undertake year-round measurements of the temperature and chemistry of the water in Ryder Bay around Rothera. Here we are doing a CTD trip - CTD stands for conductivity, temperature and depth which is what the instrument we are winching measures.

Crevasse Adventure

2007-01-14T12:36:00.000-03:00

The glacier above our base has lots of crevasses. We climbed down this crevasse which is just 5m of the safe traverse across the glacier. It was very beautiful inside!

Stork Bowl

2007-01-14T12:35:00.000-03:00

Last weekend the weather was really good, so we skinned up the mountain to Stork Bowl. This was the first time I had ever used skins on skis. It was hard work skiing uphill for 6km and then walking up the step part of the bowl, but the views of Ryder Bay from the top were definitely worth it, and oh did I mention Stork Bowl has the best powedery snow around.

Science, the Bonner Lab and Diving in Antarctica

2007-01-14T12:34:00.002-03:00

After field training had finished, we could finally start diving and collecting animals for our projects.

The Russians have landed!

2007-01-14T12:34:00.001-03:00

The Russian helicopters landed a couple of weeks ago en-route to the South Pole by helicopter! We were all welcomed aboard and fed vodka.

Skiway and Vals

2007-01-14T12:32:00.000-03:00

Lots of free time is spent skiing on Vals - a glacier on Reptile Ridge. We can either hike up or get towed up on a ski-doo. Getting a tow can be lots of fun - I bit like waterskiing!

Xmas and New Years

2007-01-14T12:30:00.000-03:00

We had a proper xmas dinner and a party in the sledge store for new years.

Antarctic field training

2007-01-14T12:27:00.000-03:00

Just after arriving on base we had our field training course. We camped out in Antarctica in pyramid tents, learned to travel safely in crevassed areas and ate 'man-food' space meals.

Arriving at Rothera

2007-01-14T12:25:00.000-03:00

Arriving at Rothera Research Station was very exciting. Rothera is the largest base owned by the British Antarctic Survey.

The Southern Ocean Journey

2007-01-14T12:23:00.000-03:00

Travelling across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula and through the Neumayer and Lemaire Channels

The Falkland Islands

2007-01-14T12:21:00.000-03:00

Some of the wildlife seen in the Falkland Islands

The Journey

2007-01-14T12:11:00.000-03:00

Before we got onto base we spent 10 days in the Falkland Islands and 10 days on the Royal Research Ship (RRS) James Clark Ross.

Arrving on base

2007-01-11T23:20:00.000-03:00

We arrived on base on 18 December after a 2 day research expedition around Margaruite Bay in the RRS James Clark Ross research ship.

The beginning

2007-01-11T23:14:00.000-03:00

I have just discovered how to start up a blog. I am on my Southern Adventures and I have over 8000 photos already so this blog is an attempt to share some of my adventures and the amazing things I've seen with you all.