Wednesday, March 14, 2007

just an update

Well, the cruise is drawing to an end. We have maybe two or three
more days of research, and then we are off to the Drake Passage.
This the small area between the Antarctic Peninsula and the
southernmost tip of Chile. There are 12 days left of the cruise and
13 until I get back to Colorado. That is as long as we get back in
time for me to catch my plane. The ship should be arriving into port
in Punta Arenas at 8 am on Monday, March 26th, but my flight leaves
Punta Arenas at 12:40pm. That would give me four hours and forty
minutes to get going! I guess we will just have to wait (attempting
at patience here) and see if the Drake Passage is kind enough to let
me pass quickly.

We've seen quite a few seals as of late. It is pretty sad to watch
them realize a huge ship is coming at them. I don't think we have
hurt any seals, whales, or penguins, but I can't help but worry about
how this vessel affects their lives. Penguins are very curious, so
when we come at them, they like to stare at us for awhile. When they
finally realize that a HUGE ship is coming at them and won't move
around them, they have to "run" or flop down on their bellies and try
their hardest to get into the water in a hurry. It's traumatic I am
sure. There have been a few seals that were protecting their
territory and hissing at the ship while it passed. That is somewhat
funny, but also sad to think about. These animals are not accustomed
to humans being around, invading their area. I really hope that
Antarctic science works for their environment, instead of against.

Speaking of hurting animals, a whole bunch of krill got stuck in a
pump in the engine room. Krill are little shrimp like creatures.
They are probably related to shrimp, crabs, animals like those. I
think they may be arthropods. I am not sure. That's only if I
remember biology from sophomore year of high school correctly. Oh
Mr. Devan, I have failed you! Anyway, there were dozens of them
sucked up into this pump. There are thousands of tons out in the
ocean though. I believe sperm and blue whales eat krill. These
whales don't have teeth like an Orca whale, but they have strainer
like teeth where small little critters get stuck. So in a way sperm
whales eat like cows--constantly, and orcas eat like predators--the
hunt. Pretty cool that there are so many different new things going
on down here!

After nearly two months, I am really starting to miss good fresh
food. I really want a salad right now, and maybe some fresh fruits
and vegetables. Obviously, you can't keep fresh fruit on a ship for
very long. I should have appreciated what I had on land more! This
has happened to me before, my freshman year of college. I didn't
realize what amazing cooks my mom, grandma, aunts were until I left
their kitchens and ate in a cafeteria for 9 months straight. There
are so many things that I am craving. I can't wait to get home and
have some good food from the cafeteria at school. HAHA!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am glad you had a great time in the Arctic, but as you were out there could you see any ice melting more than usual. See we just watch a movie on global worming with Al Gore. It made me wander what if ,like he said, the world would come to and end cause of a big flood. I know that sounds a little weird of me to say,but one has to wander. I hope you will come back to Gardner and show use pictures of those animals you saw. I don't want to boar you with my long paragraph so bye for now.
Elizabeth,
Gardner School