Cruise days 21 August to 1 September inclusive
Science days 21 August to 25 August inclusive
I. LMG 01-06
a. Mission statement:
Overall goal is to elucidate shelf circulation processes and their
effect on sea ice formation and Antarctic krill distribution, and to examine
the factors that govern krill survivorship and availability to higher trophic
levels, including seals, penguins, and whales.
b. Projects represented on the process cruise
BG-232-0 Costa/Burns/Crocker - Foraging Ecology of Crabeater seals
BG-234-0 Fraser - Winter Foraging Ecology of Adélie Penguins
BG-235-0 Fritsen - Sea Ice Microbial Communities
BG-237-0 Harvey- Biochemical Determination of Age and Dietary History
in the Krill Euphasia superba
OG-241-0 Smith/Martinson/Perovich-Optical Environment of the Western
Antarctic Peninsula Region
BG-244-0 Quetin/Ross- Winter Ecology of Larval Krill: Quantifying their
interaction with the Pack Ice habitat
c. Cruise overview to date
August 21. The plan for the day was to steam towards Adelaide
Island in an attempt to find open water to carry out some final MOCNESS
tows and to look for penguins for diet sampling and a final seal to tag.
Prior to departure we completed a CTD cast and then steamed to the north
looking for leads that would allow us to move to the east. It was
slow going. We had to back and ram multiple times and our speed averaged
only 2 knots. When we left our process station we were 17 miles from
our planned waypoint and when we shut down in the evening we had 11 miles
left to the waypoint. During the night we had considerable winds
from the NE such that by morning when we started again we were now 22 miles
away from our waypoint!
August 22. The LMG hove to for the night, then conducted a scuba dive in the morning before moving on towards the ESE. Progress is rather slow due to 50-60 cm thick ice but we are seeing bits of open water. In the afternoon we sighted a group of Adélie penguins that appeared to have already fed today. However, they escaped into the water before we were able to corral them to obtain stomach samples.
August 23. Yesterday our progress was slow and we were finally frustrated in our attempts to cross a field of heavy rubble off the coast of Adelaide Island. We hove to for the night and re-thought our options. Before breakfast we collected ice, then turned to the north to head for the seaward ice edge. The latest satellite images indicate that at our current progress of 4 knots we should reach relatively open water by tomorrow morning. While en route today we are continuing to look for fed penguins.
August 24. The LMG ran through the night and made good progress to the north. We are now in an area of pancake ice with occasional open water and can move about at will. We are conducting ice sampling en route to an area off the west coast of Reynaud Island. This is a known area of Adélie penguin feeding during the summertime, but no one has visited it in the wintertime. We also witnessed a leopard seal actively stalking a crabeater, which was hauled out, on a floe, but there was no attack.
August 25. The LMG made its way northeastward throughout the night and got into position near French Passage, south of LeMaire Channel. At daylight we began preparations for our first attempt at a 1-m MOCNESS tow in nearly three weeks. Unfortunately the tow was not as successful as we would have hoped - the catch consisted of only a few juvenile krill and the Mocness was slightly damaged in a collision with an ice floe. Repairs were made as necessary and we conducted another tow in the afternoon but no more adult krill were caught. We are anticipating an arrival at Palmer Station around noon tomorrow.
August 26. The LMG discovered last night that the LeMaire Channel was impassable due to ice. We therefore took the outside route to Palmer Station and were tied up to the pier by 10:30 this morning. Cargo operations began immediately under the threat of deteriorating weather and went quickly. The weather held, and we are anticipating an evening of hospitality ashore.
August 26. The LMG discovered last night that the LeMaire Channel was impassable due to ice. We therefore took the outside route to Palmer Station and were tied up to the pier by 10:30 this morning. Cargo operations began immediately under the threat of deteriorating weather and went quickly. The weather held, and we are anticipating an evening of hospitality ashore.
August 27. We finished our visit at Palmer Station and left the dock at 11:00. We had absolutely beautiful weather as we steamed through the Neumar Passage!
August 28. The LMG arrived at Deception Island around 06:00 this morning and our first zodiac departed for shore by 08:45. We were in search of cryptobiotic soil for one grantee's Life in Extreme Environments (LExEn) project as well as for a look around the old whaling station in Whaler's Bay. The weather was less than perfect, with occasional snow and 30 knot winds, but no one seemed to mind too much. We are now en route back to Punta Arenas.
August 29. The LMG continues on its trip home across the Drake Passage. We made a northbound crossing of 60°S latitude this morning and have now officially departed from Antarctica. We anticipate an on-time arrival in Punta Arenas.
August 30. The LMG continues on its northward crossing of the Drake Passage. We passed through the Straits of La Maire between Cabo San Diego and Isla de los Estados at the southeastern tip of Tierra del Fuego and are anticipating an on-time arrival in Punta Arenas.
August 31. The LMG entered the Strait of Magellan this morning and we are currently awaiting the arrival of the pilot boat. We will arrive at the pier in Punta Arenas around midnight tonight, a few hours ahead of schedule.
September 1. Post cruise dinner party in Punta Arenas. As a final farewell personnel from both ships celebrated the end of the cruise with a group dinner at the Los Ganaderos restaurant. It was a fitting end to an exciting joint cruise.
d. Individual group reports
BG-232 Costa, Burns and Crocker. Field team D. Costa, N. Gales, S. Trumble & B. McDonald. Our research focuses on how crabeater seals forage within the seasonal winter pack ice. Having deployed our 8 tags, we are now looking for animals to collect dietary and morphometric data on. However, we did not have any suitable animals available to carry out this work over the last few days of the cruise.
BG-234 Fraser. Field team W. Fraser & S. Muth. Attempts to obtain Adélie penguin diet samples, one of the key objectives we are still trying to complete, have met with only limited success. We continued to look for birds to complete diet samples. However, we do not find any birds that could be captured.
BG-235 Fritsen. Field team C. Fritsen, S. Marschall & J. Memmott. Completed opportunistic ice sampling, as well as ice observations while underway.
BG-237 Harvey. Field team consists of R. Harvey and S. Ju. MOCNESS tows were made in French Passage, south of LeMaire Channel . At daylight we began preparations for our first attempt at a 1-m MOCNESS tow in nearly three weeks. Unfortunately the tow was not as successful as we would have hoped - the catch consisted of only a few juvenile krill and the MOCNESS was slightly damaged in a collision with an ice floe. Repairs were made as necessary and we conducted another tow in the afternoon that consisted of only larval krill with no adult krill being caught.
BG-244 Quetin and Ross. Field Team: L. Quetin, C. Boch, S.Dovel, A. Gibson, T. Newberger, L. Quetin, S. Oakes, M. Thimgan, J. Watson. Our final dive was made on the morning of August 22. Are efforts are now focusing on final lab work and preparation for the end of the cruise.
OG-241 Martinson, Perovich, Smith. Field team B. Elder, S. Stammerjohn & K. Claffey. Ice observations were made while under way, plus opportunistic ice sampling.
Although many research groups had hoped to accomplish more research
objectives on this cruise, there was an overall feeling that we have gained
a significant insight into the winter ecology of the Western Antarctic
Peninsula region centered in the Marguerite Bay region. We now have a much
greater appreciation of what can be done and how to do it. An extremely
important lesson learned was that the L.M. Gould was operating far outside
what she was designed to do. We could not have operated without the assistance
of the N. B Palmer. The success of this cruise could not have been possible
without the tremendous efforts of a large group of people. We are extremely
appreciative of the tremendous efforts of the officers and crew of the
L.M. Gould. We would like to especially thank Captain Verret for his enthusiasm
and willingness to get 110% from the ship. We also thank the personnel
from RPS both on the ship and the logistics from Denver. Peter Martin deserves
special thanks for successfully taking on the duties of ET, a position
that is normally filled by 2 people. He did an exceptional job! Alice Doyle
was superb in her considerable pre trip and in port assistance and planning.
She deserves a lot of credit for the success of this effort. Stian Alesandrini
and Josh Spillane deserve recognition for their tremendous efforts and
for always being ready to help. There were always ready and willing and
that made a real difference on this challenging cruise. Finally Karl Newyear
did a wonderful job as MPC.
Submitted by:
Daniel Costa
Chief Scientist
LMG 01-06