Picture of the Day for 1 September 2002

Today we traveled in search of the elusive “perfect” ice floe for our last long-term process station. What we found was a swell traveling through the ice pack. This swell had broken apart the ice pack into small floes. In the morning, we said goodbye to the NBP as they headed offshore to continue their survey grid. We turned inshore to look for larger floes but never found them. By mid-morning we gave up looking for larger floes and worked on a typical floe for the area of 40 meters diameter. Beneath the ice the divers found krill in association with the ice. It is the first time since the beginning of the cruise that this has been observed. The ice team drilled 20 ice thickness holes and sampled 10 ice cores. Two CTD's were performed to understand the oceanographic aspects of the area.

 

This photo shows the bridge of the Gould, with first mate, Jesse Gann, at the helm, while Captain Robert Verret and others watch out the windows for ice suitable for diving under and obtaining ice samples from above. (Photo by Kerry Claffey)