April 11-12 Fishing for Pteropods

April 11 - We started putting out the towing nets around 8 PM into an area called Palmer Deep.  Pteropods typically aggregate in deeper waters and Palmer Deep is over 1200m deep. Worked on the rear deck of LMG with rubber slickers and float suits on (kind of like in the Alaska fishing programs they show on Animal Planet). It was very cold, windy and wet. Our initial tow brought up lots of planktonic organisms (krill, copepods and other stuff) but no pteropods. However, we had the whole night with lots of towing ahead of us, so we were not worried.

Zane helping to launch the plankton net. The net has a large opening with a cup (see inset) at the end where all the organisms collect. (Picture by Thomas Desvignes)

The team sorting the organisms on the desk of the LMG.
(Picture by Thomas Desvignes)

However, after 12 hours straight hours of towing and bringing up the nets and going through the catch, it was clear -- there were no pteropods here; at least not at this particular time. Needless to say,  the whole team was very disappointed. However we did save about 2 dozen healthy krill and a few dozen copepods and other organisms.  At least we have something to study before we get a chance to go out again for pteropods in the next week .

We got done with out towing operation by 5:30 AM. Just enough time to take a shower, pack my luggage, have breakfast and get out on the deck to see the ship approach into Palmer Station. More about that in my next post.

Glamor shot of some of the krill we captured