April 17-18 - Plankton Netting in Andvord Bay

Word came done around 11 AM that we would be leaving for an 18 hr. cruise to Andvord Bay to try  and snag some pteropods. We were to leave at 5 PM and return at 11 AM the next day. Packed up some gear and got ready for a full night of plankton netting. Andvord Bay is supposed to be this spectacular 15 mile long bay off the Neumayer channel and is a favorite destination of  cruise ships that visit this area. Unfortunately, our plankton netting was a night operation and so we would not be able to see the Bay in daylight.

Route to Andvord Bay

That said, even as we began to leave Palmer Station, we saw something really unique, a Leopard seal hiding on a little piece of floating ice. Quite an awesome sight. I have heard people say that a leopard seal has a serpentine look but never really understood what that could mean. Take a look at the pictures below and perhaps you will understand what that means.The picture were taken fom abour 150m so the resolution is not very high.

It took us 5 hours to travel the 55 nautical miles to Andvord and we deployed our nets at around 10:30 PM. First haul seemed very promising since the plankton bucket came out overflowing with critters. However, as we were to find out, there were no pteropods, just lots of krill and other smaller copepods. We trawled through the night with little luck.

2x2m plankton net coming up to the surface

 

Took this sometime during the night.

Towards the morning it was clear that we would not be going home with any pteropods so we turned our attention to what was unfolding to be an amazing sunrise. See for yourself.

Sunrise in Andvord Bay. Seems like the sky is on fire.

Never seen something like this.  A low rising sun casting a shadow of a mountain onto the clouds. Absolutely awe aspiring!

The sunrise was so incredible that the entire crew of marine techs (MTs)  that helped us was out on the deck taking pictures of the sky.. and of each other. The MTs were an awesome group and great fun to be with through the night. I even gave them an impromptu introduction to the beauty science of bioinspiration during the night as we were waiting for the net to come in.