Last year at the end
of October, I was returning from 32 days in the Canadian Arctic as a
participant in the Joint Ocean Ice Study (JOIS), a collaboration between
Canada, the USA and Japan. This project set out to study the Beaufort Sea and
its ice coverage as well as look at the variability in the Beaufort Gyre. We
collected water for multiple analyses (oxygen, salinity, nutrients, dissolved
inorganic carbon (DIC) to name a few), took plankton samples, deployed both
floating and ice-situated moorings and took ice thickness measurements from the
ship. All the while being amazed by the Aurora Borealis, Polar Bears and
sunsets over an ice-covered vista,
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| On the ice in front of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship, Louis St. Laurent (Photo by Jeffrey Charters) |
Skip ahead a year and I am preparing to head to
the other end of the world. This time 30 days in the Antarctic, as the token
Canadian aboard the Laurence M Gould. As an Acoustic Research Technician for
the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, my interests lie in the fields
of fishery and plankton acoustics. What this basically means is looking at fish
and plankton in the water using a big, fancy, scientific fish-finder. When the
opportunity to apply to participate in the 2011 Antarctic Salp cruise was
presented to me, I jumped at the chance. Not only would I get to see
Antarctica, but acoustics were going to be a major part of this cruise. For the
next few weeks, I plan to annoy...I mean learn from the researchers on this
cruise as they utilize acoustics and different methods of plankton sampling to
answer the questions posed on this survey. Needless to say, I am very excited
to be here! The learning should start soon, as we spend today at Palmer Station
unloading supplies for the station, hoping to head out and start our Salp
survey tomorrow. Wish us luck in the form of ice-free waterways and little to
no wind!
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| Happy to be at Palmer Station (Photo by Melissa Mazzocco) |
-- Chelsea Stanley, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Sidney, BC)
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