Freshies? Yes, this is a term that sends Station dwellers into excitement. As you may have been able to guess, Freshies mean fresh fruit and vegetables! All the food and supplies must be shipped in. At the other two U.S. stations they can fly them in. There is nowhere to land a plane at Palmer Station so we rely on the Laurence M. Gould (LMG) to bring everything from Chile. It was a super busy day yesterday on Station, unloading the ship for a couple new science teams. Getting our freshies and other living supplies. This is the last boat for the season - remember winter is setting in.
They also brought in some icefishes that were caught on the way down from Punta Arenas, Chile.
The icefishes are less hearty than the N. coriiceps, meaning they do as well in transport and being held in the aquariums we have here for them. This is a Chaenocephalus gunnari. One of the three species we caught. Look inside its mouth - no red, only white.
They are amazing at first glance. The Chaenocephalus aceratus' head take up close to one half of their body length. I'll be posting better pictures in the future, but I wanted to share the initial pictures now. I'm holding a C. gunnari here. Look into that mouth and then compare the C. gunnari gills to the N. coriiceps gills. Pretty striking. Our first viewing of what a difference not having hemoglobin makes. Whoa! Look at that!
It's all white! Those gills collect plenty of oxygen, there is blood pumping through their bodies - but no red.
What a difference a little hemoglobin makes. These gills are deep red in a fish that has hemoglobin. This is one of the Notothenia coriiceps that we had.
What is really interesting is that the top of their heads are translucent and you can see their brains. Check out this picture. I'll be dedicating a future blog about the bone and cartilage structures of these fishes. But here is a little taste of what is coming...
The tops of their heads are translucent and you can actually see the brain!
This final picture shows you a Chaenocephalus aceratus. Take a look at the ration between head and body!
Here is the Chaenocephalus aceratus. They are so beautiful, impressive, and rather prehistoric looking.