Location: Lat: 76 09.850 N Long: 171 43.704 W
Sunrise: 10:36 am** Sunset**: 7:36 pm
****Although I love the Polar Sea, it is nice to spend some time outside in the fresh air. So, I decided to tag along with the sea ice team from University of Fairbanks, Alaska. The team is made of Katrin Iken (chief scientist), Mette Kaufman, Heloise Chenelot, Brenna McConnell, Shawn Harper, and Richard Morris (film maker).
Me and my floating home away from home. While the Polar Sea is lovely, it was nice to be off and on the ice for the afternoon.
They are interested in the types of organisms that are living in and below the sea ice. Their man objective is to take samples of the ice from different depths to analyze. They are also looking for samples of the bottom of the ice. In order to get to the bottom of the ice, they have to go underneath of the ice. They have a team of 4 divers who are trained specifically in diving in cold water conditions.
To get out on the ice from the boat we have to use a platform attached to a crane. All of the people and equipment have to travel this way. In order to move the equipment, we pull it in sleds across the ice. If you have ever seen divers before, you know they have a lot of equipment to dive. In addition to all the diving equipment, they have to carry out drilling equipment to drill holes into the ice in order to take core samples.
Gear and people are lowered down onto the ice using a crane and a platform.
One of the first things that happens is that they cut a triangular shaped hole in the ice to dive through. Then they use a giant soup ladle to scoop out the bigger pieces of ice. It makes it easier to see into and out of the water.
Scooping ice out of the diving hole. A never ending job, but sorta fun.
The divers wear dry suits and layers of long underwear to keep them warm. Inside of the suits they keep a small amount of air which acts as insulation to keep them warm as well. The crazy part is that their faces are exposed to the freezing cold water! I can't imagine willingly jumping into water that cold. The water has been about -1 Celsius or 30 Fahrenheit. The freezing point of sea water is -1.8 Celsius or - 29 Fahrenheit.
Katrin is explaining how her dry suit for diving has seals around her wrists to keep her dry. She inserts small tubes so that she can get air into her gloves to keep her hands warm.
The divers are getting ready to go into the water.
The team dives into the water equipped with various gear - everything from syringes to collect samples, to video cameras to document the dive. While the divers are under, there is always a rescue diver ready in case of emergency. There is also someone who keeps track of a rope that is attached to the divers. They use a system of pulls on the rope to communicate with each other while under the water.
One of the divers coming back to to the surface. You can see that ice chunks are floating in the water in the dive hole.
While the ice divers are completing their work, there are two scientist who stay on top of the ice collecting core samples of the ice. They begin by drilling a hole into the ice to collect water samples using a CTD device (like the one the Southern Illinois University Team is using, but smaller). They then run an experiment
Brenna and Mette drilling a hole into the ice so they can collect water samples.
Then they use another device to drill a core sample of the ice. A core is like an solid tube of ice taken out of the iceberg that we were standing on. The collect several different core samples of ice to analyze.
Brenna and Mette cutting the ice core into layers and separating them into plastic bags.
While all of this is happening on the ice, there are a couple of Coasties out on the ice with us for safety. One is there to help out with the dive operations. She communicates between the ship and the team on the ice. There are also two Coasties on "bear watch." Their job is pretty straightforward - keep a look out for any polar bears that might be curious enough to come check out what we are doing. If they see a bear, we need to evacuate the area. They are equipped with riffles just in case a bear comes up on us very quickly.
Bear watch Coastie - This Coastie is trained to keep watch in case any polar bears decided to check out what we are doing.
In order to stay warm after being out there for a few hours, we decided to have some fun! We had a skipping race and made snow angels on the ice. One thing that is weird to me is that the ice tastes salty! I know it's sea ice, but I'm just not used to snow tasting salty!
Making snow angels on a beautiful afternoon on the ice.
There was one more piece of excitement at the end of the day. During dinner tonight, as I was enjoying my scallops and pasta (YUMMY!), we got an announcement that a polar bear and TWO cubs were off the starboard side of the boat. She and her cubs were so close it was amazing!
Polar Bears in the distance
Photo courtesy of Petty Office 3rd Class Pamela Manns