Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 08/25/2011 - 15:07
Forums
Adaptations of Marine Worms in Antarctica

How many worms do you catch in each dive? How deep are you diving?

Thu, 08/25/2011 - 15:24

Michael League

Wow! Great questions! I can't wait to start talking about diving!Unfortunately, no diving operations yet due to the weather. However,
when we start, we are planning most of our worm collection dives to be
30-50 feet deep. We may have some dives that are deeper and some that
are shallower. We will never go deeper than 130 feet.
As for the worms, we are hoping for hundreds with just one scoop, but
you never know. Only our first dives will tell us how many we'll find
and at what depths. I'll report back more when we begin diving
operations, hopefully within a week!
Mike

Sat, 08/27/2011 - 07:55

Anonymous

Hi I am Nick from St. Mark Catholic scool and I was wondering what is it like diving into that freezing water?

Sun, 08/28/2011 - 00:24

Michael League

Hi Nick! Great question. I'm hoping to help you feel that experience over the
coming week. Freezing is exactly right. The water will be about 29˚F!
We'll show you everything we do to prepare and then hopefully show you
some footage from under the ice!
I don't want to give it all away. I will say that you do get pretty
cold, but what you see under the ice makes it all worthwhile. Stay
tuned for some more information about Antarctic diving. We can't wait
to share it with you!
Mike

Wed, 08/31/2011 - 17:17

Anonymous

hello mikeI'm Willy from Peru
I want to know what kind of marine worms are there

Wed, 08/31/2011 - 21:09

Michael League

¡Hola Willy!¡Gracías para su pregunta! It's so cool that you're following us from
Peru. The research team is so excited to have you as part of our
expedition.
Now to your question. We actually will see a lot of different types of
worms here in Antarctica. I can't wait to show you pictures, but it
will be a few more days before that. We might see several hundred
different species, so it is actually easier to talk about the different
groups of worms. Scientists like to organize living things into
different groups, so every worm that we see belongs to a group. Here
are a few of the groups:
nemertina - ribbon worms that are very common here and quite big
polychaetes - usually small worms, with lots of segments or parts to
their bodies.
featherduster worms - these are usually fairly small and quite beautiful
bristle worms - exactly what they sound like, worms with bristles
We are interested in a specific worm in the polychaete group.
Hopefully, we'll find some!
By the way, if you're interested in marine worms, we're just getting
started. Keep reading the journals!
Mike