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Bering Sea Benthic Studies

Hi Emily -

I really enjoyed reading about how you deploy the ROV. When I was looking at the pictures of you drilling the hole it looked very precarious. Do you ever worry about the ice breaking and you falling in with your bunny boots? Of course you would be warmer than if you had on regular boots but do you know how long you would last in the water? Keep up the good work and be careful.

Cameo :)

Sat, 04/05/2008 - 20:26

Emily S. Davenport

Hello!
When we are working the ice we try and take every precaution to be safe. This means that prior to all the scientists going down onto the ice, the Coast Guard sends a rescue swimmer and a bear watch person down first to check out the conditions of the ice. Then they flag the area that we can walk on, and off we go. When we drill a hole in the ice, we aren't working near the ice edge, so usually we don't worry about the ice breaking. However, you do have to be very careful when you drill a hole, because they are hard to see and we definitely don't want anyone fall into the water!! Everyone has to keep their eyes open and watch out for holes drilled by others. The suits that we wear will protect us, if we are unfortunate enough to fall in the water (and I don't think anyone has to date yet) and like I mentioned before, they have a rescue swimmer ready and waiting just in case something bad happens. I believe they say that if you fall in the water with all your protective gear on, you still will be very cold after only a few minutes in the water.
Thanks for the question!