Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/07/2008 - 08:44
Forums
Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

Hey whats up Jeff,Hey im sorry i didnt give you my name last time. My name is Uriel Rivera im a 8th grader over at New Start middle school. We have been getting information of the pond lately. This week we finished measuring the depth of the pond.. What we are going to start doing is making a scale model of the pond. If you got any questions feel free to ask me anything ill try to answer them.

How do you get the information of the seals are they already dead?How do they collect data of the chemistry?

                                                                                         Sinceraly,

                                                                                           Uriel Rivera

                                                                                       

Tue, 10/07/2008 - 17:57

Jeff Peneston

Welcome back Uriel!
I think your exploration of the pond is great.
I have 3 questions for you.  First, what is the dissolved oxygen content of the pond since DO is a very important for the life in the pond.  Second, why did you class want to measure the e.coli content?  Finally, what do you think the presence of e.coli means? Where did it come from?
Your questions about the seals are great.  The seals will be gently captured using a strong, soft net while they are on the ice. The seals will not be drugged or harmed at all and they will only be held down for a few minutes while the data is collected. The scientist have done this procedure with hundreds of seals and none of them has been harmed.  The seal's genetic material will be collected with a needle that will draw a small amount of blood.  The seal's virus and bacteria load will be collected by using a swab (like a Q-tip) to collect mucus in the seal's nose and anus............ Yes it is as gross as it sounds but it is harmless to the seal to collect snot and an "anal swab" (a phrase that I learned from the seal scientists).
Take care, have fun and keep asking questions
Jeff Peneston