2001
Antarctic Expedition
The Foraging Biology of Weddell
Seals
Notes
from the Field
(from Terrie
M. Williams, Ph.D.)
WEEK 1 – GETTING THERE
Gearing Up
Traveling to our field
site on the bottom of the globe takes considerable time and patience.
The first step requires several flights across the United States for all
of the members of the research team. Team
members come from Texas A & M University, the University of Texas, Pisces
Design of San Diego, the Alaska SeaLife Center and the University of California
in Santa Cruz. Eventually,
after a 14 hour flight from the West Coast and across the Pacific Ocean we all
land in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although
fall is just starting at home, spring is occurring in the Southern Hemisphere
and the flowers are blooming in the Botanical Gardens.
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The most impressive are the boots. Each giant rubber insulated "bunny" boot weighs over 3.5 pounds. That is 7 pounds of boot you wear just to keep your feet warm while walking on ice. (Photo by T. M. Williams) |
By the time you put on all of your ECW (Extreme Cold
Weather) gear you have the look and feel of a very
rotund penguin.
The next step is the plane to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. These are large cargo planes that carry people and equipment to the ice- there are no commercial flights to Antarctica. The flight from Christchurch to the Antarctic takes 5-8 hours depending on the type of aircraft going due South. In the plane, you are crammed into small web seats with a row of people facing you knee-to-knee. Alternatively, you may ride with an entire helicopter or bulldozer chained to the floor in front of you. For most people, the best strategy on the Antarctic flight is to sleep through it. There are no windows, anyway.
| The cargo flight to Antarctic. The meal service consists of a sack lunch, the stewardesses consist of burley loadmasters that control the cargo, and the bathrooms I'll leave to your imagination. (NSF photo) |
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The McMurdo Station Airport. Incoming planes use either wheels or skis to land on an ice runway on the frozen sea. After each flight the ice is measured to see if it has compressed during the landing. Too much compression and a plane could break through and sink. (NSF photo) |
By now our team has been traveling together for nearly 5 days. Because we have crossed the International Date Line we have lost an additional day. When we finally land on the ice the research team feels a mix of excitement, exhaustion and a lonely realization that it will be months before we see friends and family back in the States. That is the life of a field biologist. Individual thoughts are quickly erased when the cargo door opens. Immediately a blast of air freezes our sinuses and makes our eyes tear. We realize that we have arrived in the coldest, driest and most amazing place in the world – the Antarctic.
You can write to our Antarctic Research team at williams@biology.ucsc.edu. We will try to answer the most frequently asked questions about our expedition during the following weeks.