THE FROZEN SOUTH

THE FROZEN SOUTH
My heart warmed at the email I received notifying me of the acceptance of my grant application to the Australian Antarctic Division. I was going to be able to lead my own team during the international collaborative Census of Antarctic Marine Life. Anything venomous that came up was ours. The Viking in me grew longer horns and the loincloth acquired quite a few more layers. I was going to the furthest ends of the world. While I had been far north up in Norway, nothing could match Antarctica. I had no idea what would be the dominant venomous life form down there, but wherever there is life, there is venom.
First, I had to complete the medical. “This is going to be amusing,” I thought, when I saw that I had to undergo a psychological evaluation. The questions mostly had to do with how a person would cope with variable environments that were extremely different from the norm, and with social isolation. Since I was approved, they could only be selecting for antisocial, career-obsessed nutjobs!
Then it was off to Tasmania for pre-training and gear fitting for the team of Eivind Undheim, his wife Hanne Halkinrud Thoen, and myself. We packed up the wagon and drove down to the wharf in Melbourne and boarded the Spirit of Tasmania ferry. Once in Tasmania, the drive down to Hobart was interrupted periodically to check out road-killed snakes and Tasmanian devils. We deposited the gear at the depot to be loaded onboard the Aurora Australis, the 310-foot-long flagship vessel of the Australian Antarctic Division. Next came training. After covering the logistics and sampling schedule, the seminars concluded with the ship’s doctor giving us a highly entertaining description of the simple physics of how quickly our bodies would lose body heat if we fell into the water, and thus how lethal it would be. Seawater freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water, so the water would be several degrees below that needed to freeze a tray of ice cubes. The room full of extremely energetic and enthusiastic biologists appreciated this macabre data.
Our voyage was slightly delayed when, during the final stress-testing of the engines, the starboard thruster underwent a spectacular self-destruction. The change in schedule meant two weeks less at sea, but we would still spend over two months without setting foot on land. The shortened schedule also meant a more restricted research program, with geo-coring the major loser, not because it is not terribly important—it is—but because it is slow and cumbersome to bore out geological samples under such inhospitable conditions at extreme depth. Largely dropping that research program would, however, allow for the full suite of biosampling to be conducted, and there would still be some scattered shallow-depth core samples taken over the course of the voyage. The reduction in crew members also meant that program leaders such as myself had cabins to themselves—a true luxury on any ship.
We polar-suited up and put out to sea. There were many friends and family members along the pier as the dream became, for all, a reality. As skies were clear and seas calm, we had at least four days of easy steaming ahead of us. Our first meal lived up to the legendary reputation of the chefs on this vessel. Fine dining while in the Southern Ocean seemed extravagant, but we would need all the nutrition for the physically demanding work ahead of us. During the trip down, we had ample time for the crew to get to know each other, and to explore this amazing ship. We discovered a vast empty space in one of the holds, and used that for soccer matches. While the ball was airborne, the ship would roll, thus giving the impression that the ball was moving in the most insane trajectory. We could bend it like Beckham but then it would bend back again with a corkscrew twist.
We got very excited at the first ice. Just like when losing one’s virginity, looks didn’t matter much for this first time. That it was there was enough. Such was our ice. Only a couple of feet across and all worn out, like a southern beauty queen turned meth-head. But our ice steadily grew in size and beauty. Icebergs of all colors cruised by—green, blue, red, hard white, and all variations in between. All a result of the varying mineral content of the water. Some were truly ethereal. When we finally crashed into proper pack ice, it was as close to a religious experience as I am ever going to have.
During the long haul to reach the pack ice, we had seen many birds, mostly petrels and albatrosses. But as we reached the ice, there was an explosion in the numbers and species. For the most part, I had no idea what they were. Despite my spectacular lack of knowledge about Antarctic wildlife in general, and the birds in particular, I was, of course, able to recognize penguins. They were absolutely adorable and hilariously clueless about what a boat was. Suited up in their tuxedos for a big night out, they would watch the boat with a total lack of comprehension until the giant icebreaker would collide with their icy home, launching them acrobatically but harmlessly into the ocean. The seals were a bit more switched on and would gracelessly flop into the water as we got near.
We used metal chains to lash a ten-foot-long plankton seawater tank onto the helicopter deck and rigged up two pumps: one carrying water heated to almost boiling by running coils that accumulated engine heat; the other carrying icy seawater. As we were all rostered twelve hours on and then twelve hours off, the hot tub was occupied twenty-four hours a day. It was a whole new experience—basking in the surrealism of having light snow committing suicide against steamy flesh, while serene whales swam benevolently alongside. Whenever we anchored, the whales would come abreast and stick their barnacle-encrusted heads out of the water to gaze at us while we gazed at them. The days steadily grew longer, until the sun never really set: it dipped just under the horizon and the waters turned to blood for a few hours. This was my favorite time of day, and I drew up my team’s duty roster in such a way that I was on deck working the nets during this period.
The diversity and density of the Antarctic underwater life blew my mind. The tropics are always portrayed in documentaries as marine hotspots. They are, of course, but this viewpoint is skewed, as those regions are much more accessible and amenable to research than Antarctic waters. The sheer quantity and diversity of life in the Southern Ocean rivals anything I have seen on my expeditions to the Great Barrier Reef, Coral Sea, Asia, the Caribbean, or other locations in between.
Everyone met the first nets with much anticipation. Even those not rostered on deck were present to get the first glimpse of life under the ice. Benthic trawling was our primary method of collecting. The purpose of the trip was to survey the little-known life of the eastern Antarctic, and this was the most effective method. The nets were linked to a very heavy boom that allowed them to plummet to the bottom and stay pinned to it while being dragged along. This enabled us to efficiently collect all life present in the stretch of ocean floor. The first drag was mostly crinoids—the strange echinoderms—and also bryozoa, the coral-like life that is completely unrelated to coral. It was readily apparent that my usefulness in the sorting trays was going to be rather limited: I could assign most things to the kingdom Animalia only because they moved, and that was about it. So I set myself to working the nets and shoveling the collected material into large washing bins. Here mud was removed and the samples sent to the sorting tray conveyer belt, where specialists in different taxa divided them up by kind. The average net load was over one ton of material, so it was backbreaking, strenuous work. Exactly my style: a good workout while gazing upon the most breathtaking of sceneries.
The various species of ice-fish that came up in the nets consistently lacked any sort of reinforcement of the spines that stabilize the dorsal fins, indicating a total lack of venom. Similarly, the sea spiders appeared to be totally non-venomous, despite being another obvious inspiration for H. R. Giger in designing the face-huggers for the Alien movies. Pay dirt, however, was struck with the octopuses. The work I had been doing with octopus species from Australian temperate and tropical waters had revealed that venom was a shared characteristic of all octopuses, so any octopus counted as a venomous species. Not only were the octopuses present in abundance, but they also seemed extremely diverse. Knowing nothing about the taxonomy, we kept the venom glands from each specimen separate from those of any other and also took a DNA sample from each one, so that once back onshore we could determine their evolutionary relationships and link these to changes in venom. I was particularly interested in two types that looked virtually identical but differed sharply in their venom system. One had a massive beak and tiny glands, indicating that this type killed its prey using mechanical damage as the primary weapon. The other, however, was quite the opposite: it had a tiny beak but massive venom glands, indicating that its primary weapon was venom.
About three weeks into the trip, we ran into the unique type of massive polar storm that rightfully gives Antarctica the reputation of having the most extreme weather in the world. As the wind and waves steadily grew, even a ship as stately as ours started to feel the effects. Before long, the entire ship was shuddering and shaking from the impact of the huge waves. On the bridge of the boat, I was mesmerized watching these behemoths approach. At the peak of the storm, the waves were so large that they were crashing over the bow of the ship, which meant that they were at least sixty-five feet high. Every now and then a monster would hit us that was over one hundred feet. Suddenly our boat did not seem so big. Water would churn down the deck before chaotically pouring out of the side drains. This created a very specific hazard, so all hatches were sealed and on-deck activities suspended. Many people suffered from violent seasickness and the ship’s doctor was extremely busy. I gorged myself on the extra rations that became available as many people were declining food, and largely spent my time in the sauna.
The storm cleared as quickly as it had appeared. The air was saturated with small ice crystals, resulting in a halo around the sun. We set up to do some extremely deep trawls now, with the nets reaching depths exceeding one and a half miles. It took over thirty minutes to drop the nets, but we spent four hours bringing them up! The super-deep drags mostly brought up otherworldly-looking flounder-shaped amphipods and tadpole-like fish. Octopuses also showed up in the nets down to a depth of nearly one and a half miles. Moving back up the abyssal slope to about a quarter mile deep, we started getting more and more octopuses, until it finally happened: we had caught a giant octopus. I didn’t even know Antarctica had its own, independently evolved species of giants. And a bonus—it was bright red. The giant, bell-shaped mantle was the size of a beach ball, and when I lifted the octopus up above my six-foot-three-inch self, the tentacles still reached the floor. The venom glands were flat milky jade discs nearly four inches across. In short order, two more giants came onboard in the nets. The particular microhabitat that we were surveying at this time was obviously the preferred one for these magnificent animals.
High on adrenaline, I was lost in my thoughts as I strode across the deck, “From Out of Nowhere” by Faith No More searing my eardrums. Not paying attention to where I was going, I walked at full speed into the two-inch-diameter metal cable that was under the tension of another trawl. I smashed face-first right into it, catching the full impact on my right cheekbone. It fractured with an all-too-familiar feeling. As we were still only halfway through the trip, and there was nothing to be done for this non-critical injury, I just kept it to myself and quietly dealt with the pain.
This wasn’t the only injury I accumulated. The glass sponges and bristle worms were the bane of my existence as their fiberglass-like spines would penetrate even gloves and cause great physical irritation. I also slightly tore a plantar tendon in my left foot while doing yoga one day. I was deep in a lunge position stretch, leaning over my front left leg, when a large wave hit the ship sideways, causing me to lose balance, tipping forward and putting incredible strain on the tendons of the leg. I was also getting tendonitis in my forearms, but this was a simple mild irritant. However, two days before the end of the trip, when lifting a mud-filled net, I tore the tendon that had been repaired in my right index finger following the destruction by the lace monitor a half year earlier. This was an incapacitating injury that could not be ignored. We had nearly finished the voyage, however, so I was able to just wrap it up and get through the final session, knowing full well that I needed to have surgery on it immediately upon my return to Melbourne. Using the satellite uplink, I communicated with a specialist surgeon I knew who treated a lot of Australian Rules football players and their incredibly screwed-up fingers.
At the completion of the incessant trawling we sank a net full of styrofoam cups to a depth of two and half miles. Everyone onboard had made cups of various designs, including very intricate ones prepared pre-trip by some. The incredible pressure at this depth caused the air in the cups to be compressed out, warping them to a small fraction of their previous size, with the irregular shaping adding a unique twist to each of the designs. I used the opportunity to make one for my parents. Now the tiny funny-shaped cup with ugly drawings is a souvenir in their house and I wonder if the guests think it was made by a kindergarten pupil as a Mother’s Day gift.
The next day we set sail to return to Tasmania. The Aurora Australis docked in Hobart just before the completion of the iconic Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. We were able to see the spaceship-sleek vessel Wild Oats come in with daylight between it and all other contenders. Back on solid land after two months at sea, with our equilibrium already shot, we took advantage of this loss of balance to cloak the effects of our liberal sampling of the wine festival that accompanied the yacht race.
With a bit of time to kill before heading back to Melbourne, despite the injury to my finger, I took the opportunity to dive at my favorite spot off Bruny Island to collect rock lobsters. This particular place is quite near a seal rookery and it was always a delight to play with these mischievous torpedoes. On this particular day they were a bit more skittish than usual, but I thought nothing of it since seals are pretty mental creatures and thus wildly unpredictable in their behavior. As I was working the rocky underwater slope that led into the deeper water, a school of two-and-a-half-foot-long mullet passed by, cavorting and shimmering like kamikaze pilots on their way to a happy ending. Less than a minute later, they came flying past me in a disorganized, chaotic stream. Watching them flash past, I turned back to face the deep green gloom just in time to see a six-foot-tall tail flick ten feet away from me, as a sixteen-foot, very bulky great white shark swam by, close enough that I felt the wake of its passing. Slowly easing back into the rocks, I did my best to still my frantically beating heart. Holding my breath so that there weren’t any telltale bubbles, I slowly, stealthily worked my way into the shallows, taking my bag full of tasty rock lobsters with me. Walking slowly to the car after the excitement, I almost completed the day by stepping on a three-foot-long, patternless, black-colored tiger snake that was in the shade of the car.
After the eventfulness of the Antarctic trip, it was back to Melbourne, followed by surgery number two to fix the tendons sliced by the lace monitor lizard. This was followed by another frustrating recovery period, but at least this time my hand was not strapped to my chest. I just had to wear a metal brace for a few weeks. During this period, Eivind, for his Master’s research under my supervision, worked diligently on the samples we collected in Antarctica, resulting in two great papers for the team. The first showed that the venoms of Antarctic octopuses have been evolutionarily selected to be most active at freezing temperatures, actually becoming less efficient at warmer temperatures. This points to potential problems for such animals in adapting to warming oceans. The second paper focused upon the genetics of the specimens, revealing four new species of Antarctic octopus, one of which was so divergent that it will be in a new genus. All in all, the most productive and satisfying field expedition of them all.

Best Roach Killer 2020 Best Wood Glue Best Power Inverter
Best Electric Knife Sharpener Best Outdoor Solar Lights Best Lawn Fertilizer
Best Wood Stove Best Insect Repellent Best Deer Repellent
Best Drain Cleaner Best Lawn Edger Best Gaming Monitor
Best Memory Foam Mattress Best Gaming Keyboarda Best Air Mattress
Best Air Fryer Best Gaming Mouse Best Coffee Grinder
Best Gaming Headset Best Gaming Chair Best Tool Belt
Best Soldering Iron Best Pruning Saw Best Backpacking Tent
Best Torque Wrench Best Car Battery Charger Best Adjustable Wrench
Best Digital Caliper Best Concrete Cleaner Best Cordless Screwdriver
facts about Italy facts about Germany facts about Poland
facts about France facts about Hollland facts about Mexico
facts about Peru facts about Spain facts about Pakistan
facts about Costa Rica facts about Ireland facts about Egypt
facts about Jordan facts about Armenia facts about Israel
facts about Philippines facts about Panama facts about Russia
facts about Madagascar facts about Haiti facts about Hong Kong
facts about Bahamas facts about Kenya facts about Benin
facts about Guyana facts about Tunisia facts about Malawi
facts about Norway facts about Scotland facts about Sweden
facts about North Korea facts about Bolivia facts about Argentina
facts about England facts about Portugal facts about Finland
facts about Malaysia facts about Greece facts about Canada
facts about Croatia facts about Cambodia facts about Bangladesh
facts about South Africa facts about Hungary facts about New Zealand
facts about China facts about Thailand facts about Vietnam
facts about Saudi arabia facts about Iceland facts about Venezuela
facts about Ireland facts about India facts about Chile
facts about Indonesia facts about Singapore facts about Jamaica
facts about Japan facts about Brazil facts about South Korea
facts about canada facts about Italy facts about Columbia
facts about Mexico facts about USA weird facts North Korea
facts about Slovenia facts about Australia facts about Country
simple facts Venezuela simple facts South Korea simple facts New Zealand
simple facts Jamaica simple facts Greece simple facts Canada
simple facts China simple facts England simple facts Argentina
simple facts Bolivia simple facts South Africa simple facts India
simple facts Thailand simple facts Australia simple facts Bangladesh
simple facts Japan simple facts USA simple facts Czech
simple facts St.Vincent simple facts Ivory Coast simple facts Switzeland
structured settlement company structured settlements annuities structured settlement buyer
small business administration structured settlement purchasers houston tx auto insurance
selling structured settlement selling annuity structered settlement
caraccidentlawyer auto accident attorney Torrance attorney orange county
attorneys orange county personal injury accident lawyer car accident lawyers los angeles
cheap travel insurance los angeles motorcycle accident state of california car insurance
selling a structured settlement hughes net business structured settlement need cash
fast cash for house maritime lawyer houston personal injury attorney ocala fl
home equity loan reverse mortgage us bank home mortgage
personal loans for bad credit peer to peer lending home equity loan rates
refinance mortgage personal loan rates first time home buyer programs
cash out refinance home mortgage rates mortgage lenders
homeowners insurance home insurance state farm car insurance
comprehensive insurance commercial insurance cheap auto insurance
cheap health insurance indemnity car insurance companies
progressive quote usaa car insurance insurance near me
term life insurance auto insurance near me state farm car insurance
comprehensive insurance progressive home insurance house insurance
progressive renters insurance state farm insurance quote metlife auto insurance
best insurance companies progressive auto insurance quote cheap car insurance quotes
allstate car insurance rental car insurance car insurance online
liberty mutual car insurance cheap car insurance near me best auto insurance
home insurance companies usaa home insurance list of car insurance companies
full coverage insurance allstate insurance near me cheap insurance quotes
national insurance progressive home insurance house insurance
health insurance quotes ameritas dental state farm renters insurance
medicare supplement plans progressive renters insurance aetna providers
title insurance sr22 insurance medicare advantage plans
aetna health insurance ambetter insurance umr insurance
massmutual 401k private health insurance assurant renters insurance
assurant insurance dental insurance plans state farm insurance quote
health insurance plans workers compensation insurance geha dental
metlife auto insurance boat insurance aarp insurance
costco insurance flood insurance best insurance companies
cheap car insurance quotes best travel insurance insurance agents near me
car insurance car insurance quotes auto insurance
auto insurance quotes long term care insurance auto insurance companies
home insurance quotes cheap car insurance quotes affordable car insurance
professional liability insurance cheap car insurance near me small business insurance
vehicle insurance best auto insurance full coverage insurance
motorcycle insurance quote homeowners insurance quote errors and omissions insurance
general liability insurance best renters insurance cheap home insurance
cheap insurance near me cheap full coverage insurance cheap life insurance
horrible serial killer beautiful phenomena deadly UFO attacks
most mysterious sounds creepiest website most toxic ghost towns
coronavirus explained deepest hole in the world weirdest discoveries
what is darkest material facts about mars facts about sun
most dangerous plant most science facts most venomous snakes
most dangerous animals dangerous africa animals most venomous spider
dangerous gangs all time weird and gross candy weird history story
most bizarre hobbies most bizarre trends most banned foods
most dangerous jobs make money online way facts about Jamaica
most dangerous countries most visited cities most evil people
best airports in the world best capitals in the world best places in the world

will refinancing hurt my credit va loan multi family va loan after chapter 7 va home loan specialist us bank home mortgage top insurance companies tax debt relief program tax credit for college students structured settlement loan small business loans personal loan rates permanent life insurance payday loans online no credit check loans national guard va home loan mortgage life insurance maximum fha loan amount low cost health insurance Irs Tax Debt Relief Program how to get preapproved for a va home loan how long does a credit card balance transfer take homeowners insurance companies home loan interest rate home equity line of credit health insurance free car insurance quotes fixed annuity fha loan foreclosure waiting period does opening a checking account affect credit define insurance brokers current mortgage rates cost to refinance home loan Compare Vehicle Insurance cheap travel insurance bad credit car loans average home insurance cost