Polarstern / CAML expedition: ice-fish, birds and ROV
Preparation of the ROV under a blue sky, but with a still too choppy sea
© G. Chapelle / IPF / Alfred Wegener Institute
After the close of 2006 and 10 days of fishing near Elephant Island, we finally went south, off King George Island, the most "crowded" place in Antarctica (about ten stations!). As a daily routine, fish trawls land, one after another, on the deck. Like every day, "Antarctic Cods", or Notothenias, were found side by side with the legendary ice-fish.
Ice-fish are distinct from all other vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) by a total absence of hemoglobin, and thus of red cells, in their blood. Hemoglobin is the oxygen carrier pigment in our blood, and responsible for the bright red color. In the cold waters surrounding the Antarctic continent, oxygen is so abundant that the ice-fish have "chosen" a simpler solution: carrying oxygen from their gills to all their body cells only in solution in their whitish blood, more abundant in volume than in other fish, but devoid of red cells...
Our journey south also brought back a bounty of sea birds which we had not experienced since the Antarctic convergence more than 3 weeks ago.
With 16 observed species in a single day, a new record was established. Including the albatrosses, since we not only noted a new species, namely the Dark-Mantled Sooty Albatross, but also observed four species seen previously within a fifteen minute watch! One hour later, Julian Gutt our chief scientist made his first attempt with a video camera mounted on a small remotely operated submarine vehicle (ROV).
No luck! The constant swell forced him to bring the ROV back to the surface only some minutes after having reached the bottom, to make sure not to loose this precious device before reaching the Larsen area one week from now...
