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Overnight we departed from the pack ice and pushed eastwards into open water just south of the 65th parallel. We’ve done our best in the pack ice and it will be largely open water between now and our approach to Mawson in a few weeks’ time.
In the last 24 hours we did further MIDOC, RMT, Trace Metals and CTD work. Lots of whales and birds were seen yesterday afternoon along the edge of the ice. Today will be largely transit time as we push towards a new observing site to the north east of Drygalski Island. The only scheduled deployments this afternoon are target trawls if we spot anything interesting on the sounders. This at least gives the day shift a chance for a rest in relatively gentle sea conditions.
At this morning’s science planning meeting, a special request for T. mac from the target trawls was put in by Jake. T. mac is a krill species with a proper scientific name that even hardened marine biologists are reluctant to fully pronounce. But, since I’m typing (and Christine wrote it down for me) , I can confidently state that the full name is Thysanoessa macrura which I think is Latin for the krill that dare not speak its own name.
Lloyd and Brett
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.