Glacier (WAGB 4) - Naval Cruise Book

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Squid ig. perhaps they shouki have gone to TT3 Krzykwa for advice as they never Dr. Daly and Torres with vertical trawl nets c R U I S E 2 Racfoacthe. chlorophyll and plankton growth monitor. V . The brains behind the scientists: this computer analyzes their results for them. 29

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SCIENCE CRUISE 1 | RICE U HELD TEAM Science Cruise 1 (2 1 Jan to 2 1 Feb) was strictly a marine geological survey of the area around the Bra nstield St rait. Gerlache St rait and Marguerite Bav. The survey was aero-photography (still and video) of the glacier and shore- line, box coring, piston coring, bottom grabs, seismiclines and hydrocasts. Some of the objectives were to: ( 1 ) Construct detailed bath metric, sedimen- tologic and tectonic maps of the Bransfield Basin, (2) Describe sediment types and dispersal patterns within fiords in relation to the glacial and geo- logic setting (3) Examine subaqueous glacial features and bedforms and (4) invest igate the more recent glacial climatic record of the area using the sedi- mentary record. ABOVE Piston Corer ABC VE: Box Corer 28 NCSU HELD TEAM The scientists from North Carolina State University collected box cores from 46 stations to evaluate the rate of biogenic silica accumulation on the Antarctic Continent Shelf. Silica is an important nutrient in the oceans and the NCSU research team will be evaluating the importance of Antarctic sediments in the global silica cycle.... At the 4th station, the corer encoun- tered a rock outcrop which sheared off half its base. The DCs meet the challenge and rebuilt the corer in a day and a half. 909c of our cores were collected with the rebuilt corer, and we thank the DCs and the crew of Glacier for their time and efforts. Dr. DeMaster.

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s c I E N C I ■am Jit The art of seal roping. WJft3 SEAL SURVEYS During the second science cruise, the entire food chain from the bottom to the very top was studied. Seals, comprising the top of the food chain in this area were therefore a key figure of study. Helicopters were dispatched daily to round up seals for studies. Among the most important and most difficult was the placing and remov- ing of dive recorders on the backs of the seals. Once a seal was singled out for placement of a recorder, the seal had to be caught out on the ice and immobilized for a period of several minutes while the epoxy dried. Once set free, the recorders had to be once again collected to get their data Expecting to recover only a few, the scientists used a large number of the recorders and tracking transmitters. With the aide of the helos, almost half of the recorders placed were recovered and more data than expected was collected. I I 30 Dive recorders were attached with epoxy to the seal ' s back. Later, stomache content and movement can be studied in conjunction.