Glacier (WAGB 4) - Naval Cruise Book

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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.

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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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PENGUIN PURSUITS Sharing the top of the food chain with the seal are the birds. Operations ranging from collecting live specimens for later study to pumping the stomaches of penguins, the ■ bird people gathered valuable dietary information on the birds of the ice edge zone Collecting more than 1200 squid breaks, and many hundred fish bones, they were able to determine the diets of many types of birds and gather a range of dietary habits ranging from the ice edge to more than forty miles deep in the ice The pengiin leader welcomes on bad party to An V -Only to cfsco o- they are not from National Geosraprsc PENGUIN WRESTLING To collect the stomach contents of the pen- guins, the scientists first had to catch them. It was not an uncommon sight to see a scientist running around with what looked like an oversized but- terfly net chasing a fleeing penguin. After the bird was netted, it usuallv took at least two or three people to hold it still so the first scientist could place a rubber tube down the penguins throat, fill it up with salt water, and turn the pen- guin upside-down to collect the contents. When thev were finished, the penguin usuallv left as fast as possible. A 31