Taking the plunge
Day 13- 19th January, written by Oli
The ship arrived early off Swift Bay on James Ross Island. We were one of the last groups to go ashore so our activities started late with a 12-noon landing time. After a short zodiac ride we were there. While most of the others explored the island and hiked up to a view point it was my turn to participate in microplastics sampling near the shoreline.
Microplastic pollution consists of pieces less than 5mm long, and often much smaller, that come from various sources, including synthetic fleeces and other clothing, industrial pollution and the breakdown of larger plastic fragments. How much microplastic has accumulated in the supposedly pristine Antarctic, and how do microplastic levels there compare between sites within the region? To find out we collected sediment samples from the beach surface and snow fields and filtered them out with saline solution. The dried filters will be taken back to St Andrews for detailed analysis.
While collecting our sediment samples we spotted krill that had washed up on shore. Krill are a keystone species of the Antarctic food chain, supporting penguins, seals and whales, and the predators and scavengers that, in turn, depend upon these, so it was interesting to get to see them up close. They were bigger than we imagined (the size of a pinkie) but still very small compared to the animals that feed upon them.
After the microplastics sampling was done came the part of the landing I had been dreading – the polar plunge. I had skipped the first opportunity to take a dunk in the freezing ocean, hoping to see from my classmates’ reactions how bad it would truly be, but now it was time to take part. After what felt like 10 minutes of procrastination and deliberation of whether to do it I finally “took the plunge” with my classmates’ encouragements. As expected, it was freezingly cold, and the zodiac ride on the way back was not a pleasant experience for my toes, – but at least I had finally done it!
Today we also finally tried a different restaurant on board the ship, with almost everyone ordering burgers – a welcome treat. After a few more seabird and marine mammal surveys the team met up on deck 10 – aka the bar, to play some fun team bonding rounds of heads up, before getting to bed early for the next exciting day of the trip!