I Hate Elizabeth Swann

I hate Elizabeth Swann from the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Why? Because not once did the writers depict her getting seasick and she was on a 100 ft wooden boat! While I got seasick when I cruised in a 220 ft metal vessel. Now I understand seasickness is widely variable and some people never experience it. However, I recently found out that I am highly sensitive to seasickness after an 8 day voyage from Punta Arenas, Chile to Palmer Station, Antarctica and I am bitter. (My 8 day voyage is the reason for the lack of posts recently due to limited internet capabilities.) So over the course of the 8 days I started planning this blog and the more miserable I got, the more I revised this post in my mind so I am ready to unleash. I am telling you, my mind went to some pretty dark places. So I hate Elizabeth Swann (The fictional one of course. To anyone in real life with the same name that I have not met yet, I promise I won’t be bitter when I meet you.)

I Got My Plane Tickets!!

So after much anticipation, I finally got my plane tickets and I have been PQ’d!! It was a long and expensive process, but also at times quite humorous. So there is not turning back now, it is actually going to happen. I am going to leave for Palmer Station Antarctica on April 9th at 5:45pm and land at Punta Arenas, Chile on April 10 at 5:30 pm. For a total of 7190 miles in a plane. But wait I am not done yet! I will spend a day in Chile getting my extreme cold weather gear(ECW), so I do not freeze in -7 °C weather (current temp and not winter yet.) Then on the 12th of April we will board the LMG (Laurence M. Gould Research Vessel) and travel along the drake’s passage collecting fish deadliest catch style. The drake’s passage is the roughest stretch of waters in the world, so I need to prepare for seasickness. I will be on the LMG  for 6 days and 744 miles later I will land at Palmer Station, Antarctica where I will conduct research for three months. Once a month I will still go out and help collect fish for several days. So this is my itinerary, and I can not wait for these five days to get here!

What I Want to do in Antarctica

I try and keep my blog post on Thursdays, but yesterday was so busy with the last of my doctor appointments that I put it off for a day. The good news is, everything is normal and it looks like I am going to be medically cleared to go to Antarctica! Almost done going through the last hoops and my plane tickets can be booked. So far I have talked about the history of Antarctica and clarified my research project, so now I am going to talk about the things I want to do in Antarctica. So in no particular order, here are my non-related research goals in Antarctica, well some are research related.

Bloodless Icefish

To prepare myself for the trip in April, I am going to talk a little about the research I am going to conduct in Antarctica and my research subjects, the “bloodless” icefish (Pictured Below). Unlike the picture below, some icefish are even see-through! The “bloodless” icefish belong to the Channichthyidae family which means they are a family of fish that are white-blooded and their face resembles a crocodile (Channichthyidae). This family belongs in a larger suborder of fish called Notothenioidei. The notothenioid fish all live in the Antarctic waters (Southern Ocean) with most species experiencing water temperatures around -2 °C to 2 °C. Believe it or not, the Southern Ocean is the most thermally stable marine environment on Earth with little change in water temperatures and oxygen levels over millions of years. In fact the Southern Ocean has been this cold for at least 10-14 million years, which caused a decline in the species diversity and left the notothenioids as the major species with very little  species competition. So over the course of 10-14 million years, with no major predators and isolated from other animals, the icefish have made the best of their icy homes with very unique adaptations. The one unique adaptation that I am concerned with is their blood and circulatory system.

I am Going to Antarctica!

It has been a month and half since I was invited to participate in a research trip to Palmer Station, Antarctica from April to July 2013, and it is finally starting to feel real. My research advisor Dr. Johanne Lewis at GSU was invited to go to Antarctica by polar researchers Dr. Kristin O’Brien from University of Alaska and Dr. Lisa Crockett from Ohio University. When a spot was created,  I was invited to fill it. For the longest time I did not tell people because I was waiting to wake up from my dream or waiting to see if I would get an email telling me that the invitation was meant for someone else.  Now after a month and half I can finally accept it is going to happen, which means I need to start preparing to leave. Part of the preparation includes starting a blog to record all my preparation activities until I deploy to the icy continent, which I will of course constantly update while I am down in Antarctica. The best part is that this research trip is completely funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant through Drs. O’Brien and Crockett. XD