{"id":8337,"date":"2015-06-11T19:52:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mlmlblog.wordpress.com\/?p=8337"},"modified":"2020-10-23T12:03:00","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T19:03:00","slug":"tales-from-the-field-in-antarctica-post-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/2015\/06\/11\/tales-from-the-field-in-antarctica-post-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales from the Field in Antarctica: Post 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t

By Jamie Sibley Yin<\/h3>\n

Dr. Valerie Loeb is an adjunct professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Currently, she functions as an independent Antarctic ecosystem research scientist collaborating with Jarrod Santora of UC Santa Cruz. In April, she headed out to sea with a new NSF funded project entitled \u201cPilot Study:\u00a0 \u00a0Addition of Biological Sampling to Drake Passage Transits of the \u2018LM Gould'\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The following are updates from the field by Jamie Sibley Yin who is in charge of communications.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

April 22, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Euphausia<\/a>
Euphausia superba: also known as Antarctic krill, these were more than 2 inches in length, also notice the phytoplankon in stomach.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When we unlatched the cod end from the net, gobs of krill poured over the top, I scrambled to catch the wriggling animals in a bucket.\u00a0 The boat was en route to a fish trawling area near Dallmann Bay.<\/p>\n

Humpack and fin whales dotted the horizon, seabirds swooped around the bow, plunging into the water to feed.\u00a0 This appeared to be a very productive region especially when coupled with a strong signal from the acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP).\u00a0 ADCPs send sound through the water column where it is reflected by sound scattering organisms such as crustaceans and fish with swim bladders.\u00a0 The ADCP at our current location showed a thick layer of nektonic organisms close to the surface.\u00a0 These creatures were most likely attracting the whales and birds, but the only way to know for sure was to conduct some net tows in the area. \u00a0In contrast to our other tows, which were full of salps, copepods, and chaetognaths, every tow we pulled up was dominated by large Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba<\/em>). \u00a0Krill are a vital component to oceans worldwide, as they provide the link between primary production (phytoplankton) and higher-level organisms such as fish and whales.<\/p>\n

\"Fin<\/a>
Fin whales: fin whales near the boat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We process our samples as soon as they hit the deck.\u00a0 Part of this is measuring krill body lengths.\u00a0 I take out a sample I had stuck in the fridge before dinner.\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised the krill are still alive, swimming on their side around the clear plastic container, their little legs moving furiously.\u00a0 By the time I\u2019m counting chaetognaths and pulling out amphipods, most everything is dead or feebly waving a pleopod. \u00a0I\u2019m taken aback by the still swimming krill.\u00a0 I pick one up and plop it in my petri dish, it twitches and flicks sea water at me.\u00a0 It\u2019s large dark eyes jerk--I sense that it sees me.\u00a0 I quickly hold it to the ruler, record its\u2019 length and gently place it in another jar, I add a few ice cubes for good measure, the krill buzzes around.\u00a0 I feel a twinge of satisfaction.\u00a0 After measuring a subsample I dump the remainder over the side, secretly hoping a few survive.<\/p>\n

\"Fishing<\/a>
Fishing map: where we were fishing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m not alone in my admiration for these robust critters.\u00a0 It was once thought krill could provide a solution to world hunger as they are abundant, low on the food chain, and a good source of protein.\u00a0 Unfortunately their chitin proved hard to remove, and they ended up having toxic levels of fluoride in their tissues. \u00a0They have been used as cattle and poultry feed, and for farmed salmon to emulate the pink color of their wild counterparts.\u00a0 This pink color is from beta carotenes in the krill\u2019s carapace, which also accounts for the pink feathers of flamencos, who feed on fresh water euphausiids.\u00a0 The latest fad is krill oil-- toted as a health supplement. \u00a0After reflecting on the great utility of krill, I didn\u2019t feel so silly throwing them back.<\/p>\n

\"Antarctic<\/a>
Antarctic sunset: sunset near Croker Pass.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jamie Sibley Yin Dr. Valerie Loeb is an adjunct professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Currently, she functions as an independent Antarctic ecosystem research scientist collaborating with Jarrod Santora of UC Santa Cruz. In April, she headed out to sea with a new NSF funded project entitled \u201cPilot Study:\u00a0 \u00a0Addition of Biological Sampling to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":8340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[41,114],"class_list":["post-8337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drop-inblog","tag-antarctica","tag-fieldwork"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"MLML Student Life","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8337"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20586,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337\/revisions\/20586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mlml.sjsu.edu\/student-life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}