Penguin researchers David Ainley and Louise Blight walk through the Adelie rookery at Cape Royds in November. January 11, 2004 Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program www.polar.org/antsun Meet the “mayor” of Santiago Airport Page 14 “It’s like putting a bicycle on a six lane highway. It didn’t do much.” Off hours, station life counts on volunteers Page 9 Quote of the Week - IT manager on increasing McMurdo bandwidth last week by about 150 kb Photo by Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic Sun INSIDE By Brien Barnett Sun staff Fewer Adelie penguins have been returning to their southern Ross Sea colonies to mate this season than last year, perhaps because the commute from wintering areas has been longer and more difficult than expected. At Cape Royds, only about 1,500 breeding pairs were counted, according to penguin researcher David Ainley of H.T. Harvey & Associates. He said that means only about a third of the expected number of pairs returned this season. At Cape Crozier, the largest of the Ross Island colonies, more than 70 per- cent of the penguins have mated, but only about three-quarters of the birds expected to show up actually did so. “These colonies have been growing over the past few decades so our expec- tation would be they would be equal to what they were last year, particularly because conditions in the vicinity of the colonies are easier this year compared to last year,” Ainley said. Over the past few years, Royds was hard to reach because it was dozens of miles from open water, where the pen- guins gather food. Meantime, giant ice- bergs were hammering Crozier and cre- ating massive ice rubble, forcing the birds to follow a different and difficult By Kris Kuenning Sun staff Locked in the world’s glaciers, along with 75 percent of all fresh water, are the answers to many questions about Earth’s climate. Glaciers mark change by their movement, leaving in their path valuable records of past climate variation. Understanding their behav- ior now can help predict what might happen in the future, said Kurt Cuffey, a glaciologist from the University of California, Berkeley. Antarctic glacial studies provide clues to the local ecosystem, but when the models are applied to the larger world, researchers can put together a picture of how temperature changes could re-draw the Earth’s coastlines. “If the glaciers melted, sea level would rise 200 feet (60 meters) and every coastal city in the world would be drowned,” said Cuffey, who is studying the Taylor Glacier in the Dry Valleys with Dave Morse from the University of Texas. The Dry Valleys provide a unique setting for studying Antarctic glaciers, Cuffey said. While much of Antarctica’s glacial ice is chipped into the sea as icebergs, which float away without a trace, the empty valleys have been carved with a living record of the glaci- er’s history. Only 2 percent of Antarctica is not ice cov- ered. Most of the exposed land is on the Antarctic Peninsula or juts from the ice in steep, bare mountains. The Dry Valleys are rare, low-lying areas, where a simple, delicate ecosystem is fed by glacial melt. This ecosystem has been studied through National Science Foundation funded research for 10 years as part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research See Adelies on page 12 See Taylor on page 7 Difficult commute disrupts penguins’ domestic duties Taylor glacier has a tale to tell
Transcript
Penguin researchers David Ainley and Louise Blight walk through the Adelie rookery at Cape Roydsin November.
January 11, 2004
Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program
www.polar.org/antsun
Meet the “mayor” ofSantiago Airport
Page 14
“It’s like putting a bicycle on a sixlane highway. It didn’t do much.”
Off hours, stationlife counts on volunteers
Page 9
Quote of the Week
- IT manager on increasing McMurdobandwidth last week by about 150 kb
Photo by Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic Sun
INSIDE
By Brien BarnettSun staff
Fewer Adelie penguins have beenreturning to their southern Ross Seacolonies to mate this season than lastyear, perhaps because the commute fromwintering areas has been longer andmore difficult than expected.
At Cape Royds, only about 1,500breeding pairs were counted, accordingto penguin researcher David Ainley ofH.T. Harvey & Associates. He said thatmeans only about a third of the expectednumber of pairs returned this season.
At Cape Crozier, the largest of theRoss Island colonies, more than 70 per-cent of the penguins have mated, but
only about three-quarters of the birdsexpected to show up actually did so.
“These colonies have been growingover the past few decades so our expec-tation would be they would be equal towhat they were last year, particularlybecause conditions in the vicinity of thecolonies are easier this year compared tolast year,” Ainley said.
Over the past few years, Royds washard to reach because it was dozens ofmiles from open water, where the pen-guins gather food. Meantime, giant ice-bergs were hammering Crozier and cre-ating massive ice rubble, forcing thebirds to follow a different and difficult
By Kris KuenningSun staff
Locked in the world’s glaciers, along with75 percent of all fresh water, are the answersto many questions about Earth’s climate.
Glaciers mark change by their movement,leaving in their path valuable records of pastclimate variation. Understanding their behav-ior now can help predict what might happenin the future, said Kurt Cuffey, a glaciologistfrom the University of California, Berkeley.
Antarctic glacial studies provide clues tothe local ecosystem, but when the models areapplied to the larger world, researchers canput together a picture of how temperaturechanges could re-draw the Earth’s coastlines.
“If the glaciers melted, sea level wouldrise 200 feet (60 meters) and every coastalcity in the world would be drowned,” saidCuffey, who is studying the Taylor Glacier inthe Dry Valleys with Dave Morse from theUniversity of Texas.
The Dry Valleys provide a unique settingfor studying Antarctic glaciers, Cuffey said.While much of Antarctica’s glacial ice ischipped into the sea as icebergs, which floataway without a trace, the empty valleys havebeen carved with a living record of the glaci-er’s history.
Only 2 percent of Antarctica is not ice cov-ered. Most of the exposed land is on theAntarctic Peninsula or juts from the ice insteep, bare mountains. The Dry Valleys arerare, low-lying areas, where a simple, delicateecosystem is fed by glacial melt.
This ecosystem has been studied throughNational Science Foundation funded researchfor 10 years as part of the McMurdo DryValleys Long Term Ecological Research
Spirit: Now exploring surface of Mars.Nomad: Explored the remote Antarcticregion of Elephant Moraine in January2000 in search of meteorite samples
Size:Spirit/Nomad: Both are about the size ofa lawn tractor
Weight:Spirit: 180 kgNomad: 725 kg
Speed:Spirit: 5 cm/secondNomad: 50 cm/second
Power:Spirit: Batteries and solar panelsNomad: Gasoline generator
Some of the gear onboard:Spirit: Cameras, analysis tools, commu-nications gear and antennasNomad: Cameras, spectrometer, GPS
Source: Field Robotics Center, NASA
Cold, hard facts
Ross Island Chronicles By Chico
The Antarctic Sun is funded by the NationalScience Foundation as part of the UnitedStates Antarctic Program (OPP-000373). Its pri-
mary audience is U.S. AntarcticProgram participants, their fami-lies, and their friends. NSFreviews and approves materialbefore publication, but opinions
and conclusions expressed in the Sun are notnecessarily those of the Foundation.
Use: Reproduction and distribution areencouraged with acknowledgment of sourceand author.
Contributions are welcome. Contact theSun at [email protected]. In McMurdo, visitour office in Building 155 or dial 2407.
Web address: www.polar.org/antsun
Wow! What a fall. He doesn’t appearto be dead ‘cause he’s moving. Whatdo you think we ought to do?
If I were you I’d get a lawyerbefore he sues you foreverything you got.
That’s even worse. Interpol will scour theplanet to find you and then drag you infront of the World Court when they do.Probably send you to Guantanomo Bay.
Quick, let’s go see if we can finda couple of shovels.
WHAT!!! Sue me? I’m a penguin. This isAntarctica. No one owns this place.
January 11, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 3
Ice pier serves as bridge to suppliesBy Kris KuenningSun staff
The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker PolarStar slid and cracked its way through the icethis week, to tether its lines to a six-meterthick chunk of ice that has served as a float-ing pier at McMurdo since 1999.
As it edged close, the Star lunged onto thepier and took a 2-meter chunk from the side.
“It’s probably just cosmetic,” saidMcMurdo foreman Scott “Snackbar” Konu,who oversees the annual summer mainte-nance of the ice pier.
“This is the only place in the world wherewe moor up without tug assistance,” saidCoast Guard liaison April Brown. “Wealways give them something to do in winterwhen we hit the pier.”
Ships, storms and sunny days all take atoll on the pier, which is why it is rebuiltevery few years.
Floating ice piers have been used inWinter Quarters Bay since 1973. Prior to1964, cargo was unloaded from the sea iceedge and transported to McMurdo by sled.
Starting in 1964, icebreakers were able toopen a channel to Winter Quarters Bay,where ships moored directly to a vertical faceof land-anchored ice. After several years, theland-fast ice eroded and so in 1972, a metaland steel protective dock was constructed.Most of the structure was destroyed almostimmediately by a storm.
That same winter a block of ice was con-structed, covered with straw and matting, andused as a fender for the tanker that arrived inautumn 1973.
The experimental ice fender showed thatan ice pier was feasible and the first one wasconstructed the following winter.
“As far as I know, it is the only floating icepier in the world,” said fleet operations super-visor Gerald Crist.
Pier construction begins when the wintersea ice reaches a thickness of one meter, usu-ally in April. Then, a 30 cm wall of ice andsnow is built around the pier. Three pumpsare drilled into the ice and the surface isflooded with seawater. Ten centimeters at atime, the pier grows to 3.5 meters and thenalmost 2,000 meters of steel cable is laid overthe ice for support. Another layer of cable isadded after another 1.5 meters of ice.
It takes around 150 million liters of seawater to make the pier.
To maintain the thickness of the pier, it isstripped of its insulating layer of rock eachautumn and the snow is plowed off for win-ter. The water is a constant –1.8 C, but the airin winter is much colder than that. Keepingthe ice exposed allows it to cool over the win-ter and minimize loss, Crist said.
Last winter, for the first time, fresh waterwas hauled from McMurdo’s fire hydrants to
flood the surface. Freshwater, with a higherfreezing point, sets harder. The freshwaterflood evened the surface of the pier andhealed any minor cracks.
In spring, work began to ready the pier forthe ships’ arrival in January. The insulatinggravel layer was spread back over the pier.The gravel also provides a good surface forloading vehicles.
Cables strap the pier to the land and moor-ing blocks are set into the structure.
After an early December storm, almost 30cm of snow was removed from the pier, butmelt puddles have now formed from thesnow that settled into the gravel. A rock drillwill be used to cut 10 cm drainage holesthrough the ice where the water accumulates.
In early November, the edge of the pierwas stripped bare of snow. Natural melt andrun-off was channeled into this “moat” togather heat. This set the edge up for a cleanbreak between the sea ice and face of the pierby the icebreaker.
A steel bridge spans the moat between theshore and the floating pier.
This year, divers measured the pier to be 6 meters deep. They also discovered that theback corner of the pier had grounded on theseafloor. The pressure of the grounding hascreated a visible ridge on the surface, whichKonu said could be a point of weakness forthe pier.
The next job will be to grade the surfaceof the pier smooth for the heavy traffic it willsee when the re-supply vessel is unloadedand re-loaded in February.
When its lifetime is up, a permit from theAntarctic Conservation Act allows the pier to
be released and towed away by the icebreak-er. The pier’s journey is tracked with a bea-con and targets are mounted on the top toalert any passing ships. The last ice pierbroke apart and was released in 1999.
Waves and large swells caused crackswhich were reinforced each winter untilfinally, in the summer of 1999, the disinte-gration was beyond repair. One piece brokeoff and sunk. Another rolled like an iceberg.
Konu was working on the pier that day.“We were down there working and then wewent to dinner. When we got back one piecehad rolled over. It was quite a sight to see,” hesaid.
The crew rushed to remove equipmentand pull the connecting bridge to shore.
This ice pier was built in the winter of1999. In the last few years, a giant icebergperched north of Ross Island has preventedthe ocean current from flushing broken seaice out of the icebreaker channel. If the ice-breaker can’t tow the pier away at the end ofthe season, we’re stuck with it, said Crist.
The icebreaker run-in doesn’t seem tohave done any major damage to this pier.Crist said small fracture cracks were proba-bly a result of normal settling after the sur-rounding sea ice was released.
Crist said the stability of the ice pier iscontinually assessed, but they hope to use thesame pier again next year.
“We don’t know the health of the pieruntil vessel season is finished, but I’d like tokeep it,” he said. “The winter crew of 1999constructed an excellent pier and it has beenone of the best. We have grown rather fond ofit.”
Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic Sun
U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star lies tied to the ice pier, which is covered by dirt.
Unseen life is abundant in the Dry ValleysBy Yvonne BaskinSpecial to the sun
Standing in the Taylor Valley, it’s easy to understand whyRobert Scott proclaimed this visually lifeless land “the valley ofthe dead.” Scott was wrong, of course, but he was hardly the firstto overlook life right under his feet. Life not only persists in themud, dirt, and meltwater of this ice-free bit of Antarctica but alsofingerprints the landscape in ways too subtle for our unaidedsenses to detect.
Keeping tabs on the unseen world here requires work that’stedious, often exhausting, and –to an outsider — even a bitweird. I came to the Ice to seehow it’s done, and more impor-tant, to learn why as part of abook I’m writing on life in theEarth’s soils and sediments.
At the south end of LakeHoare, a meltwater offspring ofthe Canada Glacier, I watch asthree people scurry about withgallon jugs. They shower sugar-water on the gravelly soil insidewhat appear to be translucentlampshades held down withstakes and bungees. Up therocky slope, two other membersof the team unbolt Bundt cakepans full of marbles from atopfoot-high posts. Stacked to oneside are daypacks jammed withplastic bags and little brown bot-tles of soil.
These researchers are known on the Ice as the wormherdersbecause the chief beneficiaries of all their fuss are microscopicroundworms known as nematodes, microbe-munching crittersthat top the food chain of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. For morethan a decade the wormherders, shepherded by Diana Wall ofColorado State University and Ross Virginia of DartmouthCollege, have been probing, pampering and challenging the val-ley’s three worm species – along with a smattering of fellowinvertebrates known as rotifers and tardigrades (water bears) – tosee what makes the food web tick, what life here is capable of,and how sensitive it will be to human-driven changes in the cli-mate and environment. Their work is part of the Long TermEcological Research project that targets the soils, streams, lakes,and glaciers of the Dry Valleys.
The annual dose of sugarwater the wormherders provide canspur growth of a microbial feast for some lucky worms; othersget only an extra dose of water. The lampshade-style chambersprotect some from chilling winds and the Bundt pans aredesigned to catch worms blowing around the valley. Back in theCrary lab, the team flushes worms from soil samples, then final-ly comes face to face with them under a compound microscope.
To soil ecologists, it’s no surprise that nematodes are the mostabundant animals in the Dry Valleys. Four of every five animalson Earth are nematodes. Pioneering researcher Nathan Cobbexplained in 1914: “If all the matter in the universe except nema-todes were swept away, our world would still be recognizable,…its mountains, hills, vales, rivers, lakes, and oceans represent-ed by a film of nematodes.”
The entire food web in the Dry Valleys is composed of whatE. O. Wilson calls “the small things that run the world.” Two-thirds of the Earth’s biological diversity lives in its mud and dirt,
providing the foundation for theEarth’s food webs, decayingand recycling vital nutrients,renewing soil fertility, filteringand purifying water, and help-ing determine the fate of carbonand greenhouse gases.
This sheer abundance andcomplexity of unseen life, how-ever, creates a nightmare forecologists trying to determinethe work and “worth” of indi-vidual species. Abundance iswhat Wall and her colleaguesescape in Antarctica, along withthe confounding presence ofgreen plants that dominate mostsoils with their forest of roots.
“This is the only place wherewe can see the effect of achange or disturbance on anindividual species,” Wall says.
Life filters nitrogen and phosphorous from glacial meltwater,altering the chemistry of water at every step as it puddles incryconite holes, pours into streams, and runs across the soil intothe lakes.
“Everywhere you look out here, there is biology,” says JebBarrett of Dartmouth.
Yet it’s biology so simplified that he can separate out howmuch the breathing of nematodes contributes to the exhalation ofCO2 from the valley soil.
Soils worldwide face accelerating degradation thanks tohuman activities. Information about the importance of individualsoil organisms is as urgently needed as details about the life ofrainforests and coral reefs – perhaps more so, for healthy soil isfundamental to everything from water quality to sustainable agri-culture, forestry, and fisheries.
We are unlikely to need the services of the Taylor Valleynematodes and microbes to nurture our green world, but what welearn from them may help us appreciate and care for soil com-munities vital to our survival.
Yvonne Baskin, a freelance science writer from Bozeman,Mont., came to McMurdo as part of the NSF Antarctic Artists &Writers program.
4 • The Antarctic Sun January 11, 2004
Perspectives Perspectives
Photo provided by Yvonne Baskin / Special to the Antarctic Sun
Yvonne Baskin stands at an overlook in the Taylor Valley.
the week in weather
New pole marker
By Tracy SheeleySouth Pole correspondent
South Pole is returning to a work routineafter the holiday season – and a busy one atthat. January brings with it a high popula-tion, with visitors and workers coming infor the final push of the summer season.
On the first day of theyear, the new marker
was placed at thegeographic SouthPole. The ice sheetmoves roughly 10
meters each year, andthe marker is updated
accordingly. Each wintercrew has the honor ofdesigning the pole marker
for the following year. It is unmasked in aspecial ceremony on New Year’s Day.
Work continues to make the new stationgrow and shine. The inspection for finaloccupancy of the new dining hall andberthing areas is scheduled for late January.Our goal is to receive conditional occupan-cy of areas under construction. Interiorwork will continue on those areas through-out the winter. The steel has been erectedfor the B1 pod, and panels will go up begin-ning this week. Footers are being placedfor A4.
The January flight schedule is starting
off on a great note, with up to 7 LC-130flights a day from McMurdo. We receivescience and construction cargo, as well asour fuel resupply to last us through theeight-month winter with no flights.Anticipating winter also means it is time forrest and relaxation in McMurdo for thewinter crew – a week to explore Mactownand breathe in warmer air at sea levelbefore settling into the Pole winter routine.
The South Pole Remote Earth SeismicObservatory (SPRESO) is again host to theIce Core Drilling Service. Five drillers areputting in a third hole to be used by the U.S.Geologic Service to gather their seismolog-ical data.
Ships, scientists arriveBy Kerry KellsPalmer Station correspondent
The holidays at Palmer are windingdown as we prepare for a busy January.
The Palmer community celebrated theNew Year with a prom-themed partycomplete with falling balloons, stream-ers, snacks and prom backgrounds forphotos.
The Gould brought several more sci-entists to station, as well as NationalGeographic reporter Fen Montaigne andNSF Representative Dave Bresnahan.
This past week, 120 passengers fromthe luxury cruise ship the The World vis-ited the station and the U.S. Antarcticresearch vessel the Laurence M. Gouldstopped in.
We also celebrate the recognition ofour own Cara Sucher for her first placewildlife, second-place scenic and sec-ond-place people photos in The AntarcticSun’s Photo and Writing Contest (seeprevious issue online).
Throughout the holidays, our group ofseabird researchers continued to countand track nests every day. New chicksare hatching within the brown skua andgiant petrel populations. Bill Fraser, theprincipal investigator of this research,arrives to join his group. Some of the
January 11, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 5
around the continent
SOUTH POLE PALMER
McMurdo StationHigh: 41 F / 5 C Low: 21 F / -6 CWind: 24 mph / 39 kphWindchill: -9 F / -23 C
Palmer StationHigh: 46 F / 8 C Low: 32 F / 0 CWind: 44 mph / 71 kphWindchill: 21 F / -6 C
South Pole StationHigh:-10 F / -23 C Low:-20 F / -30 CWind: 24 mph / 39 kphMaximum physio-altitude: 3228 m
See Continent on page 6
Photo provided by Palmer Station staff / Special to The Antarctic Sun
The luxury cruise ship The World Discoverer holds position just outside Palmer Station next to the U.S. Antarctic Program research vessel,the Laurence M. Gould this past week. The cruise ship tours the globe. See update below for more news from Palmer Station.
Photo by CharlesKaminski / Specialto The Antarctic Sun
Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun
Beverley Underwood, a tourist fromWellington, New Zealand, traveling aboardthe cruise ship Khlebnikov, shops for sou-venirs at the McMurdo Station store. Shesaid she was “following her dream” by trav-eling to Antarctica. The visitors were flownin by helicopter and toured the station,including Hut Point and Observation Hill.
MCMURDO
researchers will leave on the Gould. Maria Vernet and Ray Smith’s group,
the phytoplankton and bio-optics compo-nent of the Long Term Ecological study,continues to sample the water columns attwo spots, joined by the bacterioplanktonecology group. Hugh Ducklow, the prin-cipal investigator for this research, alsoarrived on the Gould.
Members of both teams will leave sta-tion on the Gould for the Long TermEcological Research cruise while theircolleagues continue research based atPalmer Station.
Robin Ross-Quetin, who is a partnerin the long-term research of Antarctickrill, will join Langdon Quetin, co-prin-cipal investigator. Ross began herresearch in Antarctica the summer of1981-82. In this past week they havecontinued their acoustic searches andcollections of krill.
In another realm of science, Tad Day’sgroup has collected 180 cores (plant andsoil samples with Antarctic hair grassand Antarctic pearlwort) from BiscoeIsland. More samples need to be collect-ed before their experiments can begin.
When the Gould leaves PalmerStation to begin the LTER cruise, theship will follow a grid pattern south. Itwill travel south of the Antarctic Circleand stop at Avian Island where seabirdresearchers will camp for four days. Andeven farther south, the Gould will stop atthe British Station, Rothera, on AdelaideIsland. During this cruise, each groupwill collect samples for all the compo-nents of LTER.
The cruise ship Vavilov is scheduledto arrive with several Cornell Universityalumni passengers. Early February willsee the return of the Gould for a quickstop at station before it returns to PuntaArenas, Chile.
Polar Star took on about 2.3 millionliters of JP-5 fuel, and is now heavy andready to wreak havoc on the ice. Polar Seais pulling in to take on about 1.5 millionliters of JP-5. In gallons, that’s a cool mil-lion from the town’s fuel stores.
The Sea also conducted a covert op,sneaking into the turning basin, and thenout, widening the old ship track by 2-3 shipwidths (cutter has a 26-meter beam). GoSea!
Anticipate Sea getting underwaySunday morning to continue work with theStar. The tour ship Khlebnikov was about
12 km out from Hut Point, flying passen-gers in for tours, on Jan. 8.
The tanker ship Gianella is scheduled toarrive at the ice edge about Jan. 14 to act asa floating gas station for the two big red gashogs. She will heave to at the edge and parkit there until after the cargo vessel gets inand out of McMurdo.
She also will be fueling the Nathaniel B.Palmer upon its return to the ice edge on Jan15. The NBP is scheduled to be at the icepier Jan 15-19, but if she can’t get to the pierlike last year because of the ice, we aredeveloping a contingency plan to offloadand onload cargo and people. Plus, she willtake fuel from the tanker at the ice edge.
The cargo vessel American Tern isscheduled to arrive at the ice edge on Feb 1,and then be escorted in by icebreakers, tothe pier.
Laurence M. GouldCompiled from ship reports by Andrew Nunn
The Laurence M. Gould left PuntaArenas Jan. 1 after a busy port call. Thedecks were piled high with cargo.
“Today was our reward with sunshineand calm seas, and warm enough to playcards on deck,” Nunn wrote.
The night turned foggy and the weatherworsened as they started taking water data.
The Gould arrived at Palmer Jan. 5 and
left again two days later on the annualLong Term Ecological Research cruise.
Nathaniel B. PalmerCompiled from ship reports by Ashley Lowe
The Nathaniel B. Palmer left the iceedge offshore of McMurdo Station on Jan.4, two days ahead of schedule thanks to atremendous effort by all involved.
The ship headed south to the Ross IceShelf after a 16-hour transit around ice-berg B-15.
The magnetometer was deployed oncethe ship passed through the pack ice inMcMurdo Sound.
Jan. 6 was an extremely busy day, high-lighted by an uncharacteristically trouble-free deployment of the multichannel seis-mic system. With seismic data rolling in,the Palmer headed to the primary studyarea — the location where iceberg B-15broke off the Ross Ice Shelf.
During that survey, some minor equip-ment problems and tangled lines requiredbringing all the equipment onboard. Thechief scientists decided to move on to asecond study area. However, about 21hours of seismic data were collected dur-ing the first survey.
The second survey, this time of theentire length of the Ross Ice Shelf, wasproceeding.
Continent6 • The Antarctic Sun January 11, 2004
From page 5
SHIPS
Photos by Renee Magyar/ Special to The Antarctic SunThe Mount Terror and Scott Base rugby football clubs unite for a photo Jan. 4, after theirmatch on a pitch made of packed snow. The Kiwis defeated McMurdo 27-0 on five tries andone converted kick. The annual for-fun meeting included fans, cheerleaders and a post-match barbecue dinner at Scott Base.
RUGBY AT SCOTT BASE
January 11, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 7
(LTER) program.Zoom out on the McMurdo Dry Valleys
LTER project and the white bulk of theTaylor Glacier will be one of the nextthings to come into focus.
The arching stream of ice flows aroundthe Cavendish rocks in a “U” shape, nar-rowing to a serrated tongue above LakeBonnie.
The Taylor Glacier is a vital linkbetween two intensively studied Antarcticenvironments. It drains from TaylorDome, where a 130,000-year ice-core cli-mate record has recently been extracted,and feeds into the Dry Valleys, a long-termecological research site.
Understanding how the Taylor Glacierflows and responds to changes in climatewill help researchers better understandboth the Taylor Valley ecosystem and theancient climate record from the TaylorDome.
“The Taylor Glacier flows into the DryValleys like an elephant coming into theroom: big and immovable,” Cuffey said.“The Taylor Glacier provides melt to keepthe lakes there.”
The glacier also affects the weather inthe Taylor Valley.
Work being done by Cuffey and histeam combines field research and numeri-cal modeling to put together this piece ofthe east Antarctic puzzle.
In their second field season, the team ismeasuring the thickness of the glacier,looking at what lies below it and trackingits changes, including flow and evapora-
tion rates.The four researchers are camping
around the Taylor Glacier for eight weeksto collect ice samples, record data andcarry out tests.
To estimate the age of the ice, Cuffeyand his team are collecting 2,000 ice sam-ples, taken 20 meters apart.
Riding snowmobiles across the pockedsurface of the glacier, they are findingstakes drilled into the ice last year. GlobalPositioning Satellite (GPS) technologywill help them measure how much theglacier has moved in the last 12 months.
The flow of the glacier is determined,in part, by the characteristics of the earthbelow. The researchers use radar to draw apicture of the land underneath the ice andmeasure its thickness.
Last year’s field season revealed the iceon the Taylor Glacier was 20 percentthicker than previously estimated .
“That means the way the glacier flowsis more of a viscous creep than we previ-ously thought,” Cuffey said.
Glaciers flow in several different ways.Earlier studies made researchers think theTaylor Glacier moved by sliding over therocky bed. When radar measurementsshowed thicker ice on the glacier, this toldCuffey that the thick glacier slowlyspreads under its own weight like a moundof molasses.
Tracking the evaporation rates is lesstechnical. Poles have been drilled into theice and as the surface evaporates, more ofthe pole is exposed.
On the Taylor Glacier, Cuffey said,“Mass is lost almost exclusively by evap-oration. There is a little bit of melt andthat’s what keeps the lakes full.”
To understand the environmental fac-tors that affect the glacier, the group hasalso installed five weather stations.
Through these measurements, Cuffey isputting together a snapshot of the currentstate of the glacier.
The aim is to collect enough informa-tion about the glacier to develop a numer-ical model that researchers can use topose “what if” questions.
What if the temperature rose 10degrees? How much more of the glacierwould melt and how would that impact thesurrounding area?
“Say you had a bell. If you don’t knowwhat it is, you might do things like whackit with a hammer to see what it would do,”Cuffey said. “The Taylor Glacier is thebell. The hammer is the climate and theringing is the geography.”
As a major force in the Dry Valley’secosystem, the future of the Taylor Glacieris of interest to all the area’s researchers.
“A glacier can change its position a lotover time,” Cuffey said. “Ecologistswould like to know more about how thatmight happen and what it might do in thefuture.”
NSF funded research in this story: Kurt Cuffey.University of California, Berkeley.
Left: Glaciologist Jeff Kavanaugh uses a snowmobile to collect surface ice samples from the Taylor Glacier. Right: One of the team’s threefield camps was on a small lake near the edge of the glacier.
Taylor From page 1
Photos by Marianne Okal / Special to The Antarctic Sun
8 • The Antarctic Sun January 11, 2004
By Peter RejcekSouth Pole correspondent
Chasing grizzlies, rebuilding cabins,pointing out wolves, bear, mooseand caribou to tourists … all typicaloff-Ice tasks for people who split
their year between work in Antarctica and theNational Parks.
“It’s a life of seasonality,” saidJeremiah Smith, a South Pole carpenterwho spends the rest of his year as a mem-ber of the Interagency Grizzly Bear StudyTeam at Yellowstone Park.
At South Pole, the contingentof people from the park in thenorthwest corner of Wyomingseems to be the largest, but manyother parks are also represented.There are at least a half-dozenParkies-turned-Polies, not count-ing everyone who has had even asmall connection with the nation-al parks back home. Any oneparks person here can name ahandful of others who have beenat Pole.
Dave Tashner worked on aturn-of-the-century cabin inColorado’s Rocky MountainNational Park. Mike Boyce givestours in Alaska’s Denali NationalPark. Pole carpenter KennyGough worked three summersoverseeing repairs and construc-tion at Canyon Lodge inYellowstone Park.
“I’m not much of a city per-son, I guess,” Gough said. “I likeliving close to nature.”
Like many of the other parkpersonnel who become Polies,Gough learned about the opportu-nity to head south through a friend whoworked at Pole.
“What he told me fascinated me, reallyexcited me … so I went for it,” Goughsaid.
In fact, at Yellowstone they hold partieswhere everyone is required to bring some-one who had been to or was going to theIce — Antarctica parties, according toEmma Fuller, who works in materials atPole. She’s been a Spanish translator atGrand Teton National Park and did oddjobs at Yellowstone when she wasyounger. This is her second season at Pole.
“You start to talk to people and itbecomes a small community,” she said.“When I was trying to find out aboutAntarctica … I knew nothing about it. So
I started talking to people at the park, andthey knew people who knew people whohad been.”
What is the common draw between awilderness filled with colorful plants andmajestic animals and a continent that’smostly barren, extremely cold and nearlybereft of life?
“I think it’s the sense of adventure,”said Ken Keenan, a South Pole utilitytechnician who works maintenance atYellowstone. “The people who come here
have the same sense of adventure as thepeople who go to Yellowstone. And every-one’s sense of adventure has a differentlevel. Some people are mountain climbers,some people just like hiking out on a trailand some people’s idea of adventure isrunning away from home. And the nation-al parks are an easy place to run to.”
Also, in both Antarctica and the parks,transportation, lodging and food are pro-vided, Keenan pointed out.
Many Polies agree that the parks attracta certain type of person — adventurers,risk-takers, explorers.
These are people who “love what theydo, they love the isolation,” said Smith,looking every bit the adventurer himself,
with his long, straw-colored hair andmatching beard.
They are drawn, as Gough was, by theinaccessibility.
“It’s the most remote, complete wilder-ness you’ll ever be in. And that’s whatattracted me,” Gough said.
Boyce fell in love with Denali NationalPark while traveling and working inAlaska during a summer break from hisjob in Philadelphia, Penn.
“I had incredible experiences at thepark. I was really blown awayby the place,” said the 39-year-old carpenter. “I met some reallygreat people. So I kept goingback … in a few years I startedconsidering it home.”
A self-proclaimed city boy,Boyce tutored himself in thepark’s history and ecology, andtoday serves as a tour guide atDenali.
“There are a lot of Denalipeople who come down here.It’s a word-of-mouth thing,”said Boyce, his face bronzedfrom working outdoors six daysa week.
The connection between Poleand parks is also one of timing.At many parks business is slowin the winter. The Antarctic sum-mer starts just as summer ends atYellowstone, where the seasonruns from May to October,Gough said.
“It’s perfect for coming downhere,” he said.
The need for money is anoth-er factor. Park wages are, onaverage, not very high, Tashnernoted. And those who work at
the parks and at Pole, he said, often pos-sess a variety of skills and talents — anecessity given the small workforce.
The trappings of a material lifestyle —house, property, cars — are often not pre-sent, said Fuller.
“You have nothing to tie you down,”said the 31-year-old avid traveler.
But perhaps the biggest factor thatbrings together such disparate worlds isthe people themselves.
“The communities are pretty similar,”Boyce said. “You run into the same like-minded people down here. The reason Ieventually called Denali home was thecommunity there. The reason I come backhere is the community.”
Carpenter Kenny Gough prepares to cut a piece of concrete boardduring construction at the new South Pole Station. During theother part of the year he works at Yellowstone National Park, oneof many Polies with a parks background.
From the parks to the PoleAdventurous workers split their year between two kinds of wilderness
By Peter Rejcek / Special to The Antarctic Sun
Literally hundreds of people overall atUnited States Antarctic Program stationsvolunteer their time and talents to add tothe culture of life in Antarctica. These area few of their stories.
By Brien Barnett and Kris KuenningSun staff
David Pacheco made a promise to hiswife who was back home forThanksgiving. He would volunteer towork in the McMurdo dining hall if shehelped out at a soup kitchen there. Itwould be their way to be together andgive back.
Come Thanksgiving night, there wasPacheco, a plumber by day, dressed in hisissued waterproof apron, rubber glovesand white hat, cheering on the staff.
“I did it to honor my mother and mywife, and to give back,” Pacheco said.“The people here work so hard. Theyexcel.”
The Alburquerque, N.M., resident wasone of several volunteers that day, andone of many throughout the season whopitched in to make the day a little easieron the kitchen and dining hall staff.
The spirit of volunteerism is essentialto the well-being of the community, saidMcMurdo Recreation Coordinator BillMeyer. Meyer and other managers rely on
volunteers, paid and unpaid, to supportthe quality of life at the station. There’salmost no way to measure the totalimpact since people help out all the timeand no one keeps track of it all.
“There are only four of us here in theoffice, and 1,000 people on station,”Meyer noted. “There’s no way we coulddo this by ourselves. It takes the entirecommunity sharing their interests andabilities to make this thing work.”
Jim Scott, Raytheon’s area director forMcMurdo Station, said volunteers fill thegaps and provide a benefit to the townand to the management.
“They pick up the areas where otherfolks back in the states take for granted,”Scott said.
With only two janitors, minimalkitchen staff and more than 200 people tofeed and clean up after, the South Poledepends heavily on volunteer labor.
Some of it is built into station life.Cleaning duties are rotated through dif-ferent workstations. Janitor Susan Webersaid the shared duties promote moreresponsible living for everyone.
“It was one of the reasons I felt com-fortable accepting the job here. I knew Icouldn’t keep up with 200-plus (people)unless they all helped,” Weber said.
When freshies or other supplies need
to be moved, an “all-call” on the P.A. sys-tem brings a chain of hands from all overstation. The Saturday after Thanksgivingis “manager cook day” when the station’sleaders give the galley staff a day off asthanks for a job well done.
The South Pole greenhouse, whichprovides the station’s only fresh foodover winter, is staffed completely by vol-unteers.
Without a designated recreationdepartment, the South Pole also dependson volunteers during workers’ time off.
Tae Kwon Do, yoga, and Spanishlessons are available because peopledonate their spare time to teach them.
The first South Pole short film festivalis scheduled for later this month. Headedby Brian Land, an Antarctic filmmakerand carpenter, and helped by filmmakersTom Piwowarski and Dave Carlson aregiving filming and editing workshops tothe station’s budding filmmakers. Theresults will be viewed and judged at thefestival.
Palmer Station depends on volunteersfor all levels of community events fromsafety and rescue to tourism to recre-ational activities.
Like South Pole station, Palmer does-
January 11, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 9
When residents give five, stations come alivePhoto by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun
David Schutt, an electricianapprentice from Denver, watchesfor the next bowling ball whileScott Karaus, who works forAviation Technical Services andis from Nebraska, resets pinsbehind the scenes at the two-lane McMurdo Station bowlingalley. Pin-setting is a paid posi-tion for those looking to pick upsome extra beer money or travelcash.
See Volunteers on page 10
10 • The Antarctic Sun January 11, 2004
n’t have full-time professional firefight-ers. The stations rely on volunteers fromthe community to fight fires, teach rescuetechniques and work on the search andrescue teams.
Tourism demands some time from thestation’s volunteer tour guides.Volunteers set up the displays for thetourists, work at the station store and talkwith the tourists after the tour. In one day,120 tourists can be led through a stationthat averages fewer than 40 residents at atime.
For the past three seasons, Palmerstaff member Barb Watson has either ledor participated in many craft workshopsincluding sessions on candlemaking,soapmaking, tie-dying, printmaking,batik, and even Palmer’s unique “fishprinting,” which uses the disposed car-casses of fish specimens from the sciencelab to create art.
Other efforts include the Sunday din-ner, dance lessons and exercise classes.The dinners are an important part of lifeat station and electrician Dan Weisblatthelps coordinate the weekly get together.Andres Martinez, a transplant from theSouth Pole, teaches Salsa Dance onMonday nights. Baker Wendy Beeler andKerry Kells, the station’s administrativeassistant, co-lead an exercise class tokeep people limber and to, in Beeler’swords, “take away my guilt for everyoneat Palmer Station gaining weight” fromher baked cookies.
Back in McMurdo, there’s no shortageof a need for volunteers. An annualWomen’s Soiree is an event entirely pro-duced by volunteers.
Shortly after the main group of peoplebegan arriving, Recreation’s Meyerrecruited night workers to offer tradition-al entertainment for the shift’s relaxationtime, which is when everyone else is atwork and unavailable. A small part of thestation services budget is reserved forvolunteers who get minimum wage forthe few hours a week they work, plustips, to run “day bar” at SouthernExposure, “day burger bar” once a weekat Gallagher’s pub, reset the pins and ballat the two-lane bowling alley, teach yogaand other courses and keep the java hotand movies showing at the Coffee House.
“Out of the 500 people I talk to at thejob fair, I may only hire one,” Meyersaid. “But the other 499 could easily behired by other departments and whenthose people show up on the Ice, I’mgonna remember them as the people whowere professional DJ’s, or owned yogastudios, or used to teach dance classesand I’m going to tap them for theirknowledge in these areas.”
McKenzie Winters is the station’slibrarian during the season. She hopes tocontinue to study library sciences backhome, so it was a natural fit to do it here.
A paid volunteer herself, Winters man-ages 19 other volunteers plus generalassistants who organize books and keepthe library open at odd hours. Winterssaid she’s had it easy this year.
“I’ve had more people sign up than Ican take,” she said. “And the people Ihave signed up are always there.”
The spirit of helping is strong , somuch so that sometimes people who areactually working get confused for volun-teers.
“Some people think we’re volunteers.It’s called a G.A.,” said Zondra Skertich,whose job description as general assistantmeans she could be anywhere doing any-thing.
When she’s not working, Skertichplays her stand-up electric bass with oth-ers. Bands and performances for stationresidents are common at all the bases.
Donnie Hughston lends his talents as aguitarist for jazz and rock shows and theChristmas party, but may also be knownfor his swift service at burger bar, wherehe gets tips.
“I get to kinda put a name to every-one’s face that I see all the time and putup a travel fund,” Hughston said.
Mike Achermann of Motley, Minn., is
in his first season in Antarctica. He worksnights for fleet operations. He signed upto bartend for day bar and learned from afriend here.
“It sure isn’t for the money,” he saidand chuckled.
Marianne Okal, who claims Chicagoas her hometown, said it’s the socialaspect of the Coffee House that promptedher to sign up. She said her favorite drinkto make is the cappuccino, which she firstlearned to make in France during her skibum years.
“I like making coffee drinks andmaybe I can bring a new coffee culture toMcMurdo,” Okal said. “I would do iteven if I wasn’t paid.”
Alejandro Nieto is a firefighter fromColorado by way of Spain. He countsamong his volunteer activities, divetend-ing, staffing the hyperbaric chamber,helping scientists fish for specimens aswell as bartending several nights a weekat Gallagher’s.
“You don’t expect anything, but some-times you get some benefits. (A trip toCape) Evans, little stuff like that,” Nietosaid.
He signed up for a trip to iceberg C16north of Ross Island where he helped sci-entists put in a research station.
“It was a nice gift but I was working,”he said.
Volunteers From page 9
See Volunteers on page 11
Chuck Kimball does gash duty at Palmer Station, in which people take turns cleaning thekitchen after meals.
Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun
January 11, 2004 The Antarctic Sun •11
Residents can’t play or party withoutthe right stuff and that means someonehas to be at Gear Issue. One volunteer,Amie Dziowgo from Lincoln, Neb., vol-unteers four of her lunch hours to loan outskis, party clothes, musical instrumentsand other gear.
“It’s a great way to meet people andit’s a great atmosphere and relaxed,” shesaid.
One of the oddest jobs around town ishelping reset the bowling pins and returnthe balls to players at the bowling alley.Brian Kliesen has been jumping off theplatform into the well to grab the heavypins and work the machine for the pastthree seasons.
“It’s fun, mainly, and a good workout,jumping up and down,” he said. “ It’s agood way to meet people.”
Ash Hoffman, from Alaska, drivesDeltas for sightseeing trips to CapeEvans. Hoffman worked in the dining hallduring his first season last year and likemost who work there had a yearning toget outside. Near the end of last season hesigned up for shuttle driver training and itturned into a job this year.
“It’s nice to have the opportunity tohelp other people who want to experiencesomething new,” he said. “It’s nice whenat the end they’re all smiles and happyand they’ve had a good trip.”
George Nuckols gives up a few hours aweek to certify people to use the climbingwall and sees his role pretty plainly.
“It’s pretty much the way things workhere,” he said. “Nothing’s gonna happenunless you do it.”
Sometimes volunteers need help.Damian Henning and Jen Petrik jumpedin to teach dance lessons to about 30 peo-ple at Gallagher’s bar after the originalinstructor was called away to the SouthPole.
“It’s better to have subs than no tangoat all,” Henning joked.
Each season, the station recruits volun-teers for its mass casualty team and drill,which simulates an accident requiring sig-nificant station resources.
Nearly 70 people signed up to helpcarry victims on stretchers, log injuries,donate bood and more. The volunteerswill be called out if there’s an actualemergency.
Back in the kitchen, Kitty Cupp, a jan-itor, helps in the pots and pans room.
“I love it when people help me out,”she explained.
Frank Rinaldo, a janitor and former AirForce base barber, and Maria Finley, thestation’s hairstylist, switch roles once aweek. Maria grabs the mop and bucketand Frank the shears.
“It’s a break from the routine,” Rinaldo
said.For Halloween and other big events
around town, firefighters team up to helpdecorate, tear down and clean up. It’s animportant if unseen job, Meyer said,because without it, there wouldn’t bethose kinds of large events, at least not asoften.
Vincent Scott works at the South Pole.There he and a friend offer Shakespearereadings and screenings of AcademyAward winning movies. He also learnedto lead the Catholic “Liturgy of the WordWithout Holy Communion Service” fromFather John Harrison, who was atMcMurdo earlier this season.
“We’re far away from home so offer-ing opportunities like this may help peo-ple spend their free time in productive andinteresting or fun ways,” Scott said.
McMurdo firefighter Peter Frost hadan interesting take on volunteering.
“I help out, but I mostly give backwhen I see a need. I might see someoneneeding help holding a door or with bagdrag,” Frost said, referring to the ordeal ofcarrying one’s bags up to the cargo stationbefore a flight. “We can all give at leastfive minutes of our time to help out.”
The Antarctic Sun’s Palmer correspon-dent Kerry Kells contributed to thisreport.
Volunteers From page 10
Photo by Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic Sun
Photo by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun
Above: David Pacheco, left, and Father Tony Harrison play a song in the Chapelof the Snows before evening Mass. Pacheco volunteers his time to play music dur-
ing services and helps out in the dining hall as a pot scrubber.Right: Every Sunday, Gack Giacalone and other volunteers prepare the week’s
bagels for the South Pole.
12 • The Antarctic Sun January 11, 2004
path to their nests each time they returnedfrom a foraging trip. These conditions per-sisted for the past three seasons and haveresulted in fewer chicks born than in theyears before.
Fewer chicks likely will cause theAdelie population to dip over the next fiveyears in the Ross Island area. However,the population of colonies elsewhere inAntarctica continues to grow, and thespecies is not threatened. Ainley alsoexpects most of the birds missing this yearto return to Royds or Crozier, though theywill be too late to mate.
Adelie penguins, once they have nestedat a given colony, will nest at the sameplace year after year. Cape Royds is theworld’s southernmost colony of Adeliepenguins and Cape Crozier is in a precari-ous spot, tucked at the eastern edge of theisland next to the Ross Ice Shelf.
This year, though, the icebergs arebreaking up and the sea ice edge hasretreated past Royds, creating a nearlyideal spot for the birds to nest and feed.
The scenario, as Ainley sees it, is thatwind has returned to the area after twocalm years. During winter and spring, coldtemperatures and wind promote sea ice.The ice grows outward and away from the
continent. Continual ice formation and itssubsequent flow south to north created asort of moving walkway. It’s good formigrating north at the end of the season inFebruary, but difficult for returning southto nest in September and October.
The birds were at their wintering area atthe northern edge of the large-scale icepack when it came time to return south.
“They were just much farther from thecolony when the sun rose, then they foundall this ice which slowed them down,”Ainley said,
The birds adapt quickly, Ainley said,because they rely on an instinct that getsthem stocked for the long trip and the needto return to their nests each year. But thatdoesn’t mean it’s easy to get back, espe-cially considering the great distancesresearchers now know the birds have totravel.
Last year, researchers placed small tagson a number of the birds to track theirlocation in relation to the sun. So far, theyhave recovered 17, of which 10 recordeddata. The data from one tag has been ana-lyzed, if only to see if the tag was workingwell, Ainley said. That tag showed the birdtraveled a loop of more than 6,500 kmfrom Crozier at about 77 degrees south lat-
itude to the sea ice edge and north as win-ter progressed — all the way to about 55degrees south latitude. A plot of the bird’strack showed it meandered quite a bit untilspring when it made a beeline back toCape Crozier to find its mate.
“We were pretty convinced that theyneeded to go as far north as they could tofind daylight and where there are amplespaces between ice floes, but that’s a pret-ty incredible distance,” Ainley said.
The compact, lightweight $150 tagsstore three years of data and are attachedto the legs where they are less likely toaffect the birds when swimming. Theygather data by recording date, time of dayand light level. That information is trans-lated into time of local noon anddaylength, which in turn can locate thebird on a map. Since the tags had to besmall, they presented a challenge to theresearchers who had to find them under-neath a fresh layer of feathers. When, ini-tially, they couldn’t find the tagged birds,the researchers thought maybe the tagshad killed or injured them.
“We were initially concerned it wouldbe a big block of ice,” Ainley said. “Webreathed a sigh of relief when we started
AdelieFrom page 1
See Adelie on page 13
Photo by Kris Kuenning / The Antarctic Sun
Adelie penguins nest at Cape Royds, with Mt. Erebus in the background.
January 11, 2004 The Antarctic Sun • 13
By Brien BarnettSun staff
Adelie penguin expert David Ainley’s assistant this season isCanadian wildlife biologist Louise Blight. Her work inAntarctica is an extension of previous studies of northernhemisphere seabirds in British Columbia. She’s based at
Cape Royds with Ainley and helps count and study the birds. “It’s such a rich environment and it’s a great time to be here in sum-
mer, when there’s such a huge burst of life in such a short period oftime,” Blight said. “For a biologist, it’s a great place to be.”
Ainley and Blight spend the season camped in a rocky alcove nearthe cape, far enough away to not disturb the colony, but close enoughto walk to it. Wind at the cape this year has been strong, but Blight’slittle mountaineering tentand the main Jamesway-style mess tent whereAinley sleeps haveendured it well.
The extremes of thecontinent are not new toBlight. She spent six sea-sons working on touristcruise ships in thePeninsula area, giving lec-tures about wildlife andoperating Zodiac boats aswell as putting in timeinventorying birds andother seabirds.
“I’ve been a birdwatch-er since I was a kid,” Blight said, recalling when she used to keep ajournal detailing when swallows returned to their nests near her home.
Back at Cape Royds, Blight spends time at all hours among theAdelies, noting their interesting behaviors.
“Walking through the colony it’s interesting to see the birds’ differ-ent reactions,” Blight said. “Some ignore you and others charge rightup to your boots … being territorial.”
After this season, Blight said she plans to apply to doctoral pro-grams and will draw on her time spent on the Ice.
“It’s a great opportunity for any biologist to come and work downhere,” she said.
Canadian researcher Louise Blight is atCape Royds to study the Adelie penguins.
finding them.The research team hopes again this season to tag 15
birds at each colony with the sun detectors and installanother set of satellite monitors and normal leg bands totrack their progress.
NSF funded research in this story: David Ainley, H.T. Harvey &Associates, www.penguinscience.com
AdelieFrom page 12
Following the birds
Adelie penguin researcher DavidAinley holds a geo-location sys-tem tag inside his hut at CapeRoyds. The tag is used to track apenguin's movements throughoutthe year.
What’s the best item you’ve ever found in skua?
Amanda Betz, South Pole cargo fromCheyenne, Wyoming,
second season
Lisa “Skua Queen”Keller,
McMurdo fuel opera-tor from Buffalo, N.Y.,
sixth season
“Two years agoat McMurdoI found these
handknit multi-color booties. I actually usedthem as aHalloween costume.”
Steve Barten,Palmer Station logis-tics from New Prague,
Minnesota, secondseason
“Pickle in apouch. It was alittle sticky onthe outside, butthe pickle insidewas still intact.”
“Silk Japanesebathrobe, downNorth Face jack-et and Julbosunglasses.”
Photos by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic SunPhoto by Brien Barnett / The Antarctic Sun
14 • The Antarctic Sun January 11, 2004
Prof i leBy Kristan HutchisonSun staff
The Santiago airport is Jimmy AgustinVidela’s turf. For 23 years Videla hasworked at the Chilean airport, mak-
ing sure people and cargo for the Antarcticprogram move smoothly through the for-eign port. He greets the women with kisses,the men with a firm handshake and knowseverybody’s name.
“We call him the mayor of the airportbecause he knows everybody,” said marineprojects coordinator Alice Doyle.
When a flight arrives with Antarctic par-ticipants, he’s there to meet it and hustle thepeople past immigration and customs witha wave of the passports.
“From my long time working at the air-port we have access inside immigration.This is very important,” Videla said, stir-ring five packets of sugar into his coffee atan airport bar. “In my case, it’s not corrup-tion, it’s for friend of the program,Antarctic … All the bosses to customsunderstand my job.”
Videla also understands his job andpractically lives it.
“He’s in that airport all day long,” saidmarine projects coordinator Skip Owen.“He’s always got a cell phone in his ear.”
When Videla isn’t at the airport, hesometimes brings work to his home, 45minutes away. His wife, Rommy, helps himout and handles the e-mail. They have twosons, Agustin and Thomas, and are expect-ing a third child in March.
Until 1992 there was only one flight aday from Santiago to Punta Arenas, so peo-ple heading to the Antarctic had to spendthe night in Santiago. Videla would drivethem to the city, playing tour guide anddirecting people to stores and restaurants.
“I remember three to four people stayingin my home when there is no hotel,” Videlasaid, the patterns of his native Spanish car-rying over into his accented English.
Many of the participants from that timebecame his friends and still send letters.
“Jimmy’s been around forever,” Owensaid. “He was working before I started. Hewas sort of an airport runner at the time.”
Back then fewer people were flying toChile for the Antarctic program anyway.Until 1992 the program ship was the PolarDuke, which carried 45 people, includingcrew. The Nathaniel B. Palmer replaced theDuke in 1992, with space for 65 passengersand crew. Then the Laurence M. Gould wasadded in 1997 with room for 52.
Helping people through the airport isonly half of Videla’s job. He also keepstrack of 150 to 200 pieces of Antarctic pro-
gram cargo a month, mostly supplies goingsouth and samples going north. Some of theitems are delicate instruments or samplesrequiring special handling.
“They take the penguin, they take thewater, they take rock, put in glass in the boxand send back,” Videla said.
Cargo coming south used to be a partic-ular problem because there was only onecargo flight a day and it went throughMiami, Videla said. Items for the Antarcticprogram were flying from LA to Miami andthen being delayed, sometimes longenough to hold up the ship schedule or missthe boat completely. Videla lobbied the air-line to change the flight patterns and final-ly they were able to add on a direct cargoflight from LA to Santiago.
The U.S. Antarctic Program also has anexemption allowing it to take 200 kilos ofdry ice on a flight. Videla checks all thesamples in Santiago and repackages them ifnecessary. Several times Doyle’s called onVidela to get time-sensitive cargo throughcustoms on a holiday.
“He’s been really good about pushingcargo through for us,” Doyle said. “He’salways able to smooth things out and henever seems to burn bridges.”
Once a scientist was sending back anumber of Antarctic sea creatures pre-served in jars. They looked like the creaturefrom “Alien” and the customs official wasafraid the glass would break in transit,releasing the “Antarctic aliens.”
Videla put the jars inside plastic caseswith absorbent packing material and con-vinced the customs official they could ship
safely that way.“Every time when I have problem there
is immediately a solution,” said Videla.Often the solution involves a favor from
a friend, which is why Videla fosters somany friendships.
“It’s part of my job to invite all the time,for breakfast, lunch or a little boat my com-pany has in Valparaiso,” Videla said.
It’s really no different than how otherorganizations work, networking and devel-oping friendly relations that promote thebusiness, Owen said.
“There’s a joke and assumption that hedoes it by greasing people’s palms, butthat’s not really true,” Owen said. “Givingrespect gets respect and I think that’s whatJimmy does.”
Videla called in several favors whenDoyle lost her passport just before herflight back to the U.S. It was late on aFriday afternoon, so the U.S. Embassy inSantiago was closed. Doyle assumed she’dbe stuck in Santiago for several days whileher passport was being replaced, but withinfour hours Videla spoke to a friend inimmigration and got the chief of police towrite a letter. Doyle recalls Videla walkingher to the ticket counter.
“He looks at me and says ‘Alice, let medo the talking’,” she said.
Videla convinced the airline to let Doyleboard and she made it home without prob-lems or delays.
“It was totally Jimmy’s connections thatenabled him to do that,” Doyle said. “That’show it works down there. He treats themwell and they treat him well.”
Jimmy Austin Videla greets Antarctic workers at the Santiago Airport to guide them throughimmigrations and customs to their next gate.
