Salt Water 01

Somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean.ryan@reisinger.co.zawww.reisinger.co.za

We encoutered some heavy weather on the way down to Marion (TOP), delaying our arrival by a day and meaning this sign (BOTTOM) took my fancy.

For the next year I’ll be on Marion Island - a tiny speck of land in the vast Southern Ocean. I spent a year here in 2008-

2009 and I’m here as a ‘Sealer’ again, doing field research on southern elephant seals, Antarctic and sub-Antarctic fur seals and killer whales. The work on killer whales will form the basis of my PhD at the University of Pretoria’s Mammal Research Institute.

These ‘newsletters’ (I’ve used the plural, but don’t count on too many) will let you know I’m alive and will let me share a few words and images from the island. I blame my procrastination in writing on the creative dead end I initially encountered when trying to think of a title for these newsletters. I’ve chosen ‘Salt Water’ because of the following paraphrase from Isak Dinesen’s ‘The Deluge at Norderney’: the cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea. Its inscribed on the first page of our Sealer work plan and describes well what we’ll experience through the year.

There are 18 members of M68 - the 68th Marion Island overwintering expedition - each with a varying background and job description. I’m proud to work with three other Sealers: Chris (who is also from the Mammal Research Institute and was a Sealer in 2007-2008) Christiaan and Mendel.

The first month on the island is known as ‘takeover’ and during it the old year team hand over their responsibilities to the new team, various scientists that aren’t based here for the year do fieldwork and our year’s provisions are flown from the SA Agulhas to the island. There are generally no re-supply voyages, so the next time we expect to see the Agulhas is April 2012. We’ll be the first team to spend a year in the fresh orange, 6 thousand square meter, R265 million new base.

Ryan

Katedraalkrans hut, looking towards the interior of the island.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Chris and Nico release a fur seal after deploying a satellite tag. Nico at Kildalkey hut. The Kamov helicopter and SA Agulhas bid us farewell. Fire fighting training in Cape Town.