MAC OPS AND FISH.

Mac Ops Training

McMurdo Station - aka Mac Town is full of an array of operations that require communications. For those of us in the field, anywhere off of or on the base, radio communication is a distinct part of daily life. This is a family picture of us in the Mac Ops (McMurdo Operations) headquarters completing our communications training.

An image from inside Mac Ops below. A very old school military-esque sort of set up. For non-familiar civilian scientists such as myself it's quite impressive actually.

Below | A conversation regarding relay towers and appropriate channels of communication depending upon location. Again, fascinating and applicable information that I'd likely never have come across elsewhere. It seems obvious that a mountain range or a glacier or a volcano as a physical body would be able to block radio waves, but the consequences have literally never occurred to me until now, when I realize that particularly in an emergency, we need to know where we are, what relay station is nearest and what radio channel to access accordingly in order to contact our only line back to rescue teams and civilization at large. 

After Mac Ops training we head out for our first fishing trip to a Hut just off of the station. It's a 'short distance' but actually quite physically exerting getting there with our huge, heavy, awkwardly fitting extreme weather clothing, required extra gear and fishing implements carried by hand or on our person. 

 Le Sock! My Big Red matches is hair.

I caught my first fish EVER, the first on the team - and I believe, the first of the season - in Antarctica!!! That is a typical Bernie as we call them - Trematomus bernacchii.

 Below | Gone fishin' ... this is the inside of one of the huts, Hut 19, I believe, near the Observation Tube (below the ice in the ocean) about 20 feet away or so, just off of McMurdo Station in the jetty. Four or five people can comfortably fish with these lines around a dive hole of this size without getting too mangled and tangled.

Below |This is a dive hole that was melted previously. Sometimes, seals come up for a breath of air scaring the fish away - or eating them. You can see the bottom of the plastic tube almost reaching the water's surface. There is a heat supply in the hut, hot air rises and the idea is to let the fan at the top of this tube suck in the warm air and blow it down to the ice hole in an attempt to keep it open. Despite this attempt, you can see it slowly closing up, but it helps to dramatically slow the pace. Before dropping lines, we have to use a net to scoop up the ice formation on the top of the water, which also helps to keep the fish from injury as they are exposed to the uppermost layers upon capture. Believe it or not, the water found below, is actually much warmer than it often is on the surface. The ice crystals found as this air/water/ice interface attempts to heal and enclose is quite a dangerous exposure for the fish species below. Clearing the ice constantly forming at the surface of the water not only helps to keep the hole open for longer and makes it easier for fishing, but is also safer for the animal upon collection.

Above |  The view from the hut including a lovely United States Antarctic Program (USAP) water bottle.

Below | How we keep the huts warm. It's oh, SO lovely when these puppies are working... and oh, SO cold when they aren't.

Isaac and Dan headed back with our transport vessel - a cooler containing ice cold sea water and ice cold fish.

Below | me enjoying the reflection of the sun on the crisp icy snow. 

This is the vehicle speed limit in town. And yes, McMurdo Station is often referred to as a town by those that occupy this space for whatever period of time. It's very difficult to maintain the roadways with the weight of the vehicles. Going much faster than 5 mph (speeding!) quickly degrades the quality and function of the roads, which are an everlasting source of work, cost and frustration for those who attempt to maintain them for functional use.