Don't Eat Chilean Sea Bass

Every Thursday and Sunday evenings in McMurdo there are lectures, mostly given by the scientists working on the ice. This follows a long tradition in polar travel and exploration. Scott and his men had weekly lectures as well. They knew that to survive, or even thrive, on the ice they needed to keep their minds active.

When I was in McMurdo, David Ainley ("A Letter from Cape Royds" in Antarctica: Life on the Ice) gave a fascinating lecture on the fragile Antarctic ecosystem. I came away with many ideas, a vast appreciation for our planet and the determination never again to eat Chilean Sea Bass (which I had eaten; it's delicious). During the virtual tour someone emailed in a question about whether it's ok to eat "sustainable" Chilean Sea Bass. My first thought was that it is not possible to have "sustainable" Sea Bass, since it is a fish that begins to breed only when it is twelve years old. For a more in-depth answer, I turned once again to David. Here is what he has to say:

"The basic deal is that Chilean Sea Bass (also known as Antarctic toothfish) are major players in the Ross Sea ecosystem: they eat a lot of what penguins eat, both Emperors and Adelies. They're also eaten by competitors of the penguins, the killer whales and Weddell seals. With and without the CSB there's competition for food, in this case the Antarctic silverfish. Hard to say how the imbalance will be struck once CSB are removed, but all the other marine ecosystems on Earth have been broken by similar depletions of big fish near the top of the pyramid (e.g., cod, salmon, swordfish, tuna etc).

There is no such thing as a 'sustainable' CSB. It's just not ecologically nor mathematically possible, when 50+ year old fish are being removed and they don't even begin to produce young until 12 and likely not in quantity until several years later. The management strategy of CCAMLR (Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources)is to reduce the Ross Sea CSB population by 50% in 35 years. That's not sustainable fish management but rather sustainable fishery biologist management, because none of these fishery managers will even be alive by then. The 'certification' that recently has been applied to CSB fishing (off South Georgia, and now a move afoot to certify the Ross Sea) by the Marine Seafood Council is only because not many birds are caught in the longlines. This has been a major problem for longline fisheries in lower latitudes, especially with albatross and giant petrels. However, it appears, owing to severely depressed populations at breeding colonies farther north (because of longline mortality), there no longer are any giant petrels or albatross that frequent the Ross Sea. Their numbers have contracted closer to the colonies. Thus, you could not catch one on a longline if you even tried, at least in the Ross Sea.

So, that's the story.

Don't eat one. Bad karma."

Antarctic Meteorites

One question we got for the virtual tour was this:

Where can I get genuine Antarctic meteorites? Is there anyone who ships them to the US?

As it turns out, Christopher Cokinos, one of the contributors to Antarctica: Life on the Ice has an essay in the collection about searching for meteorites on the polar plateau. The photo here shows researchers on snowmobiles, combing the ice for meteorites. One of them could be Chris. I post this photo so you can get a sense of how vast the landscape is, especially when you are looking for something as small as a meteorite (see the next photo).

Chris is the editor of one of my favorite journals, Isotope, which publishes literary essays focused on science and the natural world. Chris is just finishing a book on meteorites, titled, The Fallen Sky: A Private History of Shooting Stars, to be published by Tarcher/Penguin in the fall of 08 or Spring of 09--I'll keep you posted. Here, then is his response about buying Antarctic meteorites:

(This is not a photo of Chris, but rather of Associate professor Dante Lauretta, from the University of Arizona--where I got my MFA--who was a member of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program. Those meteorites are small, no?)

From Chris Cokinos, answering the question if you can buy Antarctic meteorites: The answer is essentially no.  You can't buy the meteorites collected by

the U.S. government-sponsored teams.  However, there are some Antarctic meteorites

in collections around the world that were not so gathered.  Potentially,

one could see such a specimen for sale.  I see some for sale every once in

awhile.  The price could vary wildly, and I would be extremely wary of

so-called Antarctic meteorites for sale, unless they are being offered by

respected dealers.  There's a group called the International Meteorite Collectors

Association, and though some very fine dealers may choose not to belong,

those that do are to uphold high standards of practice.  But I'd reiterate

that the meteorites collected by ANSMET--the Antarctic Search for Meteorites--are

in the public domain.  They go to the Johnson Space Center and to the Smithsonian

where they are described and made available for free for researchers around

the world.  Members of ANSMET understand that theirs is a team activity and

that no meteorites--not even a tiny fleck of one--belong to us individually.

There are no tokens, no treasure hunts.  In the course of my research, I

did come across allegations that in the past various people (pilots, others)

had "poached" meteorites; I won't name names and I didn't pursue the gossip,

but it seems reasonable enough.  Also, there have been private meteorite-gathering

trips and "observing" trips; I wouldn't be surprised if some such specimens

might make it to the marketplace.  But ANSMET's lead scientist, Ralph Harvey,

does a bang-up job of making sure the ANSMET members and all the support

personnel understand there are no souvenirs.

Because here's the real

treasure story: what these meteorites tell us about the solar system.  ANSMET

is the only reliable source of extra-planetary materials going.  Until sample

returns from the asteroid belt are commonplace, this will remain so.   Just

today I read about a presentation concerning the famous ALH84001 meteorite--this

was the meteorite that a decade ago a scientific team said might contain

Martian microfossils.  That meteorite, according to Science magazine, really

launched the whole field of astrobiology.  In the meantime, the vast majority

of the scientific community has come to dismiss the claims of Martian microfossils.

But today another group of researchers has found evidence that this meteorite

contains the building blocks of life--various organic materials--though not

life itself.  If this result holds up, it's huge.  It would be the first

confirmation of an environment on Mars (very cold but volcanic) in which

life's building blocks formed.

After my trip to Antarctica I had a

chance to visit the curation facilities at JSC, where Kevin Righter's staff

showed me ALH84001.  It's the perfect example of the ironies of meteorites.

If you didn't know any better, it would like like a chunk of worn driveway.

But knowing what it might contain and knowing it had been blown off Mars

to land on the polar plateau...well, that's pretty damn cool.  And now it

might lead us to places on Mars where we could find life's remains--or maybe

living microbes.

Thanks Chris! for this marvelous explaintion.

Blog Talk Radio!

We did it! Katy Jensen called in from Colorado Springs, Guy Guthridge hopped off his boat long enough to phone in, and  Karen Joyce and David Ainley called in from the Ice for the  virtual book tour. My first ever. It was a fun experience and I could have talked all night with these four writers who contributed to Antarctica: Life on the Ice. We covered a lot of topics--climate change, sunrise at the South Pole, penguins and their lives and the fact that it's now 40 degrees in McMurdo (warmer than here in New York). You can listen to the interview by visiting my website. There were more questions than we could answer so I'll try and tackle a few here in the next few days. In the meantime, here's one response from my friend Sue Pierce, from Philadelphia:

"The virtual book tour thing was really cool to listen to. . . it

helped me understand better why so many of the essays in your book

sound so heartbroken, why there are planes taking off from the Ice full

of people sobbing. It's kind of amazing, because when I got the book

and started reading it, the last thing I expected was stories filled

with heartsick longing for a place seemingly so inhospitable to humans.

And the funny stories were a surprise, too. Since I was raised on tales

of Scott of the Antarctic and later Shackleton, I figured Antarctica

was all about noble sacrifice and freezing digits off and eating sled

dogs."

Thanks for this, Sue! Any other comments are welcome!

In the Antarctic Ocean

When I traveled to Antarctica, working on finding writers to contribute to Antarctica: Life on the Ice (then just a hope in my heart and an idea in my head), I spent a night in Christchurch, New Zealand. There, I shared a hotel room with a complete stranger, Julie Rose, a scientist who was heading out to research on the Nathaniel B. Palmer. I tracked down Julie recently to find out what she's doing and how her research is coming along. It wasn't hard to find her, since she works at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the world's largest private, nonprofit, ocean research, engineering, and education organization. Read on to hear about Julie's experiences on a research vessel and to get a sense of polar ocean research.

"I met Susan in 2004 when we were roommates in Christchurch before departing for the Antarctic.  Susan and I parted ways shortly after we met, when she left for the ice by air and I set sail from nearby Lyttelton onboard the RVIB (Research Vessel Ice Breaker) Nathaniel B. Palmer.  The Palmer, or NBP according to Raytheon lingo, is one of the vessels commissioned by the National Science Foundation for ocean-based research in the Antarctic.  The ship can break through several feet of sea ice and is able to navigate through the rough, stormy weather common to the Southern Ocean. The NBP can hold up to 37 scientists and 22 crew members, and has lab benches, cold rooms, wet labs, computer labs and even a stockroom of common lab (and craft) supplies.  As far as research vessels go, the NBP, its crew and the Raytheon support staff are first-rate, which makes research cruises (relatively) easy and (relatively) less stressful.

Working on a ship is very rewarding but at times frustrating and difficult.  As with any field research, an enormous amount of time goes into planning and preparation.  When the weather is bad, not only can no samples be collected, but often no work can be done in labs because the ship’s motion makes it too dangerous (or the researchers are too seasick!)  At the same time, research cruises are incredibly productive, intense and often exciting.  A huge amount of work and data get collected in a short period of time, and a tight community forms, with 60 people working, eating and sleeping together on a roughly 300 foot long ship for over a month.  I’ve found that a lot of great ideas and new, unexpected collaborations can form on research cruises as people with very different backgrounds and perspectives interact on a daily basis.  And while research cruises are typified by intense periods of work, people still find time for fun and creative activities.  Whether making birthday costumes for fellow passengers, conducting knitting and language classes, watching movies from the huge selection of DVDs available on the ship, or even the occasional rendezvous with international research vessels, the spirit of community on a research vessel makes the time fly by.

I have been on five cruises to the Ross Sea, Antarctica on the NBP with two separate projects.  I am a microbiologist and ecologist, and am interested in the microorganisms living in the coastal ocean that surrounds the Antarctic continent.  A lot of people think of biology in the ocean in terms of a food chain: the phytoplankton are microscopic plants harvesting the sun’s energy, they get eaten by krill, who get eaten by fish, who get eaten by whales or penguins or seals.  However, there is actually a dynamic and fascinating food web of predators, prey and recyclers just within the microbes themselves.  I’m very interested in how this microbial food web may be affected by changes that scientists have predicted for the future ocean, including such seemingly disparate (but actually closely linked) factors such as temperature, CO2, iron concentrations and light. 

The Ross Sea is a wonderful place to do research in microbial ecology because it is the home of one of the largest annual blooms of phytoplankton in the world.  It may seem surprising that plankton can thrive in what we perceive as a hostile, forbidding environment.  But every year, when daylengths get longer and light levels increase, this nutrient-rich region becomes a hotbed of microbial activity.  The phytoplankton blooms that regularly form are populated by either Phaeocystis antarctica (a small flagellated microbe that can form colonies big enough to see with the naked eye) or a mixed assemblage of diatoms (a diverse group of microbes enclosed in shells of silica, that can range in size over several orders of magnitude).  Scientists aren’t sure why these two types of phytoplankton grow to such high abundance in the Ross Sea every year, or what causes one to dominate the other in different areas of the Ross Sea, but understanding these two questions will be very important to understand the biology and chemistry of Antarctica’s coastal oceans."

Thanks, Julie, for letting us in on your research!

Blogs and websites from some of the Antarctic cruises:

http://www.whoi.edu/sbl/liteSite.do?litesiteid=2530

http://www.vims.edu/bio/corsacs/cruise_2006.html

http://www.esf.edu/antarctica/ross.htm

http://biogeochemistrylab.disl.org/artic/artic.htm