I'm fishin'!!!

Sara and I were the lucky winners of a working fishing trip out to Cape Evans this afternoon. We met up with the Petzel's fishing group in the Crary Science lab and then loaded up into the Piston Bully for the long ride out to Cape Evans. It was a bouncy ride, but it was fun to chat and laugh on the way out. This was my first real fishing experience in my whole life so I was pretty excited about it all. Once we arrived at Cape Evans we went in to one of their fishing huts and right there in the fishing hole, just a few inches below the surface of the water was a gorgeous jelly fish just hanging out swimming around in there. Very pretty. This wasn't where we'd be fishing though as we were drilling new holes out today and moving the huts. Apparently the fish know better, stop coming to the same place and they have to move the huts every so often. The guys with the big machines were already out there and ready to go. Ann and Jill chose the spot they wanted to drill and the auger began it's work. It was very impressive to watch and see how easily the four foot auger can drill through the five to six feet of ice and clear a new hole. They start to drill down and we had to stand to the side ready to shovel the ice shavings out of the way to make channels from the center of the hole. Once they get down through the ice and into the water they keep the auger turning and pull it back up out of the hole. This pulls out all the snow and ice and leaves a nice clean hole with just water to fish in. The channels that we shoveled out then make little canyons for the icy, snowy water to run out of rather than back into the hole where we'd have to scoop it all out. As the auger is doing it's thing turning under the surface but not yet in the water it looks like it's a creature alive and gurgling about. It was really fun to watch and get to play in it too. The first two holes that were drilled were too shallow or on an area of shallow ground and the auger was hitting bottom. Luckily the second two were both good. After the holes are drilled the machine guys unhook the auger machine that is towed by a big caterpillar plow. They then plow the drilled ice away from the hole and then drag the huts off the old spots and over the new fishing holes. While Ann, Jill and the guys did the hut moving Sara and I walked up to Scott's Cape Evans hut with another woman Claudia who was on the trip. It was a cold day and the wind was bitter, strong and biting. We pushed through it and made it up the hill to the cross and then inside unless you have a trained tour guide to escort you through. We just walked around the exterior and were able to peek inside one of the windows a little bit. The huts are full of artifacts and kept pretty much the way they were found. All along the hillside are old wooden crates that once held food and meandered down towards the hut itself. It's amazing to think about how long these old explorer huts have been here and how rugged you'd have to be to have one of the original explorers on the continent. All of the huts are historic monuments so you aren't allowed other supplies. You can still see the cans all packed in the crates but they have obviously been quite weathered over time. It's incredible though how intact so many of the items are. Also on the sea side of the hut is the large ships anchor buried in the ground. I'm going to have to read up but I think the story was that part of the expedition were inside the hut when a storm came. Once it let up and then went outside their boat was gone and they were stranded. Again, I could be totally wrong on this historical account. After our little tour we wandered back out to the huts crossing the snow and sea ice. It's a little tricky as there are many coastal cracks that you must watch for and the ice was very slippery. Claudia was pretty tired from the uphill walk in the wind and was feeling a little uneasy about the ice walk. I held her hand and guided her back out to the fishing huts. She's a cute lady who's 59 years old and came down here with the support of her husband and grown kids. What an adventure she's having. She's pretty proud of herself as she should be.

Back out on the sea ice, the huts were nestled happily in their new locations. We went inside where they had already begun the fishing. I went over to Ann who handed me a line. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it but they quickly explained about bouncing the bait around a little on the bottom and then pulling when you felt something bite. The fish that we were fishing for are called Trematomus bernacchii. The scientists are doing research on the antifreeze glycopeptides within the fishes bodily fluids to study how they survive in the 28.65 degree Fahrenheit environment of the Antarctic and McMurdo Sound without allowing ice crystals to form in their bodily fluids. They'll die of heat at 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit which is the lowest known heat death temperature of any animal. Bernacchii are bottom dwellers which are pretty small and consequently so are the lines. It's a simple string of fishing filament with a hook on the bottom and two metal nuts a couple of inches above the hook. The filament is wrapped around a piece of styrofoam and you just hold onto the filament with your fingers. Very simple set up. Once one of the guys told me I'd caught one I pulled it up and it was just a little guy, about four inches long. I was excited until Ann told me to grab him and hold onto him so I could take the hook out. I wasn't prepared for all this and will admit I was a little nervous. I was brave and grabbed hold of the little fella. I was nervous that I'd drop him and scared about trying to take the hook out. I realized right away that holding him was enough for me and so asked Ann to take the hook. She said, "Hey, you caught him in the eye!" to which I did the involuntary whole body shiver. Every time she moved the hook his little eyeball would move in and out too. I was freaking out, in a controlled manner of course. Then she says, "Eeww, he just vomited!" at which point I nearly joined him in that activity. It was a wretching moment for us both I'm afraid. She got the hook out and I dropped him in the cooler and then noticed that there was a nasty something on my glove. I freaked out for sure at this and was certain it was a baby of the nasty, creepy, slimy worm things that are all over the bottom of the sea. I'll admit I squealed. Everyone else there was laughing so hard and trying not to cry. Ann got me a towel to wipe it off on. Although I was a bit relieved that it was not a worm thing it was still horrid that I had fish vomit all down my hand. I was assured that it's common for the fish to vomit when they are stressed but it still was ooky. I think it was a pretty traumatic experience for both me and the little fishy. After the first fish I got more brave but still wasn't ready to remove the hooks. I did finally towards the end remove a hook on my own and it truly was as nasty as I thought it would be. I think it was the popping sound that was the worst. Pretty sure I don't ever need to eat a fish that I caught myself. I prefer it to come wrapped in plastic seated on a styrofoam tray or bundled up all cozy in some paper from the fish market. This all goes back to my issues with food still having body parts when I eat it. Just can't do it... Anyhow, it was pretty funny, hysterical actually, and I wish that I'd had the whole thing on video. Schade. Between the group we caught 25 fish and one sea star (Sara got him on accident) which we took pictures with and then returned to the sea. We loaded everything up into the Piston Bully and began the journey back to town. We carried the big cooler of fish into the Crary aquarium and scooped them up counting them into their new temporary home. When the fish are in the holding tanks in the aquarium they swim to the surface and bob like they are trying to launch out and be free. It's odd and I'm told it is not a natural behavior for them to ever do this. No one knows why they do, but I suspect they are confused about not having ice above them. Hmmm, any ideas? Before leaving the aquarium Sara and I visited all the other creatures that are living there. Lots of sea stars, sea urchins, fish and other things in various stages of development. The cutest was the little tank of baby sea stars and sea star eggs. The look just like the noodles in Chicken & Stars soup and are about the same size. I don't imagine that they'd taste too great though.