With the sea ice keeping the ship so stable, we have had a very good
success rate with our sampling. Aside from the occasional rock in the
boxcore and an issue with the Tucker trawl, we have had textbook perfect
samples. We've been super busy getting all of the sediment seived and
jarred, the animals dissected and sorted, and the flux chambers fluxing.
We finished station F in a mere 40 hours and should be done with station E
by early tomorrow morning.

Right now at station E (-65* 56.686' ; -067* 18.706') We are at the edge of
the sea ice extent. We still have patches of pancake ice, but we are in
mostly open water. Still, we are surrounded by ice on 3 sides, and the
wind is low, so the seas are dead calm. It's a balmy -2*C outside, and
everything is going fine.

There really isn't a whole lot new to report, but there are some great
pretty photos, so we'll end this post with a few. Be sure to write us,
either by leaving comments on the blog or using our @nbp.usap.gov
addresses. We'd love to hear from you!


Megacorer being deployed into a hole in the sea ice.


Shadows of the boxcorer. Dr. Dave gives the thumbs up.



Spectacular sunset at Station F. The sunsets last almost an
hour at these high latitudes. Every 10 minutes renews the thought, "That's
the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen!"


Same sunset, 15 minutes later. The colors are no trick of the
camera.


Station F blake trawl got us a whole lot of Protelpedia sp.,
endearingly known to this group as Sea Pigs.


Dr. Paulo Sumida meets a rogue sea spider. Both parties were
stunned by the event, but seem to be getting better.


The ladies in the lab are usually running samples at a dizzying
pace, but you just gotta take a break for ice cream cake!