13 December, 2000

FYI answer for 12/12/00

Weddell seals have been known to hold their breath up to 82 minutes. They have the greatest degree of sight amongst seals. They hunt for food in almost total darkness. They eat fish and squid and occasionally krill. Their largest predator, the leopard seal, stays out on the pack ice, so there is less danger during the Austral spring.

It felt like moving day. In a sense, it was. We got up early today because we were expecting the big tractors to be pulling in to take the huts back into McMurdo today. We did finish much of the work of packing yesterday. We still needed to eat breakfast and pack up the little things, which turned into two hours of work. It also turned out that we were dropped from today's agenda to be pulled in because of another camp's delay in being pulled. With most of our living necessities packed, we were not going to stay another day. We decided to take in what we could and leave the rest to be pulled in with the huts.

We loaded the Spryte full and I got my first real chance to drive it. It is just slow going. The rest of the group, minus Mike and I, left on the snowmobiles. I took off and then Mike followed me on his own Snowmobile. The end still never felt in sight for me, though. I just felt it was another opportunity. We arrived in time for lunch at the Galley and then together we made a few stops with things that we had been able to pile in the Spryte. It did take most of the day to unload the trash and recycling that we brought in, the personal things we each had, and the more fragile lab things we brought in instead of leaving them in the huts.

I returned to the dorms to do laundry. I wanted to get all of the ECW washed and ready for our departure on Monday. Since I had done a lot of laundry over the weekend I didn't have many of myown things t do. There seem to be quite a few people packing up for a flight that will leave for Christchurch tomorrow. I am not sure that it is just because projects are finishing that people are leaving. It is also because some of the scientists will leave for the holidays and return in the late summer season.

FYI

_________ have been banned from Antarctica to protect the seal population. It is feared that the ________ population might catch distemper. Dogs were used to pull ____________ sleds by many of the early expeditions in Antarctica. The dogs were fed ________ and penguin meat.