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ISPOL 2004-5 |
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Diary of Half a Dutchman (Hauke Flores) |
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| Episode 1:
Approaching the Ice |
| Episode 2: Stuck in the Pack |
| Episode 3: The Floe |
| Episode 4: "You have to..." |
| Episode 5: "Leaving the Floe" |
Episode 1: Approaching the Ice
11 NOV 2004Current Position: S 54.61251° W 2.47552° - South of Bouvet Island
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| Firstly, I would like to thank everybody for the interest that I received from such a big number of people. I feel both flattered and challenged, since this means that I have to take my duty to write regular reports even more serious, and objected to a greater audience. It will be a new experience for most of you to receive regular letters from Hauke… The letters will be in English. I think that is the best compromise regarding the fact that it is important for me to be understood both by my Dutch speaking collegues and friends and my family and German friends. |
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| The two days in Capetown passed by quickly. I used them for some last-minute shopping, and to calm down after the rush of the days before leaving. We left Capetown on Satureday 6th, 20.00 h sharp (this is a German vessel), with the sight of Table Mountain illuminated by the dawning sun. For me, the moment of leaving harbour is – ever again – an emotional experience. Leaving home and loved people behind is the sad side of it – but the euphorising realization of the fact that forward is the only direction that counts in the coming weeks overweighed. |
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During the first days, the organization of work and space on the ship slowly took shape. My work space will be in the Fischlabor, a quite spacey laboratory at the stern of the ship. I have the whole place for myself, and I think most of the readers will agree that a Fish lab is the perfect place for me. Besides unpacking and the preparation of the fyke system I am going to deploy under the ice in the target area, I took the chance to increase and deepen my knowledge on Southern Ocean birds several times a day. Some people on this ship already called me “Orni”, not a real compliment regarding the little experience I have in bird watching. Another part of my work is to organize diving activities with the other research divers on board. The diving group is lead by Carsten Wanke, a highly experienced diver from AWI's marine station on Helgoland. Luckily, he doesn't see a problem with the plans made by Frank, Jan, Koos and me on how to deploy the net. But a lot of things cannot be decided before we are there… |
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| The first scientific station was performed yesterday, when we dropped a drift buoy over board. The whole action took five minutes: station completed successfully. The mood on board is nice and relaxed, and that's probably greatly due to world famous Polarstern kitchen. Those of you who experienced other circumstances might be happy to learn that even the coffee is fresh and hot this time. Petra and Christina say hello to André, Jan and Michiel.
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Wildlife is becoming richer the closer we approach the ice. The bridge reported a number of wale sightings so far. I whitnessed two sightings myself, the one yesterday being a group of at least 5 large wales. Neptunus has been nice with us until now, giving us a gentle passage through the Roaring Fourties and Filthy fifties. However, we will probably pass our first “storm“; this night. The 3m waves and wind of 7 beaufort announced might not deserve the name storm in some peoples' eyes, but I am sure it will cause problems to the stomachs of those on this ship who have not experienced ‘true sea’ so far. Meanwhile, Polarstern will find its way into the ice in the coming days… Sincerely, Alles Liebe, Groetjes, Hauke |
The Bird – Fancy tool to measure ice thickness 
Southern Fulmartop
Episode 2: Stuck in the Pack
21 NOV 2004Current Position: S 67.76946° W 44.90254°
A wall of ice and snow, shining bluish and white, was all I saw through the windows when I entered the bridge three days ago. "Polarstern" had almost run into an enormous iceberg. This unexpected incident demonstrates how hard navigation can be when you see nothing but white outside. The iceberg could simply not be detected early enough. The prevailing weather condition in the ice so far has been a deep-hanging, but not dark cloud cover. The light-grey, homogenous sky above the white ice sometimes gives the impression of sailing through a dimensionless space without any horizon. After being seriously challanged by heavy pack-ice in the northern sea ice zone, the ship has been getting on quite good for several days now. Everybody on board feels that the waiting will soon come to an end, the target area scheduled to be reached by tomorrow evening. The scientists become remarkably more vivid, and that includes me, of course, too. The relaxed routine of the past weeks gives way to a kind of positive tension, now that everybody will finally be able to start their projects. My work already started 1˝ weeks ago, with first attempts of aerial surveys. Through counts of seals and penguins from the helicopter I hope to yield valuable data on the distribution of these top predators over a larger area around the ship. However, only four flights could be realized to date, three of which were short test flights circling around the ship. The EM Bird, the device to measure ice thickness I mentioned in the last letter, had serious problems. But finally, it could be fixed. The first regular transect flight lasted more than two hours yesterday, covering a distance of 60nm ahead of the ship and back. Strong winds have impeded further flights since then. Counting from the air is a new field of work for me. Yet, it is an accurate method to estimate animal abundances, and I am glad that I got the opportunity to fly with Christian Haas and his collegues. So far, I used the flights to get familiar with the new perspective of recognizing animals. By now, I am quite confident that these counts will be feasible for me.
The plan is that once we are at the ice floe, the first thing to be done will be the ice hole for my fyke system. Then, we will use it for training dives for two or three days, before installing the net and the davit.
Between long periods of desert-like silence, wildlife can sometimes be amazingly dense here. The sea ice often contains a substantial greenish-brown layer of ice algae, indicating high primary production. Two days ago we passed an iceberg which was surrounded by breathing holes of whales, one next to another. Many crabeater seals lingered on the icefloes. Close to that iceberg, I was baffled by the sight of a large, trapezoid fin. Later on, a white snout appearing in a breathing hole right in front of the bow proved what I had seen for the first time in my life: orcas. These observations encouraged me that my plan to get hold of the steps in the food chain between the ice algae and the top predators might also yield valuable findings during this expedition. Meanwhile, Polarstern is making its way through a landscape of mountains, hills, rivers and lakes made of ice and sea water. Next station: THE FLOE Sincerely, Alles Liebe, Groetjes, Hauke |
First test dives in the ship's swimming pool
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Episode 3: The Floe
04 DEC 2004Current Position: S 68.17300° W 55.16072°
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| The day Polarstern arrived at our final icefloe, the 27th November, was a beautiful, sunshiny day. Everybody took it as a good sign, and work on the ice started immediately. The weather has returned to its grey routine however, and in the meantime we learned how quick things can change out here. But more about that later in this letter. On our arrival, we found a large floe, some 1.5 km in diameter. The exploration team reported suitable thicknesses at some test drilling sites. Altogether, our floe turned out to provide good conditions for everyone on this ship. The floe itself can be imagined as a vast flat landscape, covered with frozen waves and strange sculptures presumably made by an excentric artist. Ridges of ice form little mountain ranges. The wind blows a constant dust of snow over the unstable ground, so that shapes appear softened.
The Antarctic silence is obscured by the noise of helicopter take-off and landing, the rattling of ski-doos, by screams of chainsaws and the loanmower sound of ice drills. The ship's port side faces the ice shore, attached to it with 4-meter iron bars which were frozen into the ground. Around the gangway, a little ‘playground’ is open to visit for everybody. Two ski-doos (snowmobiles) are waiting there for taxi calls from the scientists working at more distant sampling sites. Right next to it, a helicopter landing site is situated. From the gangway, two ‘roads’ marked with black flags lead to the different working stations, forming a big “V”. The working areas are identified by different numbers. The hole that was made for my net system is on patch “6a”. Two red, globule shelters - called “Tomatoes” - are positioned along the ski-doo tracks. |
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| The reward for all the sweat: the endless blue glow of the ocean underneath, a white, sometimes greenish shining ceiling of sea ice above. Ctenophores, jellyfish-like animals, with widespread webs of tentacles passing my eye, icekrill hushing for cover, ridges with ice algae, dark green as a mountain covered with forests. Diving under ice for the first time was an unforgettable experience for me. I am very grateful to have this opportunity, and it more than pays for all the efforts I made to be able to do it. We tried some sampling gear, including hand nets and icescrews. Those of you who spent hours on thinking and discussing about the feasability of the fyke system will be glad to learn that the icescrews work fine here. First test sampling yielded a few ctenophores for GEO photographer Ingo Arndt and amphipods (small crustaceans) for my collegue Rupert Krapp. The presence of these amphipods at the undersurface of the ice indicates the existence of a true ice-associated fauna. Together with findings of rich life in the micropores of the ice it makes me optimistic that larger animals will also occur here. In the meantime, my plans to set up the fyke systems as soon as possible have experienced a major drawback. The icefloe started to split up three days ago, and some scientific stations had to be re-allocated. The tomatoes were moved, and even one researcher was evacuated. Since yesterday, the hole we made is behind a gap of seawater, too. It makes no sense to complain. Ones more, we have to accept that nature makes the rules down here. We will use the coming days to make a new hole close to the ship, were the ice is much thicker (patch 8 on the map). In fact, I am glad that I haven't installed the net before. |
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| While Polarstern is drifting with a more fragile flow than anticipated, the time of preparations is over, and I am in good hope to yield interesting findings under the ice in the coming weeks. Sincerely, Alles Liebe, Groetjes, Hauke |
Our neighbours 
Making the hole (photo: Rupert Krapp)
The hole, with Polarstern in the background
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Episode 4: "You have to live with Antarctica, not against it"
(Cpt. U. Pahl)19 DEC 2004
Current Position: S 67.80017° W 55.26769°
For us who know seals as rather cute and harmless animals, it is hard to imagine that such an animal can pose a serious threat. But the Leopard Seal is different, as can easily be seen from its enormous teeth.  Before over-emphasizing the dangerousness of these animals, it should not be forgotten that they are just not more dangerous than any other wild animal. Keeping a respectful distance is the easiest way to be safe when Leopard Seals are around. People have been diving with them without any problems. On the other hand, people were also injured and killed by Leopard Seals. Yet, they are fierce predators and may percieve humans as competitors or prey. If you have a lion in your area, the probability that it attacks you is very low. Nevertheless, you tend not to stroll through the bushes. The same is true for the diving at our floe. To prevent any confrontation of divers with Leopard Seals, AWI has made clear that diving must be aborted immediately as soon as a Leopard Seal is sighted. However, over the time of our stay here, the potentially dangerous seals have been seen close to the ship almost every day. As a consequence, only few dives could be done to date. Thus, Hydrurga leptonyx has dominated talks and gossips on Polarstern since the day it was first sighted.
Jan carries an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) with him, just to 'play around', as he says. The ROV is basically a small model submarine about the size of a compact vacuum cleaner. It is controlled from the surface by an electronic cable. A small videocamera allows visual orientation and the recording of underwater observations.
However, I have been unlucky with my fishing until now. Having used the fyke for several days without success, I realized that major modifications had to be done in order to increase its catchability. The catching chamber of the net is smaller than the hole it sits in, allowing animals to escape by just swimming above the net, and continuing on the other side. Luckily, I had generous help from crewman Siegfried Moser, who used to work as a fisherman. It was mainly him who fixed the net after it was damaged one time, and attached an overhanging 'roof' to the chamber, which can be pushed under the edges of the icehole, so closing the gap between net and ice. Unfortunately, I had to spend the guidenet of the second, small fyke I brought with me for the 'roof'. The operation took several days.
In the meantime, I have been able to continue with extensive helicopter counts. The parallel collection of both biological and physical data seems to be promising. In combination with high-resolution ice data from Christian Haas I will probably be able to map the distribution of seals and penguins on different icetypes. In the last weeks, strange sounds have been reaching my ears from the ship's speakers: christmas songs. Everybody who knows me can tell that I am probably not missing the lack of 'christmas mood' that occurs when everybody is working so much, and there is daylight for 24 hours. Anyway, I am looking forward to experience a unique christmas, and will miss - of course - my family and close friends. I would like to combine these thoughts with warm-hearted whishes for everybody. |
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| Have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Frohe Weihnachten und 'n guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr! Prettige kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar!
Hauke |
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Episode 5: Leaving the Floe
06 JAN 2005Current Position: S 61.54462° W 48.76663°
| An uncomfortable feeling in the stomach indicates that we finally and inevitably left the ice-covered part of the Southern Ocean. To most of us, it is unusual again to feel the rolling of the sea underneath Polarstern. Even the last ones realize now that we are on a ship here, not a research station. A fact which might have been forgotten by a number of floe-researchers. The last two weeks at the floe were stuffed with new situations, unique experiences, and above all some serious challenges to my ability to react to unexpected situations. Christmas in the ice surely was among the most impressing experiences of this expedition. Although work was done as usual throughout the day, everybody managed to gather in the Blue Saloon on Holy Night, for a decent celebration. We had it all: A christmas tale - written and read by Claus-Peter, christmas songs and the unevitable christmas goose the next day. Before that, three christmas trees had to be set up. For this purpose, three teams were formed: the German team (christmas tree in mess 2), the Belgian-Dutch team (Blue Saloon) and the Rest of the World team (mess 1). I joined the Benelux people since there are obvioulsy enough Germans on this vessel, and we had quite some fun in preparing the tree of the official celebration room.
Unfortunately a Russian translation of the songs couldn't be found. And - yes it's true: I sang along. Even the Finnish part. You can imagine this took a considerable part of the evening, since we sang all stancers of some songs in all the languages…
Retrieval even of parts turned out to be impossible, until it sank to the ground several days afterwards, when the ridge had opened again. Since the fishing had been of little success until then, the scientific value of the under-ice fyke turned out to be negligible. Of course, things like this must be expected when using a new technique in an unknown environment. Catching no fish and losing the net were among the risks I was aware of while planning this expedition. It struck me nevertheless, as everybody might imagine. In total, I consider the experience I got from planning and building the net, setting it up in the ice and having to maintain it as the only responsible person as a big personal value itself. In addition to this, diving had been cancelled for the rest of the sampling period due to the constant presence of Leopard Seals. My own last dive together with Rupert Krapp demonstrated that they can appear without any warning, and can quickly approach the diver: After only two minutes of diving, the Leopard Seal was sighted from the surface crew. They managed to pull the two of us out in 40 seconds - right when it reached Rupert. The emergency pull-out was an impressing demonstration of the dive group's capability to handle such situations. Nevertheless, dive master Carsten Wanke decided to take no further risks. My scientific programme was reduced to counts of seals and penguins from the helicopter as a result. A number of counts could be done in the vicinity of the floe and on the way out of the ice. Mr Spindler even gave me the possibility to perform a flight of my own one time when the weather was unsuitable for EM Bird flights. Looking at the tremendous amount of life under the ice which I had seen with my own eyes, I started a last initiative to get a hold of that fauna. Together with Rupert I set traps during the last days at the floe. They yielded a small number of amphipods of at least two species. Exact taxonomic species determination and careful literature research will tell us if we discovered an unknown occurrence of species from the water column in the ice habitat, or if they are even adapted to it.
A beautiful young Leopard Seal decided to rest right next to the gangway, while a young Weddell Seal sat in front of the ship. The usual Emperor Penguins were accompanied by their less often encountered siblings, the Adélies. Clear-up of the floe went surprisingly quick. Everything was back on the ship right at departure time, 12.00 noon, including the ski-doo, the vast meteorolical mast of the Finnish group, the sediment traps and the two "tomatoes". The way out of the ice was much faster then into it, although we got stuck several times, too. During that time, I started packing and continued ship-based top predator counts when possible. Slowly but surely gaps between the floes became larger, the ice slowly dissolving into smaller and older floes drifting in the ocean, forming no distinct 'edge' to the open water. Today we saw the last icefloes, before a mantle of fog was set around our ship, softly preventing us from taking a too long good-bye from the ice. Southern Fulmars, Albatrosses and Cape Petrels are now accompanying the ship again, indicating that we have entered the habitat of Antarctic open waters. Polarstern is now heading to South Georgia, our last Antarctic destination. Everybody is looking forward to setting their feet on true soil. Meanwhile, a nameless fear increases among some of us. There are rumors that Neptune's eye is focussing on this ship. He is looking for those who entered the very southern part of his kingdom without having absolved the proper ceremonies… |
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| Sincerely, Alles Liebe, Groetjes, Hauke |
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| Downloads | ||
| From Hauke Flores: | ||
| Episode 1 | as word-file: as pdf-file: |
Flores_01.doc (57 KB) Diary of Half a Dutchman_01.pdf (97 KB) |
| Episode 2 | as word-file: as pdf-file: |
Flores_02.doc (51 KB) Diary of Half a Dutchman_02.pdf (95 KB) |
| Episode 3 | as word-file: as pdf-file: |
Flores_03.doc (68 KB) Diary of Half a Dutchman_03.pdf (79 KB) |
| Episode 4 | as word-file: as pdf-file: |
Flores_04.doc (72 KB) Diary of Half a Dutchman_04.pdf (59 KB) |
| Episode 5 | as word-file: as pdf-file: |
Flores_05.doc (59 KB) Diary of Half a Dutchman_05.pdf (75 KB) |
| From the on-board journalist, Claus-Peter Lieckfeld: | ||
| Logbuch 1 | as word-file: Deutsch | Logbuch1.doc (25 KB) |
| Logbuch 2 | as word-file: Deutsch | Logbuch2.doc (24 KB) |
| Logbuch 3 | as word-file: Deutsch | Logbuch3.doc (24 KB) |
| Logbuch 4 | as word-file: Deutsch | Logbuch4.doc (24 KB) |
| Logbuch 5 | as word-file: Deutsch + Englisch | Logbuch_05.doc (34 KB) |
| Logbuch 6 | as word-file: Deutsch + Englisch | Logbuch_06.doc (33 KB) |
| Logbuch 7 | as word-file: Deutsch + English | Logbuch_07.doc (30 KB) |
| Logbuch 8 | as word-file: Deutsch + Englisch | Logbuch_08.doc (38 KB) |
| Logbuch 9 | as word-file: Deutsch as word-file: English |
Logbuch_09.doc (23 KB) Logengl9.doc (51 KB) |
| Logbuch 10 | as word-file: Deutsch as word-file: English |
Logbuch_10.doc (21 KB) Logengl10.doc (21 KB) |
| Logbuch 11 | as word-file: Deutsch as word-file: English |
Logbuch_11.doc (26 KB) Logengl11.doc (20 KB) |
| Logbuch 12 | as word-file: Deutsch as word-file: English |
Logbuch_12.doc (23 KB) Logengl12.doc (20 KB) |
| Logbuch 13 | as word-file: Deutsch as word-file: English |
Logbuch_13.doc (25 KB) Logengl13.doc (35 KB) |
| Logbuch 14 | as word-file: Deutsch | Logbuch_14.doc (30 KB) |
| Logbuch 15 | as word-file: Deutsch as word-file: English |
Logbuch_15.doc (21 KB) Logengl15.doc (20 KB) |
| From Fahrtleiter Michael Spindler: | ||
| Wochenbrief 1 Weekly report 1 |
as word-file: Deutsch as word-file: English |
Spindler_01_D.doc (40 KB) Spindler_01_E.doc (21 KB) |
| Wochenbrief 3 Weekly report 3 |
as word-file: English |
Spindler_03_E.doc (63 KB) |
| Wochenbrief 4 | as word-file: Deutsch | Spindler_04.doc (97 KB) |
| Wochenbrief 5 | as word-file: Deutsch | Spindler_05.doc (42 KB) |
| Wochenbrief 6 | as word-file: Deutsch | Spindler_06.doc (90 KB) |
| Wochenbrief 7 | as word-file: Deutsch | Spindler_07.doc (36 KB) |
| Wochenbrief 8 | as word-file: Deutsch | Spindler_08.doc (36 KB) |
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