Out and about on the ice .. (part 1 of 3)
Wednesday 8th March 2000

Hello everybody,

It's been awhile since I last wrote ... the number of things that I have to do and the number of things that I want to do has far exceeded my expectations and I have spent the most of the last 6 weeks working, climbing, boating, walking and finally sleeping to recover! So, now that things have calmed down a bit I will fill you in on what has been happening.

During summer the condition and thickness of the sea ice around Mawson determines a large part of my, and everybody else's daily life. This is because over the summer months the temperature rises above 0 degrees and the sea ice melts from the bottom. Over a period of weeks, the ice colour changes from a bright white to a dull grey indicating that it is becoming "rotten" - or thin and mushy. It is safe to walk on sea ice until it is less than about 100mm thick, so while the sun was shining and the ice becoming thinner I wasted no time in going out to explore the islands around Mawson.

One of the best islands to visit is called Welch Island. It is a large round "hill" which can be seen easily from the station and gives excellent 360 degree views over the coastal islands, up and down the coast and up onto the Plateau behind the station. Colin Blobel (99 Senior Met Observer) and I decided to go on a walking photographic expedition to Welch and the other islands before the ice broke out. We packed up all our survival gear, put it into a sledge and headed out over the ice in East Bay towards Welch Island. We anticipated that our trip would take about 1.5 hours to get to Welch, then a few more hours to walk back via Bechervaise Island.

As we walked over the sea ice, with me dragging the sledge behind me we approached a pool of water with the body of a dead Weddell seal. Sitting on the seal was a Skua pecking away at the carcass surrounded by dark red water and ice. I was both saddened and intrigued.

Life is very fragile here and most of the time you are concentrating on photographing the birth and life of new animals such as the Adelie chicks, so it is quite a contrast to see the death of other animals, especially the natural cycle of the predators / cleaners tidying up the remains. This is all part of the natural cycle since the seal must die sometime, and the Skua's have chicks to feed and so the body of the seal was not wasted.

A Skua feeding on the body of a Weddell seal in East bay with the station in the background

Email continues in part 2