Questions for 1Q

Since I have been down here, I have been getting a range of questions for different school groups. I've noticed that some of the same questions come up so I thought that this time I would answer Ms Quinton's 1Q questions on my blog for other students (and parents) to learn from.

Logan - Can we call you Skippy? Why do you have snowmobiles there? You could just walk over the ice? I like arctic wolves. Yes Logan, you can call me Skippy although the nickname didn't really catch on down here. As for the second question, we could walk over the ice but some of the places that I need to go are very far away. Even with snowmobiles it can talk an hour or two to get there. Plus whenever we leave the station we need to bring survival gear with us just in case a bad storm comes in. During bad weather you can't see the flags that mark the routes and you can really only travel by GPS. These survival bags are very heavy and it would be hard to carry them. A typical survival bag (that is checked before each time going out) has a tent, sleeping bag, dehydrated food, stove with fuel, first aid kit, toilet paper, and books for reading.

Shayla - are there puffins or any other birds down there (besides penguins)? are kids allowed to go down there? We do not have puffins, but there are other birds. First off there are many kinds of penguins. In McMurdo we have Adelie and Emperor Penguins but you can find others along the coast. The bird we see the most is the Skua. It's a very large seagull looking bird that is very cleaver at sneaking up behind you and stealing your food. Skuas love to sit on top of the buildings looking down on the area were we come out of the galley. If they see someone with food, they swoop down from behind and quickly duck up over their shoulder and are off with the food. It's really funny to watch. Unfortunately you must be 18 or older to come down here with the USAP. However it may be possible to come down on a cruise ship but I hear that costs about $17,000.
Kennedi - Have you seen any whales? Did you know that polar bears have black skin? I have seen one whale. It was a Minke whale which is a baleen whale that feeds on plankton in the water. The channel that the ice breaker made is finally starting to clear out so we hope to have more whales come into our bay soon. In another day or two we will have a fuel tanker here to offload 7 Million gallons of fuel for us (that's a lot of fuel). It has been delayed over a week because of pack ice about 500miles out. Oden, our icebreaker headed out the other day to go help it. The information about polar bears is very interesting.

Jalyse - Do the penguins like you? Do you have hats? Do you like it down there? I don't really know if the penguins like me or not. I think we have a relationship that if I leave them alone, they will leave me alone. We enjoy looking at each other, but from a comfortable distance. I have a bunch of hats down here. The United States Antarctic Program (USAP) gave me two hats at the Clothing Distribution Center (CDC) in Christchurch. However I also brought two hats down with me, bought a hat, and had a hat sent to me. Lots of hats, but I like my Red Sox (thank you Steve-O) and Scott Base ones (thank you Amber) the best. I love it down here and am already looking forward to coming back again next year.

Hayden - Do you have a lot of fun on the snowmobiles? Have you caught a penguin? Hayden, snowmobiles are a ton of fun. Most of the ones we have are old and don't go very fast, but it is still nice to have the wind in your hair. The thing I like most about snowmobiling here is driving towards Erebus (our active volcano on the island) on a sunny day where you can see smoke coming out of the top and have a helicopter fly a couple hundred feet over the top of your head where you can see the pilot wave. Truly a great experience. I have not caught a penguin. The National Science Foundation (NSF) says that we can not approach the wildlife in any way that will effect their behavior. However some of the scientists get special permission to capture them for research but must let them go after they are done.

Luke - Why did the penguins walk away from you? Are there any stuffed animals down there? I'm not really sure why the penguins walked away but I bet they got bored with us. It was neat watching them go away because after they waddled a little, the dropped on their bellies and pushed themselves along with their toes. We do have some stuffed animals in the station store. I sent a cute little stuffed animal penguin to my adorable niece Ella for Christmas.
Gabe - Have you touched a seal? While with scientists, I have been very close to seals, closer than you would get to most wild animals, however the NSF and the Antarctic Treaty (signed by 20+ countries) don't allow interaction with the animals down here except by special permit. Touching a seal could be dangerous and if I got caught they would send me home. The picture above is of a bunch of seals laying on the ice.

Tyler - Do you have any weapons? Do you hunt down there? Good question Tyler, no I do not have any weapons. We are not allowed to bring any weapons here and they search our bags in Christchurch before we fly over. The rumor is that there is one gun on station that is for the station manager (who is also a US Marshal). The gun is rumored to be in three places under lock and key of three separate people. This would be used only in an emergency and I don't know if it has ever been used. Hunting is not allowed in Antarctica so there is no reason to have a weapon. As a side note, we don't have a police department, but if something does happen, the fire department is called in to handle the situation. Every now and then a fight will happen and both sides will get sent home on the next flight.

Matthew - How many penguins have you seen? More than 10 or less than 10? Good question Matthew, I'm not sure how many penguins I've seen but it is over ten. When the Penguin Ranch was up and running, I saw penguins there and now that the ice breaker has come in, we have Adelie penguins around town. If I look out the window with binoculars, I can see them along the edge of the ice. My roommate saw about 20-30 Adelie penguins walking next to one of the trails on the edge of town while I was at the South Pole. I saw some of his pictures and videos and it looked pretty neat seeing them all walking in a line.

Kelsey - Do you have any friends down there? In the summer time is there lots of food or in the winter time is there lots of food (for the people) I do have a lot of friends down here. Coming down, I didn't know anyone but people are very friendly and it is easy to make connections. As for the food, this is lots of food. We have two huge warehouses that are FULL of food (food is even staked in the isles so that you can't even walk down them). We also have a greenhouse that was made out of scrap supplies laying around. In the winter planes can't land here and this is the only place that the people can get fresh vegetables. In the summer about once a week "freshies" are flown in from NZ and we get good food like avocados, peaches, watermelon...

Shealyn - What is your favorite thing to do down there? There are a few things that I really like to do and I'm not sure I can narrow it down to one. I really like playing my guitar with friends as they sing along, going snowmobiling on the sea ice, driving a pisten bully, answering enthusiastic questions about Antarctica and watching really bad storms come through. Some of the things I don't like doing include working 6 days a week and not seeing my niece.

Hannah - Are there any cars down there? Great question Hannah. I haven't seen any "cars" down here, but we do have "normal" vehicles and some interesting vehicles. Normal transportation is in trucks and vans. Some of these vehicles have over sized tires for the snow while some have tracks. If the van or truck is only going to be used in town, they have normal tires. We also have a wide variety of snow vehicles including Ivan the Terra Bus, Deltas, Pisten Bullys, Hagglunds, snowmobiles, planes, helicopters, four wheelers, big tractors, small tractors, flatbed trucks and the list goes on.

Brian - I have 3 snowmobiles! Do you know that we made life size Arctic animals? You must love snowmobiling as much as I do. It must have been fun making the animals, what kind of animals did you make?

Taeva - How do you sleep down there? Do you wear any snow gear down there? Have you been in the Arctic? Interesting questions Taeva. Sleeping is very easy since we work 54hrs a week. If by any chance we can't fall asleep, we can get NyQuil in the store. We wear lots of snow gear and I hope this picture gives you an idea of what we wear. The clothing is known as ECW (Extreme Cold Weather Gear). I have not been to the Arctic, but did live in Alaska for a little while.
Mrs. Kern - Do you get to watch movies down there? Some of the new movies the kids like are Alvin and the Chipmunks, High school Musical etc. :) Just wondering. Also, have you seen any tourists, my dad went down there on a ship once. We watch a bunch of movies down here. We have two movie channels where they rotate the movies daily. Since we are part of the government, we get the AFN or Armed Forces Network. I haven't seen any of those movies, but we do get them shortly after being released in the theaters. While at Pole I saw some people that had skied in. In McM I haven't seen anyone yet, but I am on of the tour guides for when cruise ships come in. We were suppose to have two of them in town last week, but for weather reasons, they canceled. Maybe in a week or two. The picture above is of the three vessels currently in town. The one at the pier is the fuel tanker, left is the Oden (Icebreaker), right is the Palmer (USAP research vessel).

Thank you for all the great questions and I hope I was informative on the answers.