From Tim Page
      on the way to Davis Station, Antarctica
      16 November 1998, 9am
 

Hi there to the Students of Winthrop School, Ipswich, Massachussetts, especially to the classes of Ms Smith, Ms O'Reilly & Ms Adamo, and of course to Ms Kelly who is bound for Nippon!!!!
 
 

PRESENT POSITION:    65 degrees South Latitude,  78 degrees East Longtitude
DIRECTION HEADING:    190 degrees (South South-West)
DISTANCE FROM TASMANIA:   2771 nautical miles (3148 miles)
DISTANCE TO DAVIS STATION: 180 nautical miles (204 miles)
AIR TEMPERATURE:    -4 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit)
WATER TEMPERATURE:  -2 degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit)
WATER DEPTH:   3200 metres (10496 feet)
WIND SPEED:     25 Knots (28 miles per Hour)
 
 

Hi there kids!  Well it has been a very exciting past few days.  Charlie Chowder, the Clam from Ipswich, had his first ever helicopter ride!!  It so happens that it was also my first time in a helicopter.  Charlie was a little scared, but once he got into the air, the excitement took over and he loved it.

We have been taking off from the helicopter deck on the ship and flying out over the ice to look for seals and penguins.  It is a wonderful experience to fly over vast blue icebergs, connected together with flat white sea ice.  If you look very carefully, you can see little brown seals moving across the ice, and even littler black and white penguins diving in the water.  We have to count the seals and penguins to work out how many there are in Antarctica, so we can understand the whole environment better.  That way we can be sure we don't damage it by making too many changes, like fishing too much and taking the food these animals eat.

When we fly over a seal, we have to work out what kind of seal it is.  The most common one is called the Crabeater seal (the one that eats krill, I mentioned it in an earlier email).  They are usually a chocolate brown color, but when they get older they turn whiter.  We also see Ross seals, which are darker and fatter with little heads. Sometimes we see impressive Leopard seals, which are big and eat other seals and penguins!!

At the moment we are heading south very slowly through thick ice towards Davis Station.  Have you been following our progress on a map using Latitude and Longtitude?  It is a little confusing, but very useful to find out where you are and where you want to go.  Today our position is 65 degrees South Latitude, 78 degrees East Longtitude.

Latitude lines are imaginary lines that run around the world from east to west.  The most famous latitude line is the Equator, which runs around the middle of the earth like a big belt.  By knowing your Latitude, you can tell how far north or south of the Equator you are.  The Equator is at 0 degrees, and the South Pole is at 90 degrees South, so we are about two thirds of the way to the South Pole.  Everywhere south of the Equator is in the Southern Hemisphere, so my Latitude at the moment is 65 degrees SOUTH.  You are in the Northern Hemisphere; what is your Latitude?

Longtitude lines run the other way around the world, like a big tic-tac-toe board.  They let you know how far east or west you are.  The most famous Longtitude line is called the Greenwich Meridian because it goes through a place in England called Greenwich, where there is a famous old observatory.  Everywhere east from Greenwich is the Eastern Hemishpere, where I am now.  My Longtitude now is 78 degrees East.  Where does that put me below on a map?  Is it somewhere below Thailand or Burma?

So what does that make your position in Latitude and Longtitude?  Funnily enough I have been to two other places called Ipswich that aren't in the United States.  There is one a few miles west of where I live (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).  There is also one north-east of London in England (they have a famous soccer team called the "Canaries" because they wear yellow).  Can you find the Latitudes and Longtitudes of these two other Ipswichs?

Well all that's very interesting, but I think I'll finish with a funny little poem. This is by Thomas Griffin Taylor, who went to Antarctica early this century with the famous English explorer Robert Scott (I'll talk about him another time).  It is about krill, the little shrimp-like creatures that many big animals here feed on.  Krill feed on even smaller creatures called diatoms; all part of the "circle of life".  Have fun!

     Tim Page

 
  "Big floes have little floes all around about 'em,
   And all the yellow diatoms couldn't do without 'em
   Forty million shrimplets fed upon the latter,
   And they make the penguins and the seals and whales
      Much fatter."