From Tim Page
Near Sansom Island
Antarctica
25th November 1998, 4pm
Hello to everyone at Winthrop school!
PRESENT POSITION: 69 degrees South Latitude, 74 degrees
East Longtitude
DIRECTION HEADING: None (stationary)
SPEED HEADING: None (stationary)
DISTANCE FROM TASMANIA: 2908 nautical miles (3304 miles)
DISTANCE TO MAWSON STATION: 275 nautical miles (312 miles)
AIR TEMPERATURE: -2 degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit)
WATER TEMPERATURE: -1.6 degrees Celsius (29 degrees Fahrenheit)
WATER DEPTH: 811 metres (2660 feet)
WIND SPEED: 48 knots (54 miles per hour)
I know it's only been a few days since I sent you a message, but we've been getting a little bored since we've been in the same place in the ice now for 3 days! This is because we are waiting for the weather to improve so we can use the helicopters to fly some fuel to a fuel dump for some glaciologists who are studying the nearby, giant Amery Ice shelf.
An ice shelf is where huge sheets of ice move slowly off the land and form an enormous layer of ice which sits over the water, kind of like a cover over part of a swimming pool. Eventually massive pieces of ice fall off and become icebergs that float out to sea. It was an iceberg that sank the Titanic, but luckily we have radar so are pretty safe. We went past a mega-iceberg the other day. It broke of an ice shelf too. It looked like an island it was so big. It was 40 miles (65 kilometers) long and 22 miles wide (35 kilometers), and 131 feet high (40 meters). Most of an iceberg is below the surface, so it went down about 1312 feet (400 meters) beneath the sea! Now that's big!!
I have a special treat for you today, not the normal boring educational
stuff I usually ramble on about! Today instead of my normal routine,
I've asked my friend Clair to talk a bit about her work. She is also
helping with the seal survey. She used to work at Seaworld on the
Gold Coast near Brisbane. There are also some places called Seaworld
in the United States, including one in San Diego. It's a little bit
like the Boston Aquarium, which I visited when I was at school! Here's
Clair talking about her seal friends at Seaworld.
"At Seaworld on the Gold Coast there are 29 individual seals. In the whole world there are 33 different species of seals. At Seaworld there are 6 different species of seal. So that means there are 27 other species of seal not at Seaworld.
The 6 species at Seaworld are:
- California Sealion
- Australian Sealion
- New Zealand Fur Seal
- Harbour Seal
- Sub-Antarctic Fur Seal
The harbour seals that we have at Seaworld are closely related to the ones you can see swimming around the coast of New England.
They are 11 California Sealions at Seaworld. They originally came from the coast of California, as you can probably guess! One of them, Zorro, was born at Seaworld. Another one, Waimea, was born in Hawaii and came to Australia in 1982.
The seals at Seaworld have a large collection of toys; sometimes the seals choose their own. Spud the seal loves the broom and rope. He is an Australian Sealion. The people who look after the seals also spend a lot of time playing with them. There are 2 seals, called Mork and Mal, who love being hosed; it's like a body massage for them.
Mork is an Australian Sealion. He is the biggest seal at Seaworld. He weighs 695 pounds (316 kilos)! Mal is a New Zealand Fur Seal. He was found on Fraser Island, north of Brisbane, many years ago. He was underweight and in poor condition when he arrived at Seaworld. He is much better now.
In Antarctica we are counting Crabeater Seals. They mainly eat krill, which looks like shrimps. They have special teeth that can keep the krill inside their mouth and sieve the water out. A Crabeater eats about 8,000 krill for one meal! Other seals eat fish, squid and some eat penguins. At Seaworld the seals eat 3-4 times a day, and love squid and octopus. Sometimes if they are quick, they catch the fish that also live in the pools.
Spud the Sealion is an investigator. One day he went for a walk to visit the other seals. He also loves sleeping in a big, red plastic bowl. It's his favorite place to sleep. The seals in Antarctica sleep on the ice.
Love Clair"
Thanks very much, Clair, that was really interesting! Have fun every one.
See ya!
Tim Page