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Halfway

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We’ve had a lot of stormy snowy days here on the peninsula, which can be attributed to the changing weather leading this part of the world into another long dark winter. Until today we’ve been sampling mostly by bucket at the surface, due to epic CTD failures of two different devices, as well as not having an adequate working fluorometer on either machine to know where to collect the deeper water, specifically where the Deep Chlorophyll Max (DCM) resides in this water column. The DCM is the region below the surface of the water with the maximum concentration of chlorophyll of the vertical profile of the water column.  DCM is usually found between 67 and 127 meters below the surface, however we expected it to be a lot closer to the surface here given the decreasing amount and strength of sunlight. So bucket sampling has been the norm for us up until this morning, when we believe we found the DCM at our current location at around 12 meters. Incredibly shallow, but given t
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Heading North

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We’ve gone as far south as we can, sailing just into Marguerite Bay and gathering samples before turning back into the smooth lake-like waters around southern islands and straits just north of the bay. Now we’re officially heading back north, stopping in a new location every day until we reach Palmer Station again around May 19 th It’s hard to believe that back home it’s summer. That days are actually getting longer and hotter on the other side of the world, while I’m watching sea ice begin to form around our ship in the seven hours of dwindling daylight we now get. The shorter days make watching the sunrise easier, I can sleep in just a little bit longer on my days off, which up to this point, have been nonexistent. After sampling for five straight days, today we’re taking the day off from sampling, wrapping up some simple work and focusing on looking at the data we’ve collected so far and finally giving ourselves some rest. We’re almost halfway through the cruise,
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