19 April: Treasure hunting (Scotia Arc Expedition 2013)

This morning we were ready to go trawling at Shag Rocks.

The first trawl was in the water early, and throughout the day we completed a total of 11 trawls. As you might guess, we were pretty tired! But we got all the organisms we’d hoped to find.

One of the targets we were after was a seastar called Porania antarctia. Because this was the last one were looking for, every time we found one, spontaneous cheering broke out.

Also, during the evening we had a visit from two birds not often seen in this part of the world. Two egret-heron type birds came and sat on the deck for a while. The swells were getting a bit bigger, so every time water washed across the deck, the birds got swept along as well.

I wonder what they were doing here? Can any bird enthusiasts tell us about them?

One of the neatest finds of the day was a strange one. In one of our trawls, we picked up a vertebrate bone of sorts. And since Greg was one of the people who first described Osedax, bone-eating worms, he was very keen to take a close look. And indeed, there were some Osedax growing out of the bone. Cool!