December 7, 2009

New Harbor and Explorer's Cove Trip

I took a short day trip out to the Dry Valleys - to do a camp environmental audit at New Harbor and to assist two subcontractors in their mapping of the adjacent special feature at Explorer's Cove. The Dry Valleys are an Anarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA), that is subject to higher envt protections because of its unique habitats and biological and geological importance. Special Features are within the ASMA and are subject to even more envt. protection. We took a helo out to the site, and had about 8-9 hours of ground time before we were to be picked up and returned back home to McMurdo.

For the first couple of hours I worked alone and did an environmental audit - which includes, but is not limited to, checking if there was the appropriate storage and secondary containment for fuels, greywater, human waste; proper receptacles for trash and sorting trash; pre-season camp construction plans were followed; followup of any past issues; any noticeable new problems; stocked and available spill kits; correct storage of chemicals; camp and camp equipment is properly secured; any signs of environmental disturbance; ways to decrease the footprint and disturbance of the camp.

After my audit, I ate lunch at the camp with the two subcontractors and then we mapped the special feature tidepools at Explorer's Cove. The tidepools here are a unique habitat and the existing maps of the tidepools were somewhat ambiguous. Thus the subcontractors were here such that they could hike the area utilizing highly accurate GPS and groundtruthing to certain characteristics from aerial maps. From their mapping and field observations of the boundaries of the tidepools a better map and boundaries can be established for this protected area.

This was a great trip...views were spectacular and it was interesting being next to frozen coastline rather than a frozen lake for the first time.

The picture below is a picture facing north. You can see a glacier coming down in the background.

This is a picture of the intersection of small streams (snow and glacier melt I guess) that were feeding into the coastline. Mount Erebus is in the background and the white layer in front of it is the frozen sea ice that is starting to melt and has buckled up from winds, melt, etc. Facing east in the picture.

This is another picture of the intersection of some small streams and the frozen coastal waters. Facing south in the picture.




A skua (seagull-like bird) egg that I happened upon while hiking around and mapping. It was the size of a very large chicken egg, I don't remember the US classifications A, AA, AAA, or is it just extra large, large, medium that describes the size.