Lindblad Expeditions has new tools to help bring alive the diversity of Antarctica, and during this inaugural expedition of the season they were used with great success. A new position, Undersea Specialist, was created and these staff members are dedicated to bringing the underwater world alive. In Antarctica this is through two methods, one by having divers in the water with a video camera to show during recaps or after dinner. The other way is through the use of an ROV, which is a vehicle controlled on the surface with a video camera. The ROV is able to stay down longer than divers, as it does not care about water temperatures of 28 degrees, and can observe the abundant life up to 500 feet deep.
During the last several days in Antarctica we had several opportunities to view the vast variety of life underwater and this is what it looks like at 240 feet with numerous sponges, hydroids and a sea star. During the various outings the divers and ROV were also able to capture images of penguins swimming underwater, sea and sun stars, a vast variety of sponges and hydroids, nudibranchs, shrimp, amphipods and more.
Today we were also able to look at the microscopic world of plankton, both phyto and zoo, which showed up nicely on the video microscope. These new tools have definitely enhanced our experiences on this expedition, and will continue to do so on future journeys.
