This afternoon I helped out on a boat trip to recover one of the sea gliders from South Cove.
There are in fact two science teams here this year using sea gliders. The particular glider I went out to help collect had an acoustic instrument deployed that can detect krill. Another glider is being used to conduct survey missions underneath ice shelves.
The gliders have an internal bladder that can be inflated and deflated to displace water. When the glider bladder is inflated the glider it is buoyant and rises and when the bladder is deflated the glider gradually sinks. The wings and fins allow the glider to move and make progress as it rises and sinks.
The gliders transmit their position back to base via a satellite link.
Pass Your Message 
Hello Cathy. My name is Ruby Dobson. I’m Graham Dobson’s granddaughter. I’m 7yrs old and I attend PerryHall Primary School. We are doing a project on Antartica at school. Can I ask if you’ve seen any Orca whales this summer? I would really love to hear from you about this. Thank you for your time. Ruby x.
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Hello Ruby,
Lovely to hear from you and a big shout out to you all at Perry Hall.
That is a very good question. We do get humpback, minke and orca whales visiting the station.
So far this season I have only seen minke whales, but some of my friends who do more boating than me have seen Orcas.
I have seen a lot of seals and penguins. Can you guess what types of seals and penguins I might have seem ?
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Hi Cathy.
Thank you for your reply! I think you might have seen some Emperor Penguins and possibly Leopard Seals? We learnt that they live in Antartica at school.
Thank you again, Ruby x
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