East Greenland

A polar bear seen off Polarstern's stern

It was just before 7 am when I stepped through the water-tight door and out onto Polarstern’s working deck. Crew members in life vests and hard hats were standing around, waiting patiently as the winch reeled in the latest sampling gear at 1 m/s. The air was cold and dry and still.

I leaned over the rail to gaze at the sea. Gleaming white ice floes reflected the sunlight, bright as mid-day even though it was only early morning. Pale blue melt ponds dotted the seascape. Plate-sized animal tracks were visible in the snow on one ice floe – probably from a polar bear. We saw one off the ship’s stern just yesterday.

Everything is still in the ice. Waves are dampened by the thick, frozen sheets. If there is swell, the long, slow waves just lift the ice floes up and lower them back down. It looks like the ocean is breathing.

Soon enough, I was joined by my postdoc, Johanna, another ecologist named Alex, and one of the deck hands. Alex lowered her net over the side of the ship, and the deck hand spoke into his radio: "Hand net to the water." Peering over the side, I could follow Alex's net the whole way down - even at 20 m below the surface, the white fabric of her net was perfectly visible. The water around us was astoundingly clear. 

One of the snail larvae we collected, photographed at 100x 
magnification in dark field (left) and bright field (right).

A few minutes later, it was my turn. I lowered my net to 20 m depth, then raised it back up. My triceps reminded me that I've done this operation quite a few times already - they're getting stronger. As I pulled the weighted cod end of my net over the side of the ship, the deck hand spoke into his radio again: "Hand net on deck." 

Back in the lab, Johanna and I viewed small aliquots of our sample under the microscope. Soon enough, I started to notice small snails swimming around. I sucked one up with my pipet and set it aside. It was a species I had never seen before. 

Honestly, I was surprised any larvae were out and about at the East Greenland sampling stations this year. The clear water had nothing for them to eat. Alex even confirmed that her sample had almost no algae. Maybe if we had come a few weeks later, we would have caught the spring bloom and all the larvae that munched on it. But today, just a lone species of snail swam around under the ice. 

I look forward to identifying our friendly snail back at home and discovering what species it is!