Friday 28th December

All day we sail parallel to the continent. The day stayed sunny, an azure zenith reflecting the deep blue sea. The bergy bits dotting the water may have been tinnies out for a day's fishing, while the distant rise of the continent took on just enough of a hue for it to look at times like our own droughty, denuded landform. It feels like summer and with temperatures up to just below freezing, we are in shirtsleeves.

Through binoculars we can see the rocks near the site of Mawson's hut.. For some reason it is satisfying to know that it was precisely this bit of the endless icy fringe that the explorer used as his base. We all peer out.

"Where?"
"There - just to the right of the tabular berg."

There is radio contact with the small group there carrying out heritage conservation work, but we cannot accept their invitation for beers. Too much to do.

The echo sounder shows the surroundings of the next station has an interesting bathymetry. The seabed slopes descend steeply and the valleys bear the scourings of massive icebergs that have calved, then ground along to eventually disappear into the sea — an excellent site for sampling, as Martin reports:

"... The trawl came up with a good haul of giant sponges and fish, indicating an area of very high production. As we move into some of the deeper sites we are beginning to see the first of the giant crustaceans, which are characteristic of the Antarctic. Overnight we caught amphipods that were 5 cm long and isopods that were more than 8 cm long, these groups include the sand-hoppers and sea-slaters which around the coast of Australia are usually less than a centimetre long."

I scan the trawl deck. The winch is briefly idle. The wet-lab on the starboard side is a hive of activity. A dozen people in their bright waterproofs bend over white tubs sorting, labeling, dissecting and photographing the creatures from the deep.

Portside an open door shows movement in the Oceanography lab. The microbiologists are at work, and next to them in the CTD room Esmee is shaking her water samples as the volunteers siphon seawater from the rosette of 24 cylinders just brought in.

Margot Foster is a journalist currently on board the Australian Aurora Australis, an Australian research vessel currently participating in the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML, IPY project 53). She works with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).