Things are warming up considerably down here. The sea ice is softening and the ice edge, where the open ocean starts is only maybe 20 miles or so north of station. The picture above shows a melt pool of the type that are popping up everywhere. The wall of ice is part of the Erebus glacier tongue. The picture below shows one of the ice caves that opens in the glacier and that we can enter and poke around in. 

We have been holding fish at a range of temperatures (from -1.86C to 6C) for a range of durations. We are measuring indices of growth. Amanda has taken a keen interest in the reproductive state of the animals and we will set up tanks that are kept in the dark to mimic winter conditions. We will compare the reproductive output (gamete production) in these fish to those we keep in the light. We are doing a similar experiment also where we are feeding some individuals and starving others to observe the effect of food availability on growth and reproduction. These will hopefully provide preliminary data on the impact of light and food availability on the metabolism and nutritional value of the fish, and we are hoping to relate this to the status of the seals.