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What Happens in Antarctica Affects You More Than You Think · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  What if some of the most important
• 0:01
  warning signs about our planet are
• 0:03
  happening in one of the
• 0:04
  hardest places on earth to reach?
• 0:07
  Antarctica may feel distant,
• 0:08
  frozen, and disconnected from
• 0:10
  everyday life, but what happens there can
• 0:13
  shape sea level rise, ocean circulation,
• 0:16
  climate systems, and the future health of
• 0:18
  our marine ecosystems
• 0:19
  around the world. The challenge
• 0:22
  is that Antarctica is one of the least
• 0:24
  observed places on the
• 0:26
  planet, and that is starting to
• 0:27
  change. In this episode of the How to
• 0:29
  Protect the Ocean podcast,
• 0:31
  part of our ongoing Surfacing
• 0:32
  Secrets Explore the Ocean, Know the
• 0:35
  Planet series with Ocean
• 0:37
  Networks Canada, we go behind the
• 0:39
  scenes of an incredible international
• 0:41
  mission to install
• 0:42
  real-time ocean monitoring systems
• 0:45
  in Antarctica. Joining me from Spain was
• 0:48
  Juan Ho and from Ocean
• 0:50
  Networks Canada was Ruchi and
• 0:52
  Bradley to talk about what it takes to
• 0:54
  build observatories at the
• 0:55
  edge of the world, why the
• 0:57
  data matters and how global collaboration
• 1:00
  is helping us understand
• 1:01
  a rapidly changing ocean
• 1:02
  before it's too late. Here's the
• 1:04
  interview with Juan Ho, Ruchi, and
• 1:07
  Bradley. Enjoy it and
• 1:08
  I'll talk to you after.
• 1:09
  Hey Juan Ho, Ruchi, and Bradley, welcome
• 1:12
  to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 1:14
  Are you ready to talk about
• 1:16
  monitoring in Antarctica?
• 1:19
  Sure. We're always ready.
• 1:20
  Alright, I love it. This is going to be a
• 1:23
  lot of fun because this is part of our
• 1:26
  collaboration with Ocean Networks Canada,
• 1:28
  and there was a recent trip to Antarctica
• 1:30
  where you guys installed some really
• 1:33
  great monitoring tools
• 1:34
  and you got to work in
• 1:36
  Antarctica. So we're going to talk about
• 1:37
  what the program is all
• 1:38
  about, what it's like to work in
• 1:41
  Antarctica and to get there and
• 1:43
  everything and then come back and just
• 1:44
  start decompressing and
• 1:46
  figure out what it's like
• 1:46
  to live in a world where you have
• 1:49
  everything. So we're going to talk all
• 1:50
  about that on today's
• 1:51
  episode. I can't wait to do that.
• 1:53
  I am a professor while I'm in the lake.
• 1:56
  I've been engaged in marine science and
• 1:59
  technology for the last 40 years,
• 2:02
  more or less, or even a little bit more.
• 2:04
  So I've been doing a lot of things since
• 2:07
  the start of my career.
• 2:10
  I did a PhD about the origin of the
• 2:12
  Canary Island. It's an intraplate
• 2:14
  volcanic archipelago.
• 2:17
  And then I've been working all over
• 2:19
  Europe and in America as well in Canada
• 2:21
  and Mexico. In Europe
• 2:23
  I've been working in Barcelona, in
• 2:25
  Madrid, in Cambridge, in Paris, in
• 2:28
  Netherlands, in Rome.
• 2:31
  During this time, well, the important
• 2:34
  thing is just to
• 2:35
  summarize a little bit, is in
• 2:37
  2000 the president of the research
• 2:40
  council appointed me just to make a big
• 2:43
  change in the marine
• 2:44
  science and technology in my country in
• 2:47
  Spain and to set up the proper tools for
• 2:51
  people to do research,
• 2:53
  which is equal to say a powerful research
• 2:56
  vessels and at least a very
• 2:59
  wonderful Antarctic station
• 3:01
  in Livestong Island in Antarctica.
• 3:04
  Indeed, it was already is already 38
• 3:07
  years old, the Antarctic station.
• 3:10
  And when we did a big important
• 3:13
  renovation of the station. And now, well,
• 3:17
  as you know, because Ruchi and Brad
• 3:19
  and you were there, it's a very modern
• 3:21
  station with a very good
• 3:24
  communication, comfortable.
• 3:26
  And in terms of energy, very efficient
• 3:29
  because we do a co-generation using
• 3:32
  heating and electricity at the same time.
• 3:35
  So to be more efficient because while in
• 3:38
  Antarctica you should take care and we
• 3:41
  implement our self like
• 3:43
  most of the station is to
• 3:46
  to have a minimum impact from the from
• 3:50
  anthropogenic impact.
• 3:53
  And well, I just finished by my
• 3:55
  implication in the subsea observatory was
• 3:58
  related with my position in Rome as the
• 4:02
  director general for the
• 4:04
  European Multisciplinary Sea for
• 4:06
  observatories. I set up a system from the
• 4:09
  Arctic through the
• 4:10
  Atlantic to the Black Sea.
• 4:12
  And this is the reason why we jump into
• 4:14
  this connection between us and Network
• 4:17
  Canada because they
• 4:19
  have this is the bigger
• 4:21
  supersea laboratory cable supersea
• 4:24
  laboratory. And in Europe, we try to
• 4:27
  simulate something similar, very modest
• 4:29
  compared to what you did in Canada.
• 4:31
  And this is the reason why we have an
• 4:33
  incredible, beautiful and powerful
• 4:35
  collaboration between us and Network
• 4:37
  Canada and the National
• 4:38
  Research Council in Spain.
• 4:40
  Let's stop here. That's perfect. Thank
• 4:42
  you so much. Ruchi, how about yourself?
• 4:44
  Hello, everyone. My name is Ruchi Gustan.
• 4:47
  I'm a marine equipment specialist from
• 4:49
  Ocean Network Canada. I belong to a group
• 4:51
  called the Test and Development Group.
• 4:54
  And my background is electronics
• 4:56
  engineering. And I'm one of the designers
• 5:00
  of the first station that we
• 5:02
  deployed in the Southern Ocean.
• 5:04
  Very nice. Very nice. And Brad, how about
• 5:06
  yourself? Good morning, everyone. I'm
• 5:09
  Bradley. I'm part of the field services
• 5:11
  team at Ocean Network Canada.
• 5:13
  I'm an engineer on it. I helped to design
• 5:16
  the deployment method and how we're going
• 5:20
  to get the observatory from land into the
• 5:23
  water and also working.
• 5:26
  Nice, very nice. Awesome. Okay, so let's
• 5:28
  start off. I know one whole you get it
• 5:31
  gave us a little bit of a description of
• 5:33
  the station that's in Antarctica. Can you
• 5:35
  just talk about the
• 5:36
  explain the overall project?
• 5:38
  And then what problem you're trying to
• 5:40
  solve by monitoring in Antarctica? Yeah,
• 5:45
  well, indeed, these three years ago. So
• 5:49
  these are what third trial. And this is
• 5:51
  something absolutely normal when you are
• 5:53
  far away from everywhere,
• 5:55
  which is the case of Antarctica.
• 5:57
  As I always say to my technical people
• 6:00
  and engineers is we don't have any
• 6:02
  shopping 1000 kilometers around. So be
• 6:06
  sure when you make your checklist that
• 6:08
  you put everything which is needed.
• 6:09
  Otherwise, we need to have a lot of
• 6:12
  imagination and invention what we have.
• 6:15
  Of course, I mean, the two things are
• 6:17
  important. And then we decide to get out
• 6:21
  with experience with the people like Brad
• 6:24
  and routine to set up a modest, let's
• 6:29
  say, subsea observatory in Antarctica.
• 6:33
  And one of the reasons you figure we
• 6:34
  don't have anyone. And the second reason
• 6:36
  and important reason is because
• 6:39
  Antarctica is becoming a place where we
• 6:43
  can detect the primary location.
• 6:45
  And we can identify whatever is happening
• 6:47
  related with the health of the oceans,
• 6:50
  climate change, global change. And by
• 6:55
  putting the adequate sensor, this is what
• 6:59
  we did in this net
• 7:02
  ocean network observatory.
• 7:07
  We can pass this information online,
• 7:11
  even, and we have different we talk about
• 7:13
  how we pass this information.
• 7:16
  For instance, knowing temperature
• 7:18
  salinity and pressure and many other
• 7:21
  different essential ocean variables. This
• 7:24
  is the key point to understand how the
• 7:26
  ocean is evolving and how important is
• 7:30
  that for us to provide this information
• 7:34
  to the policymakers here to
• 7:36
  say, well, we have one ocean.
• 7:38
  We need to keep it as it is or to improve
• 7:41
  it. If not, something is going to be
• 7:44
  wrong in this planet. Absolutely. You
• 7:48
  mentioned earlier that the the project,
• 7:51
  the collaboration happened with Ocean
• 7:53
  Network Canada, because they were such a
• 7:54
  there were such leaders in the space of
• 7:57
  undersea observatory, especially with
• 7:58
  cables using cables. How did that
• 8:01
  partnership come together, though? Did
• 8:03
  you reach out to someone at Ocean Network
• 8:05
  Canada or did they reach out to you? How
• 8:07
  do or did you reach out to them?
• 8:08
  Did you know it through somebody else?
• 8:09
  How did you how did that initially start?
• 8:12
  Well, you know, they in terms of science
• 8:14
  and technology, even in marine science,
• 8:16
  we are not a such a huge community. So we
• 8:20
  know each other all
• 8:21
  over the planet. Right.
• 8:23
  And this is something interesting because
• 8:25
  we have been global since the beginning
• 8:27
  because we're changing information data
• 8:30
  between continent, between countries,
• 8:33
  between seas and in particular in this
• 8:35
  case between Canada and Spain.
• 8:37
  The relation in terms of science and in
• 8:40
  polar science and marine science has been
• 8:42
  and it is wonderful.
• 8:46
  And this is the reason why by having
• 8:49
  which is very important when you have a
• 8:50
  good relation between different teams,
• 8:52
  everything is smooth and easy to to set
• 8:55
  up whatever. And then we have only one
• 8:58
  focus is to work together in the best way
• 9:01
  possible and to get out
• 9:04
  of our common knowledge.
• 9:08
  And I think that's a big participation of
• 9:10
  the global escape because as you can
• 9:12
  imagine, ocean is global by definition.
• 9:16
  Right, right. Absolutely. Brad, you guys
• 9:20
  mentioned earlier in our in our previous
• 9:23
  talks that, you know, it was it was
• 9:26
  difficult to work in
• 9:27
  Antarctica and set up a subsea.
• 9:30
  And so we've been working on these problems. Can you just talk about some of
• 9:31
  the problems in just working in
• 9:33
  Antarctica itself and some of the
• 9:35
  problems that initiate this trip that
• 9:38
  that made this trip sort of worthwhile
• 9:40
  and like, you know, what you learned from
• 9:42
  that in terms of the past, what's
• 9:44
  happened in the past?
• 9:45
  Sure. Yeah. So in the in the past, we
• 9:48
  deployed to one observatories there and
• 9:51
  they lasted for a while. But then they
• 9:54
  they died likely from icebergs, we think
• 9:57
  floating icebergs floating
• 9:58
  along and cutting the cables.
• 10:00
  And so for this one, we came back with a
• 10:03
  crazy amount of cable protection of like
• 10:06
  thick steel pipe that we wrapped the
• 10:08
  cable on and then deploy that to the
• 10:10
  surface and that protects
• 10:11
  the cable from the icebergs.
• 10:13
  The problem is that the cable protection
• 10:17
  was 2000 kilograms or something like
• 10:20
  that. So that was a logistically
• 10:22
  challenging and also challenging for us
• 10:24
  to figure out a way to deploy that in the
• 10:26
  water where we want
• 10:28
  without a large vessel.
• 10:30
  So we managed to do that. And because we
• 10:33
  had the two observatories, the first one
• 10:35
  went well and the
• 10:36
  second one went much better.
• 10:38
  Awesome. And you just Brad just mentioned
• 10:41
  two observatories, you know, people be
• 10:44
  like, well, that's really redundant.
• 10:45
  Like, why do we need two observatories?
• 10:47
  You just talk about, you know, why you
• 10:49
  guys put into two observatories and, you
• 10:52
  know, why you feel
• 10:52
  better about it, really.
• 10:56
  Yeah, so I think I think yes, one is is
• 10:58
  redundancy for sure. And the second one
• 11:00
  is doubling of the capacity of data
• 11:03
  capture. So and and not only that, we are
• 11:08
  also like positioning the sensors
• 11:11
  strategically at different depths now.
• 11:15
  So that we have a better view of how the
• 11:17
  mixing of the freshwater coming out from
• 11:20
  the glacier and the saltwater coming into
• 11:23
  that basin, like how the dynamics is
• 11:26
  going on and then hopefully using the
• 11:28
  data would be able to assess the impact
• 11:30
  of the glacier melt and the saltwater
• 11:33
  coming in into the local ecosystem and
• 11:36
  how it impacts the, you know, the the the
• 11:41
  circulation as a whole, if we can feed
• 11:43
  that data to the model.
• 11:44
  Yeah, that's gonna be very important,
• 11:46
  especially as there's more more melt
• 11:49
  happening due due to climate change and
• 11:51
  one well, like, you know, we just talked
• 11:52
  a little bit about, you know, how this is
• 11:54
  going to impact. We're wondering how it's
• 11:56
  going to impact this
• 11:57
  this this bay essentially.
• 12:01
  Can you just talk a little bit about what
• 12:02
  type of data you're collecting and what
• 12:04
  do you hope to what trends do you hope to
• 12:07
  see or or or find out
• 12:09
  in terms of the project?
• 12:10
  Well, indeed, this is a trial because if
• 12:15
  we want to what we are doing normally,
• 12:19
  not only at the European level, but also
• 12:22
  at the level of Canada is to to have
• 12:25
  these subsea observatories more or less
• 12:29
  at the depth between
• 12:32
  2000 and even 3000 meters.
• 12:35
  And this is important because we know
• 12:39
  what is happening on the surface, but we
• 12:41
  have no much idea about what is happening
• 12:43
  on the bottom of the sea floor that
• 12:46
  affected dramatically
• 12:48
  the surface by all means.
• 12:51
  I mean, climate change,
• 12:52
  also circulation, whatsoever.
• 12:54
  In whatever case, it's a very good idea
• 12:57
  to have a monitoring station. I with the
• 13:01
  one we set up finally in Antarctica in
• 13:05
  the Spanish station to understand how the
• 13:10
  is the operation of different parameters.
• 13:13
  For instance, something that we know that
• 13:14
  is happening already is that this an
• 13:18
  increase melting of ice everywhere.
• 13:20
  I mean, everywhere means in North Pole
• 13:25
  and South Pole in particular in
• 13:27
  Antarctica. So we are having a huge
• 13:30
  amount of fresh water coming into the
• 13:33
  ocean and these make a completely
• 13:36
  different behavior of the ocean because
• 13:39
  by doing that, the the as much the water
• 13:46
  is less dense and is handling the sinking
• 13:49
  of the water masses.
• 13:50
  And this may affect completely the
• 13:53
  Antarctic bottle water, which is
• 13:55
  connected with a more, which is a very
• 13:57
  famous Atlantic, meridian ocean, current,
• 14:01
  which is the current which
• 14:04
  control claim in on Earth.
• 14:08
  So a little bit of a slowdown, which is
• 14:10
  that many of the scientists are claiming
• 14:12
  in both in the northern hemisphere and in
• 14:15
  the shoulders hemisphere may produce a
• 14:17
  drastic and dramatic change in the
• 14:20
  weather in the climate.
• 14:22
  But on top of the weather, there is also
• 14:26
  a smoothly change, which is happening
• 14:28
  about the hell be or hell chemical
• 14:32
  condition in the water column that
• 14:34
  affects life on at sea. And this is a
• 14:39
  process which is have many different
• 14:43
  consequences at all
• 14:45
  levels and all latitudes.
• 14:46
  Yeah. How's the data like that you get
• 14:50
  from this? How's it going to be used?
• 14:52
  Like, is it going to be implemented into
• 14:54
  models that your team has? Or is it part
• 14:57
  of a bigger, bigger, bigger project?
• 14:59
  I think it's part of the bigger project.
• 15:03
  Yeah, I think indeed, one of the beauties
• 15:06
  of this collaboration is that we are
• 15:08
  working together for the rest of the
• 15:10
  planet. So we as far as I know, we don't
• 15:13
  have any restriction for any scientist
• 15:15
  who is looking for a better planet.
• 15:15
  We don't have any restriction for any
• 15:15
  scientist who is looking for some data in
• 15:18
  Antarctica or in in in the Pacific where
• 15:22
  Neptune cable is working. And this is the
• 15:29
  beauty of the scientists because we
• 15:31
  spread very fast the data to
• 15:35
  the rest of the scientists.
• 15:37
  And this is the reason why science can
• 15:39
  progress very fast because we can talk to
• 15:41
  each other with the same data, not like
• 15:43
  others. Exactly. No, it makes such a
• 15:46
  makes such a big difference. A
• 15:47
  difference. Ruchi, can you just talk a
• 15:49
  little bit about how the data gets from
• 15:52
  Antarctica to, I believe, it's ocean
• 15:55
  networks, Canada and then to the world.
• 15:57
  Yeah, so currently there are two paths
• 15:59
  that the data goes through. So the one of
• 16:03
  the path and the main path is a
• 16:05
  satellite. So the data from the shore
• 16:07
  station is transmitted to a satellite.
• 16:11
  We're using a redeem right now.
• 16:13
  And from the satellite gets sent to ocean
• 16:16
  networks, kind of the servers. And then
• 16:18
  from there, we grab that data and then
• 16:20
  make that available through the oceans
• 16:22
  three point level platform.
• 16:25
  And that data is open. It's open to
• 16:26
  everyone. Any scientist around the world
• 16:28
  can use that. And the second part is
• 16:31
  through the radio frequency link. So we
• 16:34
  installed an antenna Mount Sophia in
• 16:37
  Livingston Island, where the data gets
• 16:39
  transmitted from the shore station.
• 16:42
  And then from that antenna, it's received
• 16:44
  to the the one Carlos Uno base and stored
• 16:50
  into their local server. And then from
• 16:53
  time to time, we we get the data from
• 16:55
  them because it's a very it's a highly
• 16:57
  secured server. Right. We have requested
• 16:59
  exclusively from from our Spanish
• 17:01
  partners to get the data.
• 17:03
  Okay, let's just talk a little bit about
• 17:06
  the preparation for the trip. Now, Juan,
• 17:08
  whoa, you've been to Antarctica a number
• 17:10
  of times. You've you know
• 17:12
  how to prep for this trip.
• 17:13
  Like, we'll talk to we'll talk to Brad
• 17:17
  and Ruchi about what it was like for them
• 17:19
  for the first time going and how they
• 17:21
  prep. But I would love to hear, you know,
• 17:24
  just in the overall general sense, like,
• 17:26
  you know, for a project like this, where
• 17:27
  my understanding is, you know, on the
• 17:29
  boat, it wasn't just this project, there
• 17:32
  were multiple other
• 17:33
  projects that were going on.
• 17:34
  Can you just talk about what the
• 17:35
  preparation is like when you're when
• 17:38
  you're doing a multi
• 17:39
  project sort of program like this?
• 17:42
  Yeah, well, indeed, any small project in
• 17:45
  Antarctica is a big challenge. Doesn't
• 17:47
  matter if it's small or not. I mean, the
• 17:48
  question is the main point. And Brad and
• 17:52
  Ruchi knows very well is preparation. We
• 17:55
  need to prepare everything
• 17:56
  minimum. Have a year in advance.
• 18:00
  At the end, there is always things coming
• 18:01
  in the last nanosecond, let's say. But on
• 18:04
  the other hand, it is important to make a
• 18:07
  very good checklist and to make all the
• 18:10
  combination of different issues,
• 18:13
  different sensors, different capacities,
• 18:15
  different scientists at
• 18:17
  the level of the logistic.
• 18:18
  Because in comparison with other places
• 18:23
  in northern Canada or in the Arctic, the
• 18:25
  only way to reach Antarctica is by using
• 18:29
  strong logistic vehicles like research
• 18:33
  vessels or planes, which are not very
• 18:37
  easy because they are
• 18:39
  very, very few small airports.
• 18:41
  And this depends on the very much on the
• 18:44
  weather condition to be sure if you can
• 18:46
  reach or not in whatever case, whatever
• 18:48
  you go in Antarctica. You need again
• 18:50
  sooner or later a result vessel.
• 18:53
  Well, in our particular case, we go our
• 18:58
  main position in South America, Punta
• 19:01
  Arenas in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina.
• 19:05
  And then we need to cross the Drake
• 19:06
  Passage, which the bad
• 19:09
  weather is sure is always there.
• 19:13
  And for big resale buses, rather big
• 19:16
  because between 80 and 100 meters length
• 19:20
  is relatively big, but I mean, it's small
• 19:25
  in the ocean. Everything is small. But we
• 19:29
  have been using until recently supply
• 19:33
  buses, which are much smaller and very
• 19:35
  difficult to handle.
• 19:36
  And they need to wait to have a window
• 19:40
  between two bad storms because there is
• 19:44
  one behind the other. So the only
• 19:45
  possibility is to have a very good
• 19:47
  weather report and say, well, now is the
• 19:49
  moment to be in between two storms.
• 19:53
  Right.
• 19:54
  Which is the usual case. Well, I have
• 19:56
  been crossing the great passage of the
• 19:58
  north and 20 times probably. Yeah. And
• 20:00
  the wave could be between 15 and 20
• 20:04
  meters high. So cross. So most of the
• 20:07
  time, the people are lying in bed.
• 20:09
  I'm not because I am you since I am very
• 20:11
  young to say and I always go to the
• 20:14
  kitchen, say, where's my food? No food
• 20:18
  today. It's not allowed to cook anything.
• 20:23
  So and then once we are in Antarctica,
• 20:26
  the the challenge is to to deploy
• 20:29
  everything using Saudi small boat because
• 20:32
  the large vessel, they cannot reach close
• 20:35
  to the to the to the station. And then we
• 20:39
  have another risk. This is the more risky
• 20:42
  place or point when we are transferring
• 20:48
  all the material and people from the
• 20:51
  research vessel to the station. We are
• 20:54
  very used. But as I always tell to the
• 20:57
  engineers and technicians, it doesn't
• 20:58
  matter. And it doesn't matter if we're
• 21:00
  used. We need to have a lot of respect to
• 21:02
  the sea and to the ice, both because we
• 21:07
  never had any accident.
• 21:09
  And because we have a lot of protocols
• 21:14
  and we follow strictly the protocols,
• 21:16
  even if I have some anecdote because I
• 21:20
  set up many protocols when I was
• 21:22
  responsible of Antarctic station.
• 21:24
  And one of the protocols was that you are
• 21:27
  not allowed to get out of the station
• 21:28
  alone. You need to have with somebody
• 21:30
  else. You need to to tell to the head of
• 21:34
  the station. But I once I tried to be
• 21:36
  alone and say, this is not allowed
• 21:39
  because you said you put it there.
• 21:42
  So you should follow the rules like
• 21:44
  everybody else. And I
• 21:45
  say, of course, of course.
• 21:47
  Well, I worked up in the Arctic before
• 21:50
  and I know the protocols there were very
• 21:51
  strict as well. You know, one, you don't
• 21:53
  want to touch that water for too long.
• 21:54
  It's very cold to you just never know
• 21:56
  what's going to happen at sea. Exactly.
• 21:58
  You know, even if you're using a small
• 21:59
  boat to go from, you know, ship to shore,
• 22:02
  you just never know what could happen.
• 22:04
  And ice as small as as a little rock can
• 22:07
  can tear a hole in a boat. You just never
• 22:09
  know. So if it's if your boat's not ready
• 22:11
  for for ice. So there's a
• 22:14
  lot of stuff to go over.
• 22:15
  But if you fall into the water, you have
• 22:18
  a few minutes, only a few minutes there.
• 22:20
  So yeah. Yeah. And everybody knows this.
• 22:23
  So we take care of this and we take care
• 22:26
  about everybody as Brad and Ruchi knows
• 22:29
  very well. Yeah, absolutely.
• 22:31
  And speaking of which, you know, Brad,
• 22:34
  we'll start off with you in terms of like
• 22:36
  the prep first time going, you know, with
• 22:39
  Juan Juan's team, you know, they've gone
• 22:41
  a number of times, you know, this is your
• 22:42
  first time going, you're prepping. At
• 22:45
  what point did you start to think like,
• 22:47
  this is going to be really remote.
• 22:49
  And like, I need to make sure I have
• 22:52
  everything like like did did one on his
• 22:55
  team kind of prep you guys a little bit
• 22:56
  in terms of like, hey, make sure you have
• 22:58
  everything or were you just kind of
• 23:00
  realizing it throughout the
• 23:01
  prep or a little bit of both?
• 23:03
  A little bit of both for sure. We, you
• 23:06
  know, we we had the idea that going to
• 23:08
  enter guys a little bit crazy and we
• 23:09
  probably need to bring over the equipment
• 23:11
  necessary. Yeah. We we also knew that the
• 23:15
  base was there. And now now that we've
• 23:17
  been there, the base is really well done.
• 23:18
  The base is really well stocked. So of
• 23:20
  course, you know, bring your own stuff
• 23:21
  and make sure you have everything you
• 23:22
  need. But like the tools and a lot of the
• 23:24
  equipment we needed was there already. So
• 23:26
  we might bring a
• 23:27
  little bit less next time.
• 23:29
  But for for for pieces we need for the
• 23:34
  observatory, those we all
• 23:36
  we bring what's the saying.
• 23:39
  One is none and two is one to you need to
• 23:42
  to make sure because if anything breaks
• 23:44
  and you're there like one who said
• 23:45
  there's there's no store. You're not
• 23:47
  you're not buying another one. It's you
• 23:49
  need to either bring the stuff, bring
• 23:51
  extra or bring what
• 23:52
  you need to make extra.
• 23:55
  So, yeah, that's definitely something we
• 23:57
  think about as we're packing those boxes
• 23:59
  that could shift off.
• 24:00
  Yeah, that's amazing.
• 24:01
  Richie, how about yourself? What were
• 24:02
  your thoughts, you know, like prepping
• 24:04
  for this trip? Yeah, I think I think we
• 24:06
  can, you know, like over prepped a little
• 24:09
  bit because it's our first time. We don't
• 24:10
  really know what's what's going to
• 24:12
  happen. But the good thing is that
• 24:15
  there's so many people on the ship who's
• 24:17
  had experience
• 24:18
  already working at the base.
• 24:20
  So we talked to them and like, you know,
• 24:24
  we learned new things from them and we
• 24:25
  started like thinking through what fine
• 24:29
  tuning we need to be in our plan to
• 24:31
  account for that. Like, okay, so we
• 24:34
  brought two of these. Okay, we don't have
• 24:36
  to bring this in the field. We can leave
• 24:38
  this at the base kind of thing. Yeah, I
• 24:41
  think it really helped a lot.
• 24:43
  You know, like talking to the experts on
• 24:47
  the ship help us a lot. Pancha our plans
• 24:51
  as we went into the field during the few
• 24:54
  days. Awesome. Now, I'm thinking about
• 24:57
  the platform that you're putting all the
• 24:59
  instruments you're putting together.
• 25:01
  It's got to be pretty heavy. It's got to
• 25:02
  be pretty bulky at times. You're trying
• 25:04
  to manage, you know, thinking about what
• 25:06
  the ship is going to be like. There's
• 25:08
  other projects on the ship.
• 25:10
  So, Rishi, how do you how do you sort of
• 25:12
  prep for that part of it, like to for the
• 25:14
  space that you'll have to put your
• 25:16
  equipment and the weight of it as well as
• 25:19
  you mentioned earlier?
• 25:21
  So, luckily, we have a very good
• 25:23
  logistics team at the ONC and also very
• 25:27
  good logistics team at UTM CSIC, the
• 25:30
  Spanish Research Team. And they
• 25:33
  coordinated and when we appeared in Punta
• 25:39
  Arenas, when we arrived in Punta Arenas,
• 25:40
  all of the logistics
• 25:42
  have been handled already.
• 25:43
  All that I needed to do is just go into
• 25:46
  the sea camp and check, make sure that
• 25:48
  you have all the boxes in there. And then
• 25:51
  when we arrived at the base, all of these
• 25:54
  boxes has to be had to
• 25:56
  be transported via Zodiac.
• 25:58
  So I had to be there and and probably
• 26:00
  have to be there to just to make sure
• 26:02
  that we have everything unloaded. Right.
• 26:04
  The ship is to ship once everything is
• 26:06
  unloaded the ship will go somewhere else.
• 26:08
  And we had to be absolutely sure that we
• 26:10
  have everything unloaded.
• 26:12
  From the ship into the base. Gotcha.
• 26:16
  Yeah, indeed. Well, one of the things
• 26:18
  that I mentioned always sees that in
• 26:20
  Antarctica, everybody help each other.
• 26:24
  And normally before asking who you are,
• 26:26
  they are what you need.
• 26:27
  And this is something very nice. Never
• 26:30
  happened anywhere else. And in
• 26:33
  particular, loading the equipment is
• 26:37
  critical simply because we are many
• 26:39
  different research projects. So it is
• 26:42
  very important to know
• 26:44
  the sequence of the project.
• 26:46
  And these depend on how you load the
• 26:49
  vessel, because unloading depend on when
• 26:53
  they are going to use the equipment,
• 26:54
  because sometimes happened that for
• 26:56
  whatever reason, the ship needs to go
• 26:58
  somewhere else because the ships and most
• 27:01
  of the time our ships are doing dual
• 27:03
  work, which is transporting people and
• 27:08
  tools and doing research.
• 27:11
  Which is something that we need to
• 27:13
  improve on not only we, but the world,
• 27:17
  because this is stupid sometimes from my
• 27:19
  viewpoint is if you have a Ferrari, you
• 27:23
  don't use the Ferrari as a taxi, no, you
• 27:25
  use the Ferrari to do races.
• 27:28
  And sometimes we have a beautiful polar
• 27:31
  reserve vessel doing transportation and
• 27:33
  say, well, this can be done by somebody
• 27:35
  else. No, not very simple. But, OK, we
• 27:38
  improve. But when I say we,
• 27:40
  this is at the world level, I mean,
• 27:44
  everybody is because there's a lot of
• 27:46
  strategy logistics. And in any case, if
• 27:53
  you have a problem there and you sign a
• 27:55
  call, everybody help you immediately.
• 27:59
  I mean, this is a nanoseconds for to
• 28:01
  respond to help you. Absolutely. And
• 28:04
  speaking of which, Brad, why don't you
• 28:06
  just talk a little bit about like, you
• 28:08
  guys are two people
• 28:08
  coming in from a different,
• 28:09
  like, you know, with O and C, you used to
• 28:11
  working with a lot of different
• 28:13
  collaborators in the past, like when you
• 28:15
  go out in the field and even even within
• 28:16
  within O and C as well.
• 28:19
  Now you're coming on to a ship with
• 28:20
  people mostly, I assume from from Spain,
• 28:24
  probably not speaking English as their
• 28:26
  first language. Here you guys come in. I
• 28:28
  don't know what your what your Spanish is
• 28:30
  like, but can you talk about just what it
• 28:33
  was like to interact with brand new teams
• 28:36
  from a different part of the world that you may or may not have.
• 28:38
  That you may or may not know and being on
• 28:40
  a ship with them for multiple weeks. For
• 28:43
  sure. Yeah, it was a, you know, there's
• 28:46
  there's a there's like a shocking aspect
• 28:48
  for sure to being in an environment
• 28:50
  that's not like really not English, but
• 28:54
  the crew and everyone there like Juan
• 28:56
  Jose is so inviting and so focused on
• 29:00
  achieving the goal of
• 29:02
  whatever we're trying to do.
• 29:03
  So everyone really brings us in. They
• 29:06
  helped us a lot translating when
• 29:07
  necessary. And, you know, sometimes we'd
• 29:10
  miss a thing here or there. But whenever
• 29:12
  there's important information, someone
• 29:13
  who would pull us aside and
• 29:15
  give us the give us the info.
• 29:17
  And then once you're on the base, it's
• 29:20
  amazing that the saying of of what you
• 29:23
  need, not what's your name is so so true.
• 29:26
  And every single person there is they're
• 29:30
  all inspired together to work for this
• 29:34
  like world science goal. So everyone's
• 29:38
  everyone's really pushing hard together.
• 29:39
  And it's it's amazing to be part of.
• 29:41
  That's that's awesome.
• 29:43
  Ruchi, how about yourself?
• 29:45
  I think I can share similar experience
• 29:47
  with Brad. I kind of I kind of like know
• 29:52
  a little bit of Spanish here and there
• 29:53
  because I grew up in the Philippines and
• 29:55
  I spoke a few dialects
• 29:58
  there that helped like Spanish.
• 29:59
  But our Spanish inspired dialect. So I
• 30:03
  can understand phrases and words there.
• 30:06
  So that came in handy. And yeah, and then
• 30:10
  I think it's going to what Brad said.
• 30:13
  It's just so amazing to be in this kind
• 30:15
  of environment where
• 30:16
  everyone is willing to help that.
• 30:19
  Like even if they're explaining very in
• 30:23
  depth technical thing that you know, my
• 30:27
  my my understanding Spanish can like
• 30:29
  follow the clip very quickly. Someone is
• 30:32
  always there willing to help even if you
• 30:34
  don't ask them, you know, they get a
• 30:36
  sense of, you know, me needing help to
• 30:38
  understand this like very detailed stuff.
• 30:40
  So they come in and like, hey, can how
• 30:43
  can I help extend this? And it just comes
• 30:47
  naturally. And that's kind of the I think
• 30:49
  the miracle there is like, yeah, all of
• 30:52
  this happens. And you don't even have to
• 30:54
  speak a word. It just
• 30:55
  like happens naturally.
• 30:56
  And it's so beautiful to be experiencing
• 30:58
  something like this in my life.
• 31:04
  Well, that's good. I mean, that's awesome
• 31:05
  to be able to see that now. Let's talk
• 31:07
  about the trip itself for you guys. You
• 31:11
  know, as one who mentioned earlier,
• 31:13
  there's a pass where it's
• 31:15
  there's never good weather.
• 31:17
  How did you guys have been on boats
• 31:18
  before sailing down towards the Antarctic
• 31:21
  has got to be quite a different
• 31:24
  experience, Brad. Can you just talk about
• 31:26
  what like how long the trip was and what
• 31:28
  it was like to go through the past?
• 31:31
  Yeah, we for for both directions on the
• 31:35
  way there, our ship was delayed a little
• 31:37
  bit. So we ended up having a few more
• 31:38
  days aboard, which was a we were in
• 31:42
  shelter. So it wasn't too crazy, but it
• 31:43
  extended the journey. And then actually
• 31:46
  against what is normal.
• 31:50
  Our Drake Passage heading there was kind
• 31:53
  of crazily calm. It might have been a
• 31:55
  promise journey. So that was really cool
• 31:58
  to see. I was looking forward to some big
• 32:01
  waves and feeling nervous.
• 32:04
  You know, maybe maybe on the next next
• 32:06
  adventure through, we'll get to see those
• 32:08
  20 meter seas one hose.
• 32:12
  Careful what you asked for it because
• 32:13
  that came out comfortable. There's a lot
• 32:18
  of horror stories of, you know, 45
• 32:21
  degrees on the boat and it sounds quite
• 32:23
  extreme. That's awesome.
• 32:26
  How long was the trip to get from Chile
• 32:29
  to to your like where the station was?
• 32:33
  I think it's about like three nights,
• 32:35
  three more or less, I think that was
• 32:38
  going there and coming back. And yeah,
• 32:42
  coming back, though, I'd like four or
• 32:45
  five meter wave and that's enough to get
• 32:47
  me. So I was like,
• 32:50
  just in my bed and yeah.
• 33:21
  It could happen to the best of us. I know I've had it a couple of times.
• 33:22
  But you don't see it any time on board
• 33:24
  the ship because they are lying in the
• 33:26
  bed most of the time seasick and waiting.
• 33:29
  I want to reach the
• 33:31
  station before I die here.
• 33:35
  Yeah, it's only three
• 33:36
  days, guys. Three days.
• 33:39
  Interesting to share the story here that
• 33:42
  the seasickness medicines are like hang
• 33:45
  on the doors like candy. So you can make
• 33:48
  any time you go there, grab your
• 33:50
  seasickness medicine if you if you want.
• 33:53
  But yeah, it's kind of a way we saw it.
• 33:57
  Yeah, I feel it's kind of a kind of a
• 33:59
  candy being hung on the door
• 34:01
  in a candy shop or something.
• 34:03
  I love it. I love it. That's awesome. So
• 34:07
  when you get what were your first
• 34:08
  impression when you actually get to the
• 34:10
  station, you know, what did you for Brad?
• 34:14
  What did you think of when
• 34:15
  you first got to that station?
• 34:17
  I think I think that kind of bring me
• 34:19
  back to the one who talking about the six
• 34:21
  months preparation. So like we spend all
• 34:24
  this time designing the observatory,
• 34:26
  thinking about the plan, think about how
• 34:28
  we're going to do it.
• 34:29
  And then we ship it off six months before
• 34:32
  we go. So those six months, all we can do
• 34:34
  is think about it and like really focus
• 34:37
  and think about what we're going to do.
• 34:38
  So when we're on the boat, that's our
• 34:40
  last week before we're
• 34:42
  about to get to our big show.
• 34:43
  And so for me, and I think for Ruchi as
• 34:45
  well, all we're doing is thinking about
• 34:48
  what we're going to do, think about the
• 34:50
  mission, think about everything that can
• 34:51
  go wrong and what we're going to do to
• 34:52
  solve those problems.
• 34:53
  And so then when you arrive at the base,
• 34:56
  it's finally like, here's the boxes,
• 34:59
  here's all your equipment, it's now time
• 35:02
  to work. So for me, it's actually kind of
• 35:04
  relieving to be at the base because now
• 35:06
  it's not time to think anymore.
• 35:08
  It's time to do and it's time to solve
• 35:10
  those problems and get the observatory in
• 35:12
  the water. So for me, being
• 35:14
  at the base was very exciting.
• 35:17
  Very nice. Very nice. And for you, Ruchi.
• 35:21
  Yeah, for me, it's kind of the warm
• 35:23
  welcome from the base. So when we
• 35:26
  arrived, so the ship was kind of anchored
• 35:30
  probably like, I don't know, 1500 meters
• 35:33
  from the shore. So we have to go by
• 35:35
  Zodiac and then as to me, like as a
• 35:38
  Zodiac was like approaching the shore.
• 35:42
  If you see these people waving at you,
• 35:44
  like welcoming at the base and I see I
• 35:46
  see Joanne, I see Joelle helping with
• 35:49
  with the Zodiac, putting it into the
• 35:52
  shore and welcoming us
• 35:54
  is it's kind of a warm up.
• 35:55
  And you know, when you get there, that
• 35:57
  things will be done, you know, with this
• 35:59
  kind of attitudes, with this kind of
• 36:01
  characters, people out there, things will
• 36:02
  be done. And that's giving me like a
• 36:06
  positive kind of outlook of this trip.
• 36:09
  It's this I arrived to add to what Ruchi
• 36:13
  saying. It was like, like me and Ruchi
• 36:14
  are going there for the first time. So
• 36:16
  we're the new people and we get to see
• 36:18
  all of these people who have gone on
• 36:20
  multiple campaigns and
• 36:22
  like they're meeting up.
• 36:23
  It's a big reunion. Everyone's so happy
• 36:25
  to see each other and they know they're
• 36:26
  going to be working together and working
• 36:28
  on their whatever objectives they have
• 36:30
  planned for the months ahead. It was it's
• 36:32
  a really special place for sure.
• 36:35
  Well, now our station is a modern
• 36:37
  station, but still that you see each
• 36:42
  other every day, every morning for the
• 36:45
  breakfast for lunch for dinner. Yeah. And
• 36:48
  you sleep very close to each other. So I
• 36:51
  mean, you need to have a relationship.
• 36:53
  You kill everything. And this is very,
• 36:57
  very important. And before was even more
• 37:00
  important because we're in a container of
• 37:03
  20 feet. We put, I don't know, the people
• 37:06
  there now is a little
• 37:07
  bit more comfortable.
• 37:08
  And this is good. But in any case, the
• 37:11
  relation is fundamentally because, you
• 37:16
  know, when you have a job at the end of
• 37:18
  the job, you go home and you cut. You
• 37:21
  never got to during
• 37:22
  the time you're there.
• 37:25
  Yeah, there's no downtime. Like in terms
• 37:27
  of home to your families or going home.
• 37:30
  Yeah. Like doing what
• 37:31
  you normally do. Yeah.
• 37:33
  The paradox is the people who stay there
• 37:35
  longer like John who just I mean, the
• 37:38
  station was closed on Thursday and
• 37:42
  Friday, joining the rest of the people. I
• 37:45
  mean, John is the head of the station.
• 37:47
  They were sailing to to South America.
• 37:51
  And he always tell me, you say, wow, at
• 37:53
  the end of some almost three months, I
• 37:57
  miss Antarctica because everything is
• 37:59
  easy. I know what to do every day. I have
• 38:02
  a breakfast every day. I don't need any
• 38:04
  coin to do anything. And the landscape is
• 38:07
  beautiful. When I come
• 38:08
  back, it's traffic. Nice.
• 38:10
  Money is a mess.
• 38:12
  They say everybody. Yeah, for sure.
• 38:20
  You get used to that calmness and just
• 38:22
  quiet, you know, being in such a remote
• 38:24
  area that it's just it's just when you
• 38:27
  come back, there's we don't realize how
• 38:29
  much noise is in our lives like in our
• 38:31
  regular day to day lives.
• 38:32
  In any case, unreal. Now is a remote
• 38:35
  area, but not so remote because we have
• 38:38
  Internet. We have connection. But before
• 38:40
  I remember when I was younger and when I
• 38:42
  went there, when I was on board a ship.
• 38:45
  For example, on board a ship, I have a
• 38:47
  communication with my wife once every
• 38:49
  three weeks and everybody wants to be
• 38:51
  behind me. And you know why? Because you
• 38:54
  say, well, who you are the faster always
• 38:56
  say, you know, I need to talk half an
• 38:58
  hour to my wife. If I have three minutes
• 39:00
  in one second, I can solve everything.
• 39:04
  And this is what I want to be in the list
• 39:07
  behind you because then
• 39:08
  I got some extra time.
• 39:10
  Yeah, that's hilarious. It's so funny.
• 39:12
  Let's talk about the work when when you
• 39:15
  guys got there, you know, you had you
• 39:17
  were putting in two stations, some
• 39:19
  different instruments.
• 39:22
  Bradley, how long did that take to do
• 39:25
  when you were down there? And it was was
• 39:27
  it in the anticipated time that you thought it would take?
• 39:30
  Depends on what you're asking about. But
• 39:33
  a few of the different kind of work days
• 39:36
  we had went according to plan, the
• 39:39
  largest one or our first large
• 39:41
  deployment. So we're deploying the actual
• 39:44
  observatory into the water and putting
• 39:46
  all the split pipe on and
• 39:47
  making sure the cable is protected.
• 39:49
  That one I told Joanne, it would take us
• 39:52
  something like eight hours maybe and it
• 39:56
  ended up taking us more like 14. So that
• 39:59
  was a little bit longer than anticipated
• 40:01
  for sure. But that that's kind of a
• 40:03
  compliment as well to the
• 40:04
  group that we're working with.
• 40:06
  So it's not only me and Ruchi out there,
• 40:07
  there was maybe five or six of us from
• 40:10
  the base. And it's a 14 hour long day of
• 40:15
  hard physical work in the cold outside
• 40:18
  and no, not a single, not a single bad
• 40:22
  attitude or anything, even for a second,
• 40:25
  everyone is super happy to work.
• 40:27
  I mean, you're working in an amazing
• 40:29
  location. So, you know, it's not so bad.
• 40:31
  Right? For 14 hours. It's a grind. And
• 40:34
  everyone is super willing to do it. And
• 40:36
  then when we ask who wants to come for
• 40:38
  the second deployment, every single
• 40:40
  person comes again and is
• 40:41
  happy to do the exact same. Yeah,
• 40:43
  yeah, see the exact same. Yeah, long
• 40:45
  days, tiring days, I'm sure. And it can
• 40:48
  get what's the weather like Ruchi? Like,
• 40:51
  is it always nice? Is there some weather
• 40:53
  that comes in from nowhere where it's all
• 40:55
  of a sudden that's a blizzard or what
• 40:57
  have you? Like, what was it like to work
• 40:59
  in that type of condition?
• 41:01
  It changes so fast, like the weather is
• 41:04
  so fast that we have like a local weather
• 41:07
  forecaster at the base. And we tried to
• 41:12
  catch the good weather window for our
• 41:16
  stuff, our equipment. But once we're on
• 41:21
  site, I think we're pretty much okay,
• 41:23
  even if the weather doesn't cooperate.
• 41:25
  But it's very critical that you only
• 41:27
  transport the equipment when the weather
• 41:31
  window is good. Right? Yeah, yeah, I can
• 41:34
  imagine. And in terms of weather, the key
• 41:37
  point there is the winds. I mean, you can
• 41:39
  be you can have beautiful sunny day
• 41:42
  working in shorts and all of a sudden in
• 41:44
  something like five minutes, there is a
• 41:47
  wind called Katabatic wind, which is
• 41:49
  coming through the mountains. Very cold.
• 41:51
  And you think that I'm
• 41:53
  going to die in the next.
• 41:54
  It's a drop of I don't know, at least in
• 42:00
  the feeling is 10 degrees less than the
• 42:03
  work in really very fast. So this is one
• 42:08
  of the reasons that you should when you
• 42:10
  are working, you should take care about
• 42:11
  this kind of thing
• 42:12
  because it happened often. Yeah.
• 42:14
  And in that kind of situation, do the
• 42:17
  people go back into the base until that
• 42:19
  that wind is gone? Or are there certain
• 42:21
  conditions where you're just like, we
• 42:23
  can't work in this, let's just go back
• 42:24
  in. Very good point depend on the
• 42:26
  situation and depend on the location in
• 42:29
  any case, the first thing to do is to
• 42:30
  have a communication with the base and to
• 42:33
  understand where are you because they
• 42:35
  need to prepare
• 42:36
  eventually something to rescue you.
• 42:39
  Doesn't happen often because people are
• 42:42
  well trained it and they have a good
• 42:44
  feeling. I mean, one thing is that you
• 42:46
  have a little bit of a win. Another thing
• 42:48
  is the prediction in terms of whether we
• 42:51
  know it in advance. So when we have a bad
• 42:53
  prediction, we restrict the the movement
• 42:56
  around the station a lot.
• 42:58
  Gotcha.
• 43:00
  To avoid risk because if we have a
• 43:03
  problem with a person, if a quite is not
• 43:07
  an easy task. I mean, this takes weeks
• 43:09
  and this perturb everybody, of course,
• 43:13
  the first one. So this is critical. The
• 43:17
  collective, the community is important
• 43:20
  because if something is someone fails,
• 43:23
  this affects everybody.
• 43:25
  Right. Right. Yeah, I know it's true.
• 43:27
  Everybody knows this.
• 43:28
  So this is important.
• 43:30
  It's very important. Absolutely. Now, for
• 43:33
  Ruchi and Brad, one of you can take this
• 43:36
  when you're working in these types of
• 43:38
  conditions where things can change
• 43:40
  quickly. Obviously, now everything's
• 43:42
  never going to work out perfectly. Was
• 43:44
  there a time where you had to adapt, you
• 43:47
  know, where you're just
• 43:48
  like, oh, wait, hold on a second.
• 43:49
  This isn't going to work or, you know, we
• 43:51
  need to adapt to this. Like, can you just
• 43:53
  talk a little bit about that? Whoever
• 43:54
  wants to start if that happened? Yeah,
• 43:58
  yeah. I've got a good one. We.
• 44:02
  For for the the split point deployments,
• 44:05
  like the big subsidy deployment, the
• 44:07
  weather has to be perfect. And like one
• 44:09
  who said it's it's windy there all the
• 44:11
  time, very frequently. So we had to wait
• 44:15
  for the good weather window
• 44:17
  day for our actual deployment.
• 44:18
  The first one we found one pretty pretty
• 44:20
  reasonably well. But then the second one,
• 44:22
  we ended up really getting close to the
• 44:24
  end of time. And so Juwan helped maneuver
• 44:28
  some activities so that we would be able
• 44:30
  to have our window on the it might have
• 44:33
  been the last day we were there. So yeah,
• 44:35
  it was down to the wire for sure. And it
• 44:37
  ended up working great. And yeah, Ruchi,
• 44:39
  how about yourself? Yeah, for me, it's so
• 44:42
  we have to install the
• 44:45
  equipment at two different sides.
• 44:48
  One is in this in this cold, not called
• 44:51
  the stop where we have our instrument,
• 44:53
  our sensors. And the other one is like
• 44:56
  the R.A. receiver on Mount Sophia. So I'm
• 44:58
  going to share our experience like going
• 45:01
  to my office. I have this like 30
• 45:03
  kilogram backpack and had
• 45:04
  to like walk up the mountain.
• 45:07
  So a very steep walk through like rocks
• 45:09
  and glaciers and rocks and glaciers
• 45:12
  again. And yeah, it's because I was I was
• 45:16
  so tired during that like uphill plan. I
• 45:21
  had this stuff so many times. But then
• 45:23
  when we get there, I think we kind of
• 45:24
  missed that that weather window that it
• 45:27
  start like, like the wind, it's it's I
• 45:31
  can barely stand with the wind.
• 45:32
  It's so it's so strong that I had to like
• 45:35
  somehow crawl just to get the equipment
• 45:38
  out of my pack and onto this tower. And
• 45:42
  then there was also like a thick fog
• 45:46
  coming. So it's kind of hard to see where
• 45:48
  we're connecting things. But I think
• 45:51
  those are one of the things that we had
• 45:53
  to like adjust as we go because as this
• 45:56
  like weather window is closing up, we had
• 46:00
  to compromise a little bit a select
• 46:01
  the height of the antenna we want to
• 46:03
  install because the visibility is so
• 46:05
  poor, we kind of installed it at the
• 46:07
  ideal location. We installed it in the
• 46:10
  original plan. Yeah, we had to like
• 46:12
  compromise a little bit in that. So we
• 46:14
  had to do, I'd say a good amount of like
• 46:17
  fine tune adjustment because of the
• 46:21
  environment conditions.
• 46:23
  That's so cool. That is, I mean, it's an
• 46:26
  interesting dynamic to work in, you know,
• 46:29
  because you're you're in like sometimes
• 46:32
  what we consider like extreme weather
• 46:34
  shifts like back and forth. It looks like
• 46:36
  you got a combination of weather to with
• 46:37
  the fog and the wind and and everything.
• 46:39
  So that always makes things things
• 46:40
  interesting. And then you got the
• 46:41
  physical aspect of hiking up a mountain
• 46:43
  to put it on this on the station. It
• 46:45
  doesn't make it easy.
• 46:46
  When you like, I think it's kind of funny
• 46:50
  to see like you do a lot of field work
• 46:51
  and you you're you are physically
• 46:53
  involved in doing the field work, whether
• 46:56
  it's on a boat or on land and you're
• 46:58
  you're usually carrying stuff and it can
• 47:00
  be awkward and you have to have like a
• 47:02
  certain amount of strength. So so Richie,
• 47:05
  how do you think you fared with carrying
• 47:08
  that out? Like, do you think like coming
• 47:10
  back, you're like, okay, hold on a
• 47:11
  second. Maybe next time before I go, I
• 47:13
  should do some workouts beforehand to get me to get me to get me to do some work.
• 47:21
  I think it's just like, I don't know,
• 47:23
  like doing doing a lot of runs.
• 47:25
  But no, run can can help me prepare for
• 47:31
  that uphill climb. It's just so just so extreme.
• 47:31
  Yeah. But yeah, I have to do some sort of, I
• 47:47
  don't know, like a little bit of physical
• 47:48
  conditioning, I guess, so I don't get
• 47:49
  injured or right at least can survive. Yeah.
• 47:51
  I'll be honest, like it's it's when you
• 47:58
  hear Antarctica, it's not something you
• 47:59
  think about is like these mountains and
• 48:01
  hiking like how difficult it would be to
• 48:03
  hike, you know, like
• 48:04
  you guys both live in B.C.
• 48:06
  Hiking is a common thing, you know, and
• 48:09
  usually we think hikes are like an easier
• 48:10
  thing to do, probably B.C. There's
• 48:12
  probably more maybe extreme examples of
• 48:15
  hiking where you can go on to like
• 48:17
  hiking, like in more rougher terrains.
• 48:19
  But you never really think about that
• 48:21
  from an Antarctica perspective. You just
• 48:22
  think, oh, it's just
• 48:23
  probably mostly flat.
• 48:24
  You never think of all the dips and lows
• 48:26
  in the mountains and ranges and stuff
• 48:28
  like that. So I think it's kind of cool
• 48:29
  to get that experience and to feel that.
• 48:33
  Now, after like the last day kind of
• 48:36
  coming down to the last minute, would you
• 48:40
  consider everything was a success in
• 48:41
  terms of deployment and then testing and
• 48:43
  making sure data is coming through?
• 48:46
  Right. Yeah, huge, huge success for sure.
• 48:49
  We got we brought two observatories with
• 48:52
  the, you know, goal of doing both. But
• 48:54
  having one work would have been a good
• 48:55
  success. But both are working well.
• 48:58
  Ruchi's data system is working excellent.
• 49:00
  We've got we're still getting data. And I
• 49:02
  think we're reasonably optimistic that
• 49:04
  both systems will last for their
• 49:07
  deployment life. Hopefully the year. And
• 49:09
  then, yeah, maybe even more.
• 49:11
  That's all. That's amazing. That's always
• 49:13
  that's always great when you when you
• 49:15
  know all the work you've done in prep
• 49:16
  time and going into a remote area and it
• 49:19
  and it works and then
• 49:20
  you're getting data.
• 49:21
  That's always that's always wonderful.
• 49:24
  Now, obviously, this has been an amazing
• 49:26
  experience. And one whole you've you've
• 49:28
  been on these trips a number of times.
• 49:30
  You've you visited Antarctica. Like what
• 49:33
  is the one thing about Antarctica that
• 49:35
  you love the most? You know, visiting and
• 49:37
  then telling people about.
• 49:40
  Well, it's a privilege to be there for us
• 49:43
  because not everybody can go there.
• 49:45
  Right. Because there are some
• 49:46
  restrictions. I mean, due to the
• 49:48
  Antarctic Treaty on the other hand, he
• 49:52
  said peaceful area. So it's a lot of
• 49:54
  collaboration. They they don't care where
• 49:57
  you are from. The bottom thing is what
• 50:00
  you need and how we can help each other
• 50:02
  to in terms of logistic and in terms of
• 50:05
  science in in all terms.
• 50:07
  And this is from the scientific point of
• 50:10
  view is a paradise because you are there
• 50:13
  doing sign for the signs. And when you
• 50:16
  ask any technical question or scientific
• 50:19
  question, there is always happy to help
• 50:22
  you to guide you. So which is important.
• 50:25
  This is really a key issue.
• 50:27
  Indeed, this strong collaboration between
• 50:31
  Ocea, medical Canada and the National
• 50:33
  Research Council in Spain produce already
• 50:37
  that many other countries around our
• 50:40
  station, which have plenty of of
• 50:44
  countries in the King George Island, for
• 50:47
  instance, I think there is
• 50:48
  something like 20 station.
• 50:49
  They are listening to what we're doing
• 50:52
  together and they ask already, maybe it's
• 50:54
  a good idea to do the same thing in
• 50:57
  different stations. They will be ideal in
• 51:00
  terms of monitoring in different places,
• 51:04
  the same parameters. So, boys, maybe you
• 51:06
  need to go back sooner or later.
• 51:36
  And now you have the
• 51:36
  experience. This is different thing.
• 51:39
  But we've seen that for a long time for
• 51:42
  the whole year and monitor, how is the
• 51:44
  variability of different parameters? For
• 51:46
  instance, one of the things which is
• 51:48
  important is we have indication that the
• 51:52
  carbon absorption in the is becoming, is
• 51:56
  reducing because the
• 51:58
  ocean is absorbing the CO2.
• 52:09
  the morassitan is the end of life.
• 52:13
  And this is why to know how the things
• 52:15
  are millimetrically
• 52:17
  changing, and in particular
• 52:19
  in these places, is very useful for the
• 52:23
  science community, but
• 52:25
  for everybody else, because
• 52:28
  indication of what happened in Antarctica
• 52:30
  may affect the rest of
• 52:32
  the world quite fast.
• 52:38
  And one of the interesting things is now
• 52:39
  awesome, and I work
• 52:40
  Canada is able to do it
• 52:42
  at the same time in both poles, in the
• 52:45
  Arctic and in Antarctica.
• 52:48
  And I think there is no way anybody else
• 52:50
  is able to do this simultaneously.
• 52:54
  It was my dream to have a say, we should
• 52:56
  be able to have two
• 52:58
  stations in two areas or
• 53:01
  polar areas recording the
• 53:03
  same parameters at the same time.
• 53:05
  Yeah, we can look at comparing.
• 53:06
  In one place is summer and another place
• 53:09
  is winter, but it doesn't matter.
• 53:11
  Yeah, it doesn't matter.
• 53:12
  It's still the same data.
• 53:14
  Yeah.
• 53:15
  Richie, what about yourself?
• 53:16
  Like, what do you remember most about
• 53:17
  Antarctica and what's like
• 53:18
  your favourite aspect of it?
• 53:20
  I'm just going to back up a little bit
• 53:21
  about the success of this.
• 53:23
  Yes, please.
• 53:25
  So I see the success of this deployment
• 53:29
  and partnership as a precursor for future
• 53:32
  endeavors like this.
• 53:32
  I mean, now we are enabling near real
• 53:38
  time monitoring in some of the most
• 53:40
  remote areas of the planet, special
• 53:43
  Antarctica, because it's one of the most
• 53:45
  under observed places in our planet.
• 53:47
  And at the same time, it's kind of a very
• 53:50
  important part of our planet that plays
• 53:54
  an important role in
• 53:55
  the global climate system.
• 53:57
  So being able to monitor the part of the
• 53:59
  planet that's been undergoing rapid
• 54:01
  changes, consequential changes over the
• 54:04
  past few years is very time critical.
• 54:07
  And we don't have time to wait two or
• 54:10
  three years to recover the data.
• 54:15
  We have to be more timely.
• 54:17
  And this type of partnership is what
• 54:19
  enables that kind of pushing the
• 54:21
  frontiers technology,
• 54:23
  something like this.
• 54:25
  And as to my experience, I think it's
• 54:28
  yeah, looking at the partnership, I think
• 54:31
  it really works very well from from the
• 54:35
  partnership perspective
• 54:36
  from the executive level.
• 54:38
  And at the same time, for us, the people
• 54:41
  deploying the instrument in the field,
• 54:42
  being able to work with partners like the
• 54:45
  UTM, CSIC is really a great privilege.
• 54:49
  And knowing that both of our
• 54:52
  organizations are are laser focused to
• 54:56
  like, you know, doing something for a
• 54:59
  planet, starting from from
• 55:02
  the other notion expedition.
• 55:06
  I think this is going to be a bigger
• 55:08
  thing in the future. Yeah, I
• 55:11
  think it's I think you're right.
• 55:11
  I think it's it's huge to be able to have
• 55:14
  these types of partnerships to get access
• 55:16
  into different areas now potentially with
• 55:18
  the, you know, the ability to spread over
• 55:20
  a large continent like Antarctica to be
• 55:23
  able to have the same stations, subsea
• 55:27
  stations in those areas to to be able to
• 55:29
  give a better picture, better
• 55:30
  representation of the entire continent, I
• 55:33
  think is is going to be amazing and to
• 55:35
  have collaboration where it's like we
• 55:37
  have somebody who has the connections
• 55:39
  within Antarctica and the experience.
• 55:40
  And plus, we have, you know, ONC that
• 55:44
  that is coming in being like we look we
• 55:46
  we know subsea systems and we know how to
• 55:49
  monitor and we've done in the Arctic,
• 55:50
  we've done it in the Pacific, we've done
• 55:52
  it, we've done it
• 55:52
  everywhere and we can do it anywhere.
• 55:54
  So I think that's a great a great
• 55:56
  partnership to see. And I really
• 55:58
  appreciate all three of you coming on to
• 56:00
  kind of give us that
• 56:02
  perspective of doing it.
• 56:04
  And it's I'm sorry, I forgot one thing,
• 56:06
  Brad, what was your
• 56:06
  favorite thing about Antarctica?
• 56:09
  My favorite thing about Antarctica, I
• 56:14
  would put the inspiration given to me by
• 56:17
  the crew that I met while there. It was
• 56:20
  it was, yeah, it's incredible. It's it's
• 56:23
  it's impossible to say how motivating it
• 56:26
  is to be around a
• 56:27
  group of people like that.
• 56:29
  And just to see them constantly in and
• 56:30
  out going all the time. It's amazing. And
• 56:33
  also, yeah, so it's a good place to learn
• 56:36
  from each other as well. Right.
• 56:38
  And I always learning. And let me add
• 56:41
  something because I like what Ruchi said
• 56:43
  is we are precursors and this is correct.
• 56:47
  And this is important for many different
• 56:50
  things in the first place.
• 56:52
  Being precursors is being the first one
• 56:55
  to do something which is high
• 56:57
  responsibility at the same time because
• 56:59
  this is what the first two years we were
• 57:03
  always a little bit nervous to say we
• 57:05
  need to manage this time.
• 57:08
  On the other hand, when we you open a new
• 57:12
  way of doing things, the others are
• 57:14
  listening to you and say, this is
• 57:16
  interesting and we can
• 57:17
  do something together.
• 57:19
  And this is what I like very much. Being
• 57:21
  precursors is interesting, challenging
• 57:25
  and responsibility is increasing.
• 57:28
  And we manage, by the way, I was checking
• 57:32
  heaven over before starting. I was
• 57:34
  checking all the monitors we are
• 57:36
  recording. Apparently,
• 57:38
  everything is still fine.
• 57:40
  I'd love for any of those countries who
• 57:48
  are interested in similar systems, you
• 57:50
  should send them on over to us and we'll
• 57:53
  see if we can come back and help them
• 57:55
  out. Of course. Well, as you know, I will
• 57:57
  go to Victoria in June in a few months.
• 58:01
  And in the meantime, probably I will go
• 58:03
  to Chile and Chile is one of the
• 58:06
  countries who has a lot of station and
• 58:08
  the airport in the King George Island and
• 58:12
  Argentina, Bulgaria, many others. They
• 58:15
  are listening to or watching what we are
• 58:19
  doing and to see the progress. And this
• 58:22
  is really, I think is the
• 58:24
  beginning of a big thing.
• 58:26
  And by the way, Bradley and Ruchi, they
• 58:30
  are very well known already in the
• 58:32
  Spanish and the other station and they
• 58:34
  are the kings of the road. I think you
• 58:38
  are in the golden list of engineers and
• 58:41
  you are always welcome in the station
• 58:46
  anywhere where Spanish people are working
• 58:51
  in science or marine science, of course.
• 58:52
  Well, that is what we love to hear. Just
• 58:57
  in terms of just the collaboration
• 58:58
  itself, I'm sure people at ONC are loving
• 59:02
  to hear that as well, including the two
• 59:04
  of you. And it just goes to show how
• 59:06
  great it is to work with other people and
• 59:08
  whether you are on a boat or in the
• 59:11
  Antarctic in a remote area for like 3-4
• 59:13
  weeks, it's great to be able to have that
• 59:17
  kind of feedback after you work with
• 59:20
  somebody for that long in those types of countries.
• 59:21
  And I think it's great to be able to have
• 59:25
  that here and see the camaraderie between
• 59:28
  all of you and how well you work together
• 59:30
  and it's just great to be able to talk about it.
• 59:32
  Thank you all three of you for joining us
• 59:35
  today on the how to protect the ocean
• 59:37
  pockets because it was just so much fun
• 59:38
  to be able to listen to the stories and
• 59:40
  what you guys have been able to
• 59:42
  accomplish and hopefully, you know, talk
• 59:44
  about what you're going to be able to
• 59:45
  accomplish in the future and have you
• 59:46
  guys back on when you're able to deploy
• 59:49
  however many systems you're going to
• 59:50
  deploy in the next couple of years.
• 59:53
  But it's been great to have you guys on
• 59:54
  really appreciate it. Thank
• 59:55
  you so much. Thank you. Okay.
• 59:57
  I think I will ask you and Brad and Ruchi
• 1:00:00
  see you in June, I hope.
• 1:00:03
  Oh yeah.
• 1:00:04
  See you in June.
• 1:00:05
  Perfect.
• 1:00:06
  It was a pleasure.
• 1:00:07
  Thank you, Juan Ho, Ruchi and Bradley for
• 1:00:09
  joining us on today's episode of the How
• 1:00:11
  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 1:00:13
  Look, Antarctica may be remote, but
• 1:00:14
  today's conversation makes one thing
• 1:00:16
  clear. It is deeply connected to all of
• 1:00:19
  us. The data being collected there is
• 1:00:21
  more than just numbers on the screen.
• 1:00:23
  It is a window into how our ocean is
• 1:00:25
  changing, how climate systems are
• 1:00:27
  shifting and how science and
• 1:00:29
  collaboration can help us
• 1:00:30
  respond faster and smarter.
• 1:00:33
  I want to thank everybody for sharing
• 1:00:34
  their experience today from this
• 1:00:35
  groundbreaking mission and a big thank
• 1:00:37
  you to Ocean Numbers Canada for making
• 1:00:39
  this servicing secrets explore the ocean
• 1:00:41
  know the planet series possible.
• 1:00:43
  And I just wanted to say if you enjoyed
• 1:00:45
  this episode of the how to protect the
• 1:00:47
  ocean podcast, I want you to follow it on
• 1:00:49
  your favorite podcast app so you never
• 1:00:51
  miss a story about the people the science
• 1:00:53
  and solutions shaping
• 1:00:55
  the future of our ocean.
• 1:00:56
  I want to thank you again for joining us
• 1:00:58
  on today's episode of the how to protect
• 1:01:00
  the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew
• 1:01:01
  Lew and have a great day. We'll talk to
• 1:01:03
  you next time and happy conservation.