Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa
26 May 2012 - 2:43 am NZ time
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Nine to Noon in Antarctica
Biologist Clive Evans
- 11:20 Nine to Noon in Antarctic - Ice fishing with Clive Evans
Biologist Clive Evans takes Kathryn Ryan out to the sea ice off Ross Island to catch some Notothenioid fish, which they use to try to work out how they make anti-freeze and what this can teach us. (24′38″)
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11:20am Tuesday 24 January 2012
The waters around Antarctica sit at around minus 1-point-93 degrees celcius - yet most fish have a freezing point of minus zero-point 7 and so cannot survive in Antarctic waters.
Auckland University biologist Clive Evans and his colleagues are studying the remarkable ways Antarctic fish manage to survive the icy waters without freezing. It's all due to their ability to produce antifreeze glycoproteins which bind and inhibit the growth of minute ice crystals that can enter the fish - and preventing their body fluids from freezing.
Clive Evans took Kathryn Ryan out to the sea ice off Ross Island to catch some of these fish, which they use to try to work out how they make anti-freeze and what this can teach us.
Gallery: Ice fishing with Clive Evans
Kathryn Ryan ice fishing in front of Arrival Heights with Clive Evans.
Information
In early December 2011 Nine to Noon's presenter Kathryn Ryan and producer, Caitlin Cherry were invited by Antarctica New Zealand to visit Scott Base on Ross island in Antarctica.
The purpose of the visit was to interview scientists doing key research into climate change, as well as to mark the polar centenary. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 - closely followed by Robert Falcon Scott.
Galleries
Tim Haskell, Sea Ice Pressure Ridges & Scott Base
Sir Edmund Hillary in Antarctica and Scott and Shackleton's huts
Links
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
Antarctica and New Zealand on NZ History online
Antarctica on Radio New Zealand
A documentary series marking the International Polar Year 2007-2008 by exploring some of the world’s most remote and vulnerable regions.
Antarctica on Our Changing World
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Nine to Noon in Antarctica
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