Nine to Noon in Antarctica
Biologist Clive Evans
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.
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Nine to Noon in Antarctic - Ice fishing with Clive Evans ( 24′ 38″ )
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.
Gallery: Ice fishing with Clive Evans
Kathryn Ryan ice fishing in front of Arrival Heights with Clive Evans.
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
- Turtle Rock
- Tim Haskell, Sea Ice Pressure Ridges & Scott Base
- Adelie Penguins
- Sir Edmund Hillary in Antarctica and Scott and Shackleton's huts
- Arrival Heights Laboratory
- Scott's Hut at Cape Evans
- Ice fishing with Clive Evans
Antarctica on Radio New Zealand
- Our Changing World in Antarctica
A collection of Our Changing World stories about Antarctica. - Pole to Pole
A documentary series marking the International Polar Year 2007-2008 by exploring some of the world’s most remote and vulnerable regions.
Links
- Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
- Antarctic New Zealand
- Antarctica and New Zealand on NZ History online
- Roald Amundsen on Papers Past
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