Lazy Sunday afternoon...

Not too much has happened in the last couple of days, but it feels like I'm slowly starting to settle into the routine of the station (even if the routine means getting out of bed earlier than I'm accustomed to...) For the science team, the day starts at 8:30 in the office (yellow building next to the little blue MET building). We're somewhat convinced that we're low priority in the biological sciences, given that our building is the second furthest from the SMQ (kitchen, medical and sleeping quarters) and wedged directly between the MET building, which is full of hydrogen and likely to explode without notice, and the dangerous goods store, which is also full of exciting substances that are likely to explode without notice. Loved much?
Right, so at 8:30 we turn up at the office in a variety of modes that range from early-morning-zombie, to bright eyed and bushy tailed, and then again to struggling caffeine addict.  Once a week we have a lab meeting where we report on our progress with our projects- most people are able to give a decent run down on areas that they've moved forwards in, while so far I've tended to um... look up articles. And read articles. And wait for the sea-ice to break out. I've been lucky enough to help out with a couple of the other projects going on- on the 3rd a group of us took a Hagg out and tried to collect some amphipods. The traps had been laid the day before and baited with delicious looking sausages from the kitchen. We hauled up the 4 traps that had been set through holes in the ice and got.... a big fat nothing. This was a surprise, as the drilling the previous day had pulled huge numbers of the critters up onto the ice, which was why traps had been popped in that location in the first place. We then tried the plankton umbrella net, which was deployed 4 times, and brought up a total of.... 3 amphipods. Right. What could be wrong?
We thought, and then we considered, and then we ruminated and then the light bulb may have come on. During the winter, these guys probably live pretty close to the ice-water interface. That'd explain why they came up during drilling, but weren't really trapped in the water column.
 Ok.... and what are they doing at the interface?
 Feeding!
But what are they eating?
Um.... algae?
So- not meat?
No, probably  not.
So... sausages possibly not that appealing?
Perhaps....
Needless to say, the traps have now been redeployed with a selection of goodies selected to appeal to the vegetarian invertebrates amongst them, hopefully with better results.