There are little Arctic cod swimming around in the cracks in the ice as well. We try to catch these if possible. We also have a team of people that go fishing with a very long fishing line and catch different fish to study. There are many birds around to, checking us out and sometimes making noises!
We saw crazy ice formations! When the sea ice melts, the ice transforms into all kinds of different crystal types. Sometimes when you reach down and pick up a bunch of crystals they can feel like precious jewels or shards of glass. Other times they are just slush. When there's a group of crystals toegther they can look like a forest of trees in the wintertime. There are so many different cool structures in the ice, changing every day!
In the Arctic summer the sun circles around the sky. In the middle of the day the sun is highest in the sky, while in the middle of the “night” (when we sleep) the sun is lower in the sky, but it never fully goes away. This means that at midnight you can walk outside and it will still seem like the middle of the day since it doesn't get dark. This is in contrast to the last time I was in the Arctic in December. At that time the Arctic was in total darkness and the sun never came up at all! During that time, it was dark when we slept, dark when we woke up and dark all day long. Even in the middle of the day it was totally pitch black. This amazing transition during the year, from total darkness to total lightness, is such an important part of the Arctic environment. It impacts how energy is transferred at the surface and how the ice melts or freezes.
