By Harry Walsh
AT the southern edge of the world, in Ryder Bay, Adelaide Island, Rothera Research Station clings to an outcrop of rock surrounded by towering glaciers and ice-covered mountain ranges.
This is the British Antarctic Survey’s largest base, and home to one of the longest-running and most important climate studies on earth.
It has also been home to Ocean Scientist Sean McLoughlin, from Clogher, Portnoo, for the past 12 months.
Sean turned 30 on June 21, what would usually have been the longest day of the year at home, but was the shortest day of the year in Antarctica.
A past pupil of St Conal’s National School, Portnoo and St Columba’s Comprehensive School in Glenties, Sean went to Galway to study Marine Science at the National University of Ireland, Galway (now University Galway).
When Sean saw the position as Ocean Scientist for the British Antarctic Survey was open last year, he was immediately intrigued. The position was contracted for 18 months, including four months of training followed by a 14-month deployment to their research station on Adelaide Island, on the northern pinnacle of Antarctica.
Flying the flag in far off Antarctica.
After speaking with his girlfriend, friends and family, who were all extremely supportive, he sent in an application and was fortunate enough to be selected as the next wintering Ocean Scientist.
“For any marine scientist there are certain areas in the world that you dream of working in,” Sean explained.
“The Great Barrier Reef, Galapagos Islands, and of course, Antarctica.
“After years working in our relatively small area of the Atlantic Ocean, I had come to understand the power and fragility of marine systems – how the smallest change in chemistry, temperature or disruption could alter entire ecosystems. Now, I wanted to see the bigger picture, to go to the front line of climate science, where those changes are the most pronounced and impactful to our world battling against change.
“Nowhere on earth reveals that story more clearly than Antarctica.
“Working in Antarctica felt like the culmination of everything I had worked towards. A place where I could put my experience as a field scientist, diver and project manager to the test and its fullest use, helping to obtain vital data in our coldest waters,” he added.
Growing up watching David Attenborough’s Blue Planet and Frozen Planet documentaries these places seem like they are on another planet. The chance to live and work on this continent is something that only a handful of people will ever be able to experience.
Before leaving for Antarctica Sean had to go through a variety of training courses as well as two weeks of training at BAS HQ based in Cambridge University. This training afforded them all with the opportunity to meet fellow wintering team members, consisting of a wide variety of roles e.g. chefs, electronic engineers, field guides, plumbers and carpenters.
The Rothera Research Station is taking part in one of the longest-running and most important climate studies on earth.
Sean’s task is to maintain the Rothera Time Series, known simply as RaTS. The RaTs project has studied the physical, chemical and biological process within Ryder Bay since 1997, one of the longest continuous time series in Antarctic Research. His role helps to reveal how Antarctic waters influence the global climate system, support vast and biologically diverse ecosystems, and how they respond to human-driven climate change.
It’s a simple concept – sample the same stretch of water, week after week, year after year – but its significance is enormous. The data obtained reveals how the Antarctic coastal ocean is changing: warming, freshening, and shifting in ways that echo across the entire planet.
“The main focus of the role is to carry out weekly water quality monitoring. Along with fellow members of the marine team (boating officer, dive officer, marine operator and marine biologist), we launch a rib and travel out to the deepest part of Ryder Bay. Here we lower a CTD down to a depth of 500m.”
A CTD is a device that takes readings of certain aspects of water quality including conductivity, temperature, depth, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen and photosynthetically available light.
Back at the lab, the day’s samples are filtered, frozen, and logged with meticulous care. Each one adds another line to a 28-year story — the longest continuous record of its kind in Antarctica. While the work is relatively the same throughout the year, the conditions between astral summer and winter are completely different.
During the summer season, they experience 24 hours of sunlight, and temperatures can rise to a balmy 3 degrees. The sea can often be flat calm with only slow moving icebergs drifting in the ocean currents around the bay.
Winter, however, sees the sun set and disappear for a number of months from the station and they are plunged into darkness.
Winter temperatures on station drop to as low as -30 degrees. Strong winds from all directions bring blizzards capable of covering stations in snow so deep, they have to dig their way down into the buildings.
During winter, the waters within Ryder Bay and surrounding Rothera will usually freeze due to the extremely low temperatures and lack of sunlight. This sea-ice can become so thick that workers are able to safely drive skidoos onto the ice and cut holes big enough to dive through or deploy scientific equipment through.
“This year, however, showed a worrying increase in air temperatures and wind strength,” Sean said.
“This resulted in no sea ice forming in the bay. The lack of sea ice has impacts such as more heat being absorbed into the water, slowly heating the Southern Ocean.
“The sea ice is also the breeding ground for many Antarctic seal species. The lack of sea ice this year will mean that the seal population in this area will be reduced, or that there will be increased mortality in seal pups, as they are forced into the water before their water resistant coats have developed and they have had sufficient time to build up bubbler to help protect them from the waters that are on average -3 degrees during winter.”
Sean is also Deputy Station Leader and is part of the management team responsible for the running of the station.
This year has had an exceptionally high influx of Irish to Rothera station, allowing for some proper Irish events including trad sessions, ceilí dances and the first St. Patrick’s Day parade and the first game of Gaelic football to be played in Antarctica.
“During St. Patrick’s Day, I contacted a number of well-known Irish personalities for messages wishing everyone in Antarctica a happy St Patrick’s Day. I was amazed by the support I received, including messages from the team at Riverdance, Brian O’Driscoll, Seamus Coleman, Michael Murphy, Donal and Brendan Gleeson, Ardal O’Hanlron, Chris O’Dowd, Daniel O’Donnell and the family of Tom Crean, the original Irish Giant who joined Earnest Shackleton on his Antarctic expeditions,” he said.
The group are still in the process of trying to gain official recognition from Guinness world book of records for both events and are in the process of establishing the first Antarctic GAA team, An Tomás O’Creans.
Living in Antarctica today is a much more modern world than when the first explorers ventured onto the frozen continent. At the station, workers have modern buildings with new, state of the art workshops, meeting spaces and even recreational areas such as a gym and climbing wall.
Outside, however, is a whole other ball game. Temperatures can drop to dangerous levels that risk serious hypothermia and even frostbite. Snow accumulation can be so big that entire buildings are swallowed up by snow and ice and travelling between buildings becomes increasingly difficult.
Sean enjoys an encounter with a group of penguins – summer visitors to Rothera.
“Getting around becomes much easier when the garage team breaks out their supply of skidoos for our winter season. Getting to say I drive a skidoo to work was one of the very cool perks of the job,” Sean added.
“While working out at sea, we are prepared for all outcomes as the weather and sea conditions here are unpredictable at best.
“A slight southerly wind may not appear to be anything to be worried by, but when it carries in enough brash ice to cover the bay, making return to base impossible, we need to be ready. Our RIBs are made with reinforced material, allowing our hulls to bash our way through clumps of ice, while our twin engines provide enough power and redundancy to get us home.
“However, science in the deep field is still required. These places don’t have fancy buildings or snow ploughs to protect them. These places have some of the hardiest and craziest of our polar team…field guides. These field guides are only too happy to have to dig snow, find safe routes around the endless maze of crevasses and all while being stuck out in a snowstorm and freezing temperatures. All to ensure science is supported in the deep field,” he said.
However, it’s not all work. Antarctica is often imagined as a place of cold and silence, a frozen desert devoid of life but during the summer, as the sun never quite dips below the horizon and floods the water with beams of light, the ocean bursts into life.
Plankton blooms fill the water in numbers so high they change the water from crystal clear to a haze of greens and yellows.
The blooming of this tiny plant triggers a bloom of krill who feed on the plankton. An increase in krill numbers signals the return of ocean giants.
Humpback whales migrate from warmer oceans to gorge on the abundant food source. Using a technique called bubble netting, the whales corral their food into densely packed areas, before rising from the deep, mouths opened wide, to consume as much as they can. With bellies full, the whales will rest at the water’s surface, or breach with acrobatic skill.
“I have been lucky enough to see dozens of minke whales and over 100 humpback whales within Ryder Bay. Being able to hear their blows from my office and bedroom windows will be something that I’ll be forever grateful for,” Sean said.
Closer to shore, a number of different types of seal and penguins explore the waters in search of food. Crabeater seals gather in pods of over 30 strong and will often haul out onto icebergs to snooze in the summer sunshine.
“Weddell seals are most similar in appearance to the seals we have back home. They spend the majority of their time sleeping, but are curious enough to join us on dives to see what we are up to.”
Leopard seals are one of Antarctica’s apex predators. Larger than most other seals, they patrol the shoreline and icebergs in search of their next meal.
While leopard seals may be larger than crab eaters or weddells, they are no comparison to the giant elephant seals that make the islands in Ryder Bay their home. Some males, with their large trunk like noses can weigh up to 4,000kg.
The sea ice around Ryder Bay is also the breeding ground for many Antarctic seal species.
“Whales and seals alike all cower before the presence of the oceans true apex predator. The large, pointed dorsal fins of orca are a sight to behold. They travel in large pods, they hunt with an intelligence and coordination that showcases their superior intelligence amongst other marine life,” he said.
“No Antarctic story is complete without penguins. Adelie and chinstrap penguins are summer visitors to Rothera. Arriving in their hundreds, they clumsily clamber over ice and rock to slide across the snow, safe on land from hungry seals.
“Their curiosity is endless, often wandering right up to the equipment, pausing to take it all in, as if they are making their own scientific observations.
“Beneath the surface, the Antarctic seafloor is anything but barren, instead exploding in a kaleidoscope of life.
“Sun stars, a type of starfish, grow to be larger than dinner plates. Thousands of sea cucumbers in a variety of colours, sift through the ocean sediment. The extreme cold environments also allows for many species to grow to much larger sizes than they would anywhere else, and sea spiders that would usually grow to no bigger than a few centimetres, suddenly become the size of your hand.
Every dive reveals something new, and is a reminder that even in the coldest, most isolated waters on earth, evolution has found a way to paint with astonishing colour and form.
In previous years, going to Antarctica would have meant having no ways of communicating with home apart from letters from the ships visiting to drop off vital supplies. With improved technology this advanced to radio communications and eventually being able to phone home.
Nowadays, the introduction of Starlink means that workers have internet communication with the outside world.
“This allows us to send messages, upload social media messages and even FaceTime friends and family back home. This gives them a unique insight to our life on the southern continent,” Sean added.
“This internet access has also allowed us to watch certain events from home too. This includes being able to watch the Late Late Toy Show, the Six Nations and most importantly the All-Ireland football and hurling/camogie championships.”.
In his first year at NUIG, he joined the NUIG-GMIT Sub Aqua Club.
“I had enjoyed snorkeling around the coast at home, and learning how to scuba dive seemed like a fantastic opportunity both for recreation and future potential careers. The training was a fantastic way to meet new friends who were also avid fans of the marine world.
“I began diving anywhere and anytime. We joked that if a puddle was deep enough, we’d dive right in,” he laughed.
The diving came at a cost though. With most of the dive trips happening over the weekend, he had to choose between progressing his diving or coming home to play for Ardara. A talented defender who lined out for Donegal at underage level, Sean chose to concentrate on his diving career and quickly progressed through the different diving grades, including rescue diver, diver cox’n, leading diver, dive instructor, and dive examiner.
When he finished college he took a job with the Fisheries and Ecosystem Advisory Services team in the Marine Institute. An opening within the Aquaculture team gave him the chance to work around the Irish coast but also attend EU workshop events in Berlin and Brussels.
After a few years with the Marine Institute, he was offered a position with Aquafact Environmental Consultancy, working his way up to becoming Head of Field Operations, overseeing a number of national and international projects.
“The years I spent in all of these roles taught me the foundations of working in the marine world – rigorous field science, respect for the sea and the value of teamwork in challenging conditions,” he said.
“The most meaningful environmental work doesn’t begin in the lab, or sitting behind a computer. It begins in the field. Where the conditions are usually the toughest is where I was most happy and thriving.
“And nowhere is more challenging than Antarctica.”
