MSI Public Lecture Series

As a scientist participating in Deep Freeze 81, I had enough adventures to classify this trip as a “Saga.” I was aboard the famous US Coast Guard Icebreaker GLACIER and the talk will cover the expedition from start to finish; November 1980 through May 1981. It includes unlikely encounters with red helicopters in Arizona, odd-gestures in California, the US Grand Prix, a mid-summer breakfast in New Zealand togged out in thermal underwear and bunny boots, white-knuckle helicopter journeys, close encounters with Orcas, playing geologist in the Dry Valleys, a royal battle with heavy pack-ice, a glimpse of Peter 1st Island, the bucket of warm water method of measuring the ocean, and a months-long return voyage as the only civilian on a military vessel. On that trip I had a harrowing adventure at 17,000 ft, saw giant hummingbirds, a giant fin whale leap out of the sea, birds hitching rides on turtles, birds whose nesting site was unknown at the time, and stood on the GLACIER’s bow during all daylight hours observing the ocean from the Antarctic to California. (Once each week I threw Oscar into the sea).

The free lecture will be held at 7 p.m. in the Visitor Center of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, and the public is invited to attend.