The sub-ice platelet layer is a unique marine habitat, harbouring the highest concentrations of primary productivity of any oceanic ice. This provides nutrition for the rest of the marine ecosystem. The chains in this video are 5m apart.

📽 Leigh Tait | NIWA & Boxfish
💲 Antarctic Science Platform

Here's what the platelet layer looks like from underneath: untold billions of individual ice crystals float up from the water column to accumulate against the base of the sea ice above them. The crystals deposit like grains of sand, creating ripple & billow structures.

📽 Leigh Tait | NIWA & Boxfish

... and from our perspective inside the container. This seal was clearly comfortable in our presence as it returned several times every day to check out what we were up to.

A curious Weddel Seal uses the hole in the floor of our hydrolab shipping container to take a break and breathe some *warm* air (only ~4° C, but considerably warmer than they're used to). Video from below captured on GoPro by Doug Walker.

Here's what the camp looks like once it's set up. Two of the containers have lift-up sections of floor. This means we can melt down through the sea ice and access the ocean for weeks at a time, all from inside a warm shelter. I'll show you that next time...

Our Antarctic field camp is made up of a series of converted shipping containers which are pulled out to site by bulldozers. We have generator, kitchen, freezer (!), sleeping, dry lab and wet lab spaces. 12 containers in all. And the last on the line is the toilet cubicle.