To have Antarctic winter

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 20

To have Antarctic winter

A Californian couple will) be the first American hus-l band and wife team to spend a winter in Antarctica for 30! vears. John and Donna Oli-■

ver of San Diego will study 11 how sea-bottom animals go[ about forming communities h and they will spend most of |< their time at McMurdo station. They will be accompanied!. by another American scientist, Mr Peter Slattery, whop will scuba dive with Mr Oli-| ver looking particularly for ' polychaetes, segmented : worms which live on the,: floor of the ocean not very far from the shore. j They need to winter over 1 at McMurdo to understand’ the year-round life-style of I the sea-bottom worms, top try to find out how and 1 when the organisms repro- i duce, how long they live and 1 to study some of their 1 behaviour patterns. COMPLEX CYCLE “Polychaetes are very important to the ecology system in the ocean,’’ Donna 1 Oliver said. “They feed on a lot of bacteriological material in the water. Other

(organisms feed on them.i | then we eat fish so it is al ■ complex interdependent [cycle.” Donna Oliver's job on the| (project will be to sort and; I analyse organisms the two! ‘men bring up from the! [seabed. She will also be al i tender helping the divers’ vvith their equipment, make: reports and do a certain amount of work in the aquaria. She is not at all apprehensive about wintering at McMurdo. “My husband has been: there twice before and sent me cassette tapes explaining; everything and brought! home many colour slides,”: she said. “And I attended an' orientation meeting held by' the U.S. Antarctic Research Programme last August in Arizona.” Mrs Oliver has a master of arts degree in biopsychology from the United States International University in San Diego. She became' interested in marine biology,!

ineeded a job so went to! ' work at Scripps Institution [of Oceanography as a techinician. With her hushandi [she worked on benthic (sea--bottom) projects along the I central and southern coast !of California, where manyorganisms are found. She did a lot of scuba diving then but will not do any at McMurdo station. COMPARISONS “We have become interested in comparing whatJohn and Peter find at McMurdo with what we , found in Monterey, Califor- ■ nia.” she said. John Oliver ! calls his wife “Mitch” — I short for Mitchell, her maiden name. He has complete confidence in her abil-: ity as a team member. “She has worked with us a lot and we know she is capable, otherwise she could not have come with us,” he isaid. “And I would not go down to the ice for the winter without her. With [‘Mitch’ 1 shall get more (work done and, as far as I [am concerned, we’ll get betiter results.” Donna Oliver has with her