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Full Description
(excerpt from the proposal)
To survive in the Antarctic, you must be humble to nature. Each day is
lived with the possibility of a potentially lethal blizzard, exposure to
frostbite, or of a fall into a bottomless crevasse. Extreme cold,
intense solar radiation, high winds and dehydration drain the body. Ice
shifts quickly and unpredictably, demanding a trained, wary eye to
ensure each step. Freezing temperatures coupled with low humidity make
your body crave high caloric foods and water in a continuous battle to
stave off hypothermia and dehydration. Constant light in the summer and
continuous dark in the winter play games with your mind. On the coldest,
driest and windiest continent on earth, there is scant room for error.
Yet, in the midst of
these seemingly impossible conditions lives a mild mannered species of
phocid seal. Large, oblivious to humans, and mysterious in its
underwater habits, the Weddell seal is so well adapted for life on and
under the ice that it is the only wild mammal able to reside year-round
on the permanent ice shelf in Antarctica. For this reason, our
scientific team sought adventure and Weddell seals, in the frozen steps
of Antarctic explorers from the previous century.
Our scientific
conundrum was a simple one: how do Weddell seals survive in the
Antarctic? More specifically, how do they hunt for food in such an
inhospitable environment? As primary predators in the polar ecosystem,
Weddell seals have to locate, stalk, chase, capture, kill and digest
prey in order to survive. Although these are the same tasks routinely
confronted by any big predator, including African lions or wolves, there
is one major difference: the seals have to accomplish all of these
behaviors while holding their breath. Imagine an African lion inhaling
once and then tearing across the Savannah in pursuit of a zebra, and
finally tackling, fighting and killing its prey before taking another
breath. Imagine running a 10K race on just a single breath of air.
During every foraging trip, the Weddell seal accomplishes this and much
more. For as the seal hunts, it travels to great depths in freezing,
dark water where the hydrostatic pressure is so high that it squeezes
the animal’s lungs to a fraction of their normal size. Water
temperatures are so cold that the fish they pursue use cellular
antifreezes to keep from turning into ice, and humans would survive only
minutes of exposure.
The seals also perform
one other envious feat: they explore places beneath the Antarctic ice
that are impossible for humans to follow. Tortuous ice caves on the
underside of glaciers and the bottom of icebergs that are frequented by
seals are far too dangerous for human divers or remotely operated
robotic vehicles.
Frustration borne out
of our inability to observe what the seals encountered on their dives
and our ignorance concerning how their bodies withstood the challenge of
an Antarctic lifestyle heightened our scientific curiosity. We wanted to
join the hunt. Finally, in 1997, miniaturized video technology caught up
with our desire to follow the Weddell seal, and we began the journey of
a lifetime.
*
THE HUNTER’S BREATH takes the reader on an expedition to one of the
harshest and most remarkable places on earth, Antarctica, to study the
hunting behavior of an extraordinary underwater predator. Following the
expedition through its 5th field season, THE HUNTER’S
BREATH allows the reader to experience the challenges, successes and
failures of a team of young researchers as they struggle to survive and
conduct science in a remote camp on the Antarctic sea ice. This
particular field season was chosen due to extraordinary manmade (the
September 11th terrorist attacks) and natural (the calving of
an enormous iceberg) forces that impacted the expedition. These events
served to heighten the emotional and physical hurdles encountered, and
provided many parallels with the 1914 Shackleton Endurance
expedition.
Written
chronologically, the chapters describe the initial days and preparation
for the ice, the excitement of working with 500 kg wild Weddell seals
and the challenge of living in close quarters with eight exhausted
expedition members. In all, the expedition was
comprised of eight adventurers: seven men and one woman (me). I am one
of the very few women who has been going to Antarctica since the 1980s;
back then, there were so few women headed to the ice that we were simply
considered "small men" when it came time to suit up.
Unlike the early
expeditions, this is about modern exploration. Armed with computers,
miniaturized video cameras and satellite tags, the team explores the
under ice haunts of the Weddell seal. Technology is pitted against
nature as microcomputers and video cameras deployed on the wild seals
take the scientists and readers to the bottom of the Ross Sea where
alien looking plants and animals live. For the first time, humans are
able to dive with the seals to submerged ice caves beneath Antarctic
glaciers where other secretive seals hide. Part of the thrill of
the book is in the discovery of something that no one has ever seen or
experienced before.
The concept for THE
HUNTER’S BREATH was born in fall 2001 when I was on my sixth Antarctic
expedition. I began a weekly journal that was posted on my university
website to bring the expedition and its scientific rewards and failures
into the classroom for teachers and school children to experience. The
site was very successful – written up in USA Today, and awarded a
Highlights for Children award. However, the interested audience was much
larger than I anticipated. Adults that had heard about our expedition on
NPR and in other media flooded me with e-mails saying they wanted more.
Our work was featured
on NBC Dateline, NBC News, CNN, ABC News, on the Discovery Channel, in
the IMAX movie "Dolphins," and I’ve conducted interviews for
National Geographic, Rolling Stone Magazine, the Los Angeles Times,
Discover Magazine, and Science Magazine. My work on the
Weddell seals of Antarctica will be featured in a PBS Nature television
special (January 2003), National Geographic Television International
(2003), and an article on women scientists in Discover Magazine
(November 2002).
Antarctica is hot.
Recent interest in the expeditions of Scott and Shackleton, and news of
giant icebergs splitting from the Antarctic ice shelf have sparked a
general curiosity about the coldest, most remote place on earth. How do
animals and people survive under such harsh conditions? What does the
skin do when exposed to –70oF temperatures and the growing
ozone hole? Most people will never be able to visit Antarctica or meet a
Weddell seal nose to nose to answer these questions for themselves.
There are no tourist packages or hotels where we work. However, THE
HUNTER’S BREATH brings Antarctica to everyone.
World
Rights: Contact Lukeman
Dramatic Rights:
Contact Lukeman
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