Hearing something while working is surely something that is part of the life of a scientist, at least for mine. You too, right? Wake up, turn on the computer and put something on is the norm...it could be the news or a music channel. It helps me concentrate on the tasks of the day (even with the office crowed with colleauges and students). I also hear a lot of the surfing competitions (World Surfing League)...surprensingly ti turns my day even more productive. While in the lab in New Zealand, regularly colleagues would pop in just to know the results of the last “heat”. Since I made my suitcase, on the 4 December 2016 (to the Antarctic Expedition with José Seco) and coming to New Zealand (with 3 quick weeks in Portugal with a Russian colleague), has been always intensive but good. Since arriving in Wellington, it was possible to analyse all the samples of José Queirós that included amazing Antarctic squid , fish otoliths (fish little bonés located clsoe to their brain, used for orientation) and even crustaceans that I have never seen. And yes, to discover that José Q. brought a giant Antarctic Octopod was also interesting! What also made me happy during these weeks was to assess what the Antipodes and Adams Albatrosses feed and if there were diferences between years...and if these differnces can be associated with their decline. I am still doing the statistics (a note for young students: maths, like most disciplines, is really important in the life of a scientist!). This work lead to the analyses of more than 14 000 cephalopod beaks!!! Doing the maths, a wandering albatross chick from Antipodes islands may eat 2 squid per day for 8 months. If squid is likely to be only 50% of the diet by Mass (the other half is likely to be mostly fish), we can certainly conclude that these chicks have been well fed. I also worked on the diet of Rockhopper penguins from Cambell Island, that showed that these small penguins (up to 2-3 kg) feed mostly close to the bottom (on small octopods Octopus campbelli and 1 squid) but also in the water column on a pelagic squid called Martialia hyadesi. A kiss or a big hug from Sydney (Australia) on my way to snow in Coimbra (from what I heard)!!! I am putting some music now to help me coping with such news....only 40 hours of travelling to go....

When we have a big challenge we say “we have a mountain in front of us!”. In my case, I had a very complicated 40 samples (20 from each albatross, 'Diomedea gibsoni' and 'Diomedea antipodensis') that recently arrived at the institute in Wellington, New Zealand to be analysed. At that time I did not know that this would be “my mountain” to climb. With little time available in the lab., it became obvious that I had the “Everest” in front of me, as I was taking considerable more time that expected to analise 3-4 samples per day (arriving in the lab. at 8.30am and leaving at 6pm, following NIWA laboratory regulations), with each containing up to 400-500 beaks. For each sample, it is necessary to clean each beak, separate upper from lower beaks (each squid or octopus has a 1 of each), identify and measure all lower beaks and preserve all beaks for future studies. With time getting shorter and shorter before returning back to Europe, the solution was to request the institute to work during the weekend. Therefore, in the last 2 weeks, there was no time to reduce the pace of work, working during the weekend....I was literally “climing the mountain”. Happily, during that weekend I finished the first 20 samples, however I did not know how much time would the final 20 samples from 'D. gibsoni' would take. Would they be the same nightmare as before (i.e. another mountain?)? You should have seen my face of happiness when realized that these final samples contained far less beaks ...at that time I felt I was “at the top of the mountain looking at the lanscape and to the horizon!” In the following two days all samples were analised, far less than 7 days for the first 20 samples...I was literally going “fast down the mountain”.

This week I also had to conclude some identifications of crustaceans with coleagues from NIWA from the diet of Antarctic toothfish of the project of José Queirós and spent 2 days concluding at the work on stand-by during this intensive part of this trip (catch up with all emails, review papers,...). Is it always like this working hard, with little time for anything else? No, there should be always time to “enjoy the ride while climbing the mountain”. As I am an optimist, this challenge also helped me to reflect on the good things that we have around us. Since I arrived, a colleague at NIWA borrowed me a bike that has made my day, everyday, to reach the institute (and Welington is a beautiful city to cycle). I managed to see old friends, make new one´s, including some lovely Portuguese, go to the cinema, explore the city and surroundings, enjoy the icecreams, BBQ,  check out regularly the waves in Lyall Bay (still managed to see a surfer but the waves have been small), all of this while trying to keep “saudades” from all the family and friends via facebook, Skype ;).  In a nutshell: in the middle of my “climbing of the mountain”, it is importante to keep that excitment and motivation that makes you wake up everyday ready for another fun day at the lab, and most important, understand what makes you happy. Now I look back and see the mountain far away in a distance, getting smaller and smaller...with a smile...

As science does not wait, to be a scientist means also working at weekends... like this one ( :-) ). Due to some of my 2017 samples were collected in January, they only arrived this week. Therefore, with my time in NZ getting closer to returning to Europe, the option was to work during this weekend...without any problems. As I am an optimist, I also saw the positives out of this, beyond avancing with the analyses of the samples. While in the lab, I was able to follow LIVE the football in Europe!! It is truly funny listening to football when it is 9am (with 11 hours of difference, in Portugal/UK is 8pm of the previous day). Here I wake up at 6.30am everyday to check my emails. As I am sleeping while everyone is Europe is awake, as soon as I turn my PC on, I get overwhelmed by 40-50 emails daily. I do try to sort them out before 7.30am, so that I get time for breakfast, get on the bike and go to the institute (20-30 minutes bike ride). Time flies in the lab. and I am there until 6pm, with only a brief interval for lunch (uusually with someone or in front of the PC, as there are always issues to be solved). Still manage to got the office to check any unsolved issues, check more emails and put the data in the PC...by 8.30pm-9pm, I am arriving at home. Dinner and work a big more....and go to bed. Hours later everything starts again. During this weekend, the working schedule did not finish but wth the plus that, on Sunday there was not many emails, as it is Saturday in Europe ( :-) )
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Mastigoteuthis sp

“After so many of being a scientist, don´t you know everything by now?” Good question. It has a simple and humbling answer: no. Interesting that this question is done to me regularmente, particularly in schools. Funny enough, numerous children think that it is easy and that knowledge is at a distance of a click of a computer. But in numerous occasions, i tis not easy. Answering by steps. Being marine biologist, someone that studies the Ocean, I have to go the Antarctic to collect the material I need to examine (we call them samples)...numerous times (unless colleagues collect thr samples for me). Everything depends on the scientific question we are trying to answer. For example, to study what king penguins from South Georgia eat, I would just need to go once. But imagine that I want to know what king penguins eat all around the Antarctic? I would have to go more times. And to assess diferences between years? And compare with the diets of seals? And of albatrosses? The fieldwork seasons surely pile up. But everything dependo n the question you are trying to address. In this example, studying the diet of penguins, we could also ask if the prey species they are catching are the same that local fisheries are catching (example, icefish), which tells us that they might compete for icefish. Alternatively, penguins may catch prey naturally, which there is no fisheries directed to them, such as Antarctic squid. They are extremely rare and still today, some are still unknown to science. We still have squid species that are called A, B or C...as examples, in the diet of the albatrosses I am studying  in this research trip to New Zealand, I encountered Moroteuthis sp. B (Imber) or Taonius sp. (Clarke). Recently there was a research article that finally attributed the beaks of ?Mastigoteuthis A (Clarke) to the squid Asperoteuthis lui. And still this week, I came across squid and octopod beaks unknown to me....examples reminding me that we do not know everything occur EVERYDAY ;)

And how is to do science in New Zealand? Well, there are numerous advantages...but are the little things that makes all the difference. Today´s research support of the Portuguese Polar Programme allows scientists to go to research institutes to analise samples collected from colleagues (in this case, from New Zelanders), reducing the costs (as there is no need to go to the Antarctic/research áreas that requires high travel costs, equipment, burocracy and lots of time available) and maximizes the results (as it allows more time to be in the lab analising the samples, to write the research papers, reenforce the scientific collaboration with New Zealand, beneficial to both countries). With this collaboration, that goes over 5 years now, the results go from research scientific papers to education and diplomacy. But there is more than that... It allows the scientists, under this scheme, to appreciate a diferente way of life in doing science, which helps the portuguese scientists to be better everyday. As soon as we arrive in Wellington, well far from Europe, a nice warmth welcomes you. Yes, i tis Summer here!!! As Wellington is by the Sea, a sunny day is a wonderful day. 
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The icecreams (tasting Hokey Pokey is a must; the flavour is vanilla and caramel) are excellent!!! And as we are fairly close to the Antarctic, products with pinguins is common (such as fries packets). There is always people running in the promenade, on the city beach (small but cosy), competitions of boats Maori (the Maori culture is nicely everywhere, which is really nice) and...lots of Europeans: there is a rumour that 60-70% of the habitants in Wellington are Europeans!!! Here, we use New Zealand Dollars (no Euros around) and from what I have seen, only have seen our Portuguese famous sardines in the supermarket. When you say you are Portuguese, you are immediately invited to play football (you are seen as a “friend” of Cristiano Ronaldo, despite not playing like him). In the research institute, the work ethics is exemplar. Numerous rules on Health and Safety must be followed, ands are taken very seriously. It is really important for our education to understand the diferences between the work systems between New Zealand and Europe, and both function well! The profissionalismo of everyone is worth mentioning. This week was literally spent inside the lab, helping finishing the analyses of samples from the Antarctic of José Queirós (José left on Wednesday) and started with my samples from the diet of albatrosses....but I will explain more details on this work soon ​

Giant Antarctic Octopus. Credit: Dave Allen (NIWA)

As a scientist, it is important to go and collect samples in the field (in my case, in the Antarctic), write research papers, give talks in schools, lecturing at University, go to conferences, be actively involved in international organizations/programs,..and not forgeting...to work in the laboratory. I really enjoy all of these tasks...and yes, I do learn something new almost eveyday. And that´s what happenned this week. I met my student José Queirós to review all his good work onboard o fan Antarctic fishing vessel, whose results will be used for his MSc thesis at the University of Coimbra. With so many samples obtained, one of the objectives of this week was to analyse these samples at the laboratory of  Darren Stevens, NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) in Wellington, New Zealand. Our priority was to identify the cephalopods (group of animals that contains squid and octopods) found in the diet of Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni.