Federal Govt. Averts Pending Food Crisis Resulting From Gulf Oil Spill

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Since much of the nations shrimp harvest comes from the Gulf of Mexico, I was concerned that not only the price of shrimp but also a wide variety of seafood products would go through the roof. Imagine my delight when I discovered the our Uncle Sam had prepared for the pending shrimp crisis by discovering "shrimp-like creatures" in the Arctic!

Do I need a stupid looking sarcasm icon here?

Anyhow, here's the story, straight from NASSA

NASA Spots Surprising Shrimp Beneath Antarctic Ice

March 17, 2010

At a depth of 600 feet beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet, a small shrimp-like creature managed to brighten up an otherwise gray polar day in November 2009. Bob Bindschadler of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., remembers the day well. He and his team were on a joint NASA-National Science Foundation expedition to examine the underside of the ice sheet when they found the pinkish-orange creature swimming beneath the ice.

"We were like little kids huddling around, just oohing and aahing at this little creature swimming around and giving us a little show," said Bindschadler. "It was the thrill of discovery that made us giddy; just totally unexpected."

The complex critter was identified as a Lyssianasid amphipod, about three inches in length. It was found beneath the 180-meter (590-foot) thick Ross Ice Shelf in Windless Bight, 20 miles northeast of McMurdo Station. Bindschadler and his team drilled an eight-inch diameter hole through the ice so that Alberto Behar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., could submerge a small camera to obtain what are believed to be the first images of the underbelly of an ice shelf.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/view.php?id=43187

[Tsiyu]

1. Your second sentence made me laugh out loud

I'll kick just for that