 |
| Cleaning the bottom of our boots as part of the biosecurity procedures |
Thursday, November 2 - Bioseccurity Procedures
During our first day at sea, we had a number of briefings and lectures to get us ready for our upcoming expeditions. For example, we had a mandatory landings briefing to learn how to safely use the zodiacs for transport.
We had an extensive session on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza - which has just reached South Georgian Island. The numbers, shown by naturalist Jamie Coleman, were impressive and sobering. Even before the HPAI reports, biosecurity protection of the local environments in South Georgia and Antarctica was an extremely high priority to prevent spread of disease and introduced foreign elements.
We learned the specific protocols needed to clean all our outerwear every time we land and return. Today we had to take all of our outerwear down to Deck 3 base camp for inspection and to clean our boots with a special disinfectant. Everyone’s velcro on their backpacks, pants, etc needed to be cleaned and vacuumed to be sure no organic material is hitchhiking along. Small seeds and other contaminants are found when you look really close. They have a whole array of tools, including tweezers and brushes, to assist with the decontamination.
A slide on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, which reached South Georgia this month 
Base Camp on Deck 3; our location for disembarcation on the Zodiac boats 
Our boots and outerwear stored in lockers in Base Camp 
Practicing biosecurity decontamination procedures 
Scrubbing boots - especially the treads - is an important step upon return
 |
| Liberal use of Virkon disinfectant on our boots |
 |
| Vacuuming pockets and velcro fasteners on outerwear to remove organic material |
 |
| Looks like a surgeon's tray - all the tools to clean our boots and outerwear |
 |
| A small rock contaminant in the boots' tread that must be removed |
No comments:
Post a Comment