Posted
on February 7, 2014
How
would you like to be chosen Miss Iceworm?Um....
Trust
me, it's a thing! In Cordova, Alaska, the first full weekend of
February is the Iceworm Festival, and one of the events is the
crowning of Miss Iceworm. Other events include everything from an
arts and crafts show and photography competition to a cook off and an
ice cream feed. There are competitions in oyster shucking, ping pong,
dodgeball, and cribbage; there is a parade, a variety show and a
fireworks spectacular!
Cordova
bills itself as Alaska's “hidden treasure.” It is a small city on
the ocean (the bit of ocean called the Prince William Sound), near
the mouth of the Copper River. It's a fishing town, but of course it
wants to attract tourists, too. In May, when millions of migrating
shorebirds stop near Cordova to rest and feed, Cordova hosts a
Shorebird Festival; in the winter, the town fights off the winter
blues by hosting the Iceworm Festival!
Some
of the events at the festival seem particularly Alaskan. Instead of a
“Polar Bear Plunge,” in which the challenge is to “just” jump
into the icy ocean waters, Cordova locals have a Survival Suit Race.
Locals race to the docks, hurry to don their survival gear, and then
dive in and continue racing to a life raft. The Blessing of the Fleet, the purchasing of Shaving Permits
from the Keystone Cops, and the Iceworm Tail Hunt are events that
make me wonder: what goes on in Cordova this weekend?
And
just what are ice worms?
There
are a few species of annelid (segmented) worms that spend their
entire lives in glacial ice. These ice worms were discovered in
Alaska in the late 1800s, but they have since been found in glaciers
in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon as well. Interestingly
enough, no ice worms have been found elsewhere in the world, even
though there are other glacial regions!
You
have probably guessed that ice worms have very special adaptations
that allow them to live in such a cold environment. Of course, this
means that they can't live in a warmer place. At 5 degrees Celsius
(41 degrees Fahrenheit), their cell membranes fall apart, and the
worms seem to melt. And, trust me, 5 degrees C (41 degrees F) is NOT
warm by human standards!
Ice
worms may tunnel through the ice by secreting some sort of
anti-freeze chemical, or they may just wriggle through tiny cracks in
the ice. They eat snow algae, coming to the surface of glaciers every
evening. They are what is known as “sun-avoiders,” however, and
retreat underneath the ice before dawn.
Even
though ice worms are small—several centimeters (about an inch)
long—they can be numerous. A population count on a Washington
glacier indicated more than seven billion worms on that glacier
alone!
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ReplyDeleteTor, I laughed - but this page is supposed to be a-ok for kids...so I thought I'd better eliminate your not-icy joke. LOL
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