Talk:Lake Whillans

There are no fish in Lake Whillans. The information from Footnote 7 should be moved to the article about "grounding line"
Please forgive my ignorance of wiki-editing conventions. I'm just trying to correct an error.

This line from the end of the article doesn't belong in this article, and its presence here is misleading, as it refers to discoveries in seawater, not part of Lake Whillans:

"In January 2015, drilling near the grounding line (transition point from fresh water to sea water) revealed a colony of fish, crustaceans, and jellyfish inhabiting the dark, frigid waters below the ice shelf. Images taken with a remote camera showed fish 20 centimetres (7.9 in) and amphipods.[footnote7]"

Following that footnote to read the original article reveals the following info: (**'d emphasis mine) "Life at the grounding line is limited to about 33 feet (10 m) of freedom between the ice and seafloor, **in seawater** about 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 degrees Celsius). The drillers had hoped to find the outflow from Lake Whillans but saw no evidence of estuary-like brackish water, Tulaczyk said."

One has to be really careful about this sort of thing. There are bacteria in Lake Whillans, which is amazing enough, but a finding of FISH would be sensational. So sensational that it's going to be repeated in more general press as fact, which is bad.

In fact, an error just occurred tonight, which is why I'm here. I came here from https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2022/9/13/23352449/mariners-antarctic-offense-falters-in-barren-loss-to-padres where I read "Another Antarctic lake, Lake Whillans, has proven evidence of bacteria that rely on ammonia and methane, as well as fish that survive using antifreeze-like proteins. Woah."

It's a humorous baseball game recap, but the joke is to mimic the style of a scientific article, and to the author's credit, he linked to the wikipedia article to cite his source. Which led me here. Because I too was like "Woah." but I'm a bit of a scientist myself, and a stickler for accuracy. So I drilled down further by following the footnote, and found the error.

Please put this info in it's proper context (grounding line) and remove it from this article. OR...

You could make a change like this> "In 2015, researchers looking for evidence of a connection between Lake Whillans and the sea failed to find a connection. But, they did make a surprising new discovery in seawater, at the grounding line, where the edge of the glacier meets the sea floor. The fish and crustaceans discovered at the grounding line live in the Ocean. They do not reside in Lake Whillans. (footnote 7) <<link to the grounding line article.

This change would correct the error but still leave a trace of info, so those following any 3rd party press that links to this sensational finding would be corrected, and the curious could go read further, either by following the footnote or reading the other article. TheInquisitor1985 (talk) 10:08, 14 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Hello just wondering if you have any thoughts on the comments of TheInquisitor1985 above. I believe he is referring to the paragraph you added in January 2015 with this edit. Thanks, Declangi (talk) 21:40, 25 October 2023 (UTC)