Abstract: In late February 1994, during the ANT XI/3 expedition of R/V Polarstern, ice cores from perennial sea ice were sampled in the Amundsen Sea in areas of dense pack ice. The ice was largely rotten, and a conspicuous feature was the occurrence of thick gaps and voids, often filled with a dark brown slush comprised of loose ice chunks and crystals. These interior ice assemblages were at depths between 1.0 and 1.5 m in 3 to 4 m thick ice floes, and had remarkably rich interior ice algal assemblages (<= 377 µg Chl a L?¹) which were in turn a food source for unusually large numbers of foraminifers (<= 1262 individuals L?¹), the calanoid copepod Stephos longipes (<= 163 individuals L?¹) and harpacticoid copepods (<= 168 individuals L?¹). Analysis of inorganic nutrients (nitrate, phosphate, ammonium, nitrite, and silicate) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) showed that these were sites of high nutrient supply coupled with high rates of nutrient regeneration.