The clarity of 39 meltwater ponds on the McMurdo Ice Shelf was determined as the horizontal viewing range of a black disc. Visual ranges varied widely from pond to pond from 0.14–5 m; so did the concentrations of optically-active constituents, including the suspended particulates, phytoplankton (10-fold variation) and inorganic suspensoids (> 100-fold), and dissolved yellow substance (10-fold). In six of the ponds the ratio of beam attenuation coefficient to total suspended solids concentration was low (< 0.6 m2 g−1) compared to that in the others (0.7–2.0 m2 g−1, suggesting that generally larger particles were present suspended in the water in these ponds. In both groups, relationships between beam attenuation and constituent concentrations indicated that much of the attenuation was due to inorganic suspensoids. Organic detritus also appeared to be important in many ponds, while phytoplankton and dissolved yellow substance were generally less important. Even though the clarity of many of the ponds was poor, their relative shallowness meant levels of underwater light were probably generally adequate for benthic plant growth.