Exploring Antarctica

February 5, 2015

Until well into the 20^th Century, getting to Antarctica – and returning – was a really big deal. It still is, but thanks to new technologies and operations such as the National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions, adventurous souls from around the globe are able to experience Earth’s southernmost continent and appreciate the importance of the whales, seabirds, fish and seals that live there like never before. Mission Blue founder Dr. Sylvia Earle is grateful that “the value of exploiting Antarctic wildlife as commodities is giving way to appreciating them as vital elements of systems that maintain Earth as a planet that works in our favor.” The urgency of exploring and protecting the Southern Ocean has never been greater.

The following photo journal illustrates Gale Mead’s recent visit to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands.

December 30, 2014

The voyagers spotted their first iceberg, first penguins and first humpback and fin whales, all before breakfast! 

The rest of the morning was spent getting to their first destination, the South Shetland Islands, and a little archipelago called the Aitcho Islands. That’s Aitcho, as in H.O., named for the Admiralty Hydrographic Office. Their first shore excursion was on a little postage stamp of an island, home to breeding grounds for two species of penguins, gentoo and chinstrap, coexisting peacefully along with the occasional seal. Lots of activity going on, penguins picking up pebbles to present to their mates for nesting material, parents feeding chicks and tending eggs. Penguin colonies are… fragrant, but endlessly entertaining.

December 31, 2014

More pre-breakfast whales, and plenty of them! After breakfast the voyagers made a landing on Cuverville Island, home to a gentoo penguin colony. There were lots of adorable penguins to photograph, and a short zodiac cruise among icebergs on the way back to the ship.

January 1, 2015

Today the crew had morning and afternoon zodiac cruises among picturesque icebergs in the Grandidier Channel. A pair of crabeater seals seemed to pose for pictures. Fun fact: they don’t eat crabs, they eat krill!

January 2, 2015

This morning the voyagers visited Port Lockroy, a former WWII British base that is now a small historical museum and post office. The small staff that maintains the place largely relies on the kind assistance of ships such as the Orion to actually carry the mail to the Falklands for mailing, and to supply them with fresh goods to relieve the monotony of canned provisions (roasted spam for Christmas dinner? Yum!). The site is also home to a gentoo penguin colony.

This afternoon they sailed through Neko Channel en route to an afternoon landing site. Along the way, the clouds dispersed and revealed glorious blue skies and sunshine, with glassy-calm waters peppered with icebergs and sea ice, and soaring snowy peaks on either side of the channel, reflected in the water. Spectacular.

January 3, 2015

Today the Orion came to a small bay covered with “fast ice,” that is not ice that is somehow speedy, but rather fast to the shore, forming a thick sheet of frozen seawater covering the entire bay. The captain drove the ship right into the ice until it, too, was “fast,” wedged in tightly enough to allow the voyagers to disembark directly onto the ice to explore.

There are Adélie penguins here, walking on the ice in twos and threes. Adélies are arguably the cutest of the penguin species, and curious about these orange-clad strangers in their midst. With changes in climate causing higher temperatures in their historic range, Adélie populations have shifted further south, with gentoo penguins taking over many of their former nesting grounds.

The action never stops around here. Just before dinner they spotted two blue whales, a rare enough sight anywhere in the world, but especially here, where they were hunted mercilessly by whalers until there were nearly none left. The Japanese still kill blue whales, which they pass off as minke whale meat, but DNA tests tell the ugly truth (not that killing minkes is really less awful). Blue whales are so rare in Antarctica now that they have trouble finding mates, and have been interbreeding with fin and sei whales, resulting in infertile progeny, like mules. So it was a once-in-a-lifetime treat to see two of them together, feeding on krill.

January 4, 2015

Following in Ernest Shackleton’s footsteps, the voyagers made way during the night to Elephant Island, where 22 members of his crew were stranded for 137 days while Shackleton and five others traveled 700 miles in an open boat to South Georgia seeking rescue. Today’s team was lucky to have sea conditions that allowed them to land at Cape Valentine, home to a fur seal breeding beach, and to a colony of chinstrap penguins. Antarctic fur seals were hunted almost to extinction but have rebounded with a vengeance, now numbering in the millions.

January 7, 2015

At Gold Harbour, King penguins number in the thousands. Their young look ridiculous mid-molt as they trade brown fluff for adult feathers.

An afternoon zodiac cruise brought the team to Cooper Bay, where there’s a colony of thousands of macaroni penguins and a scattering of chinstraps and gentoos.

January 9, 2015

Salisbury Plain is home to lots of fur seals. A mother placed her flipper protectively over her nursing baby in response to Gale stopping to photograph them.

Legions of king penguins were also quite active, some molting, some coming and going in the surf, many thousands standing around just doing what penguins do.

January 10, 2015

The voyagers spent the morning at St. Andrew’s Bay, the largest king penguin colony they’d seen yet, with an estimated 150,000 breeding pairs (add in the young and mateless and it’s over half a million individuals).

January 14, 2015

This morning the ship visited one of the most spectacular sites in the Falklands, an island called Steeple Jason. It’s rare that conditions are good enough to land zodiacs here. It’s challenging even when conditions are good. Home to the largest black-browed albatross colony in the world, there are some 160,000 breeding pairs here, as well as a colony of gentoo penguins, and nesting giant petrels and king cormorants, “Johnny rooks” (aka striated caracaras) upland geese, flightless steamer ducks, Magellanic penguins, tussock birds, crested ducks, and two species of oystercatcher. It’s a one mile hike each way, over rough terrain, to get to the main colony of albatross.

Thanks to Gale Mead for sharing her anecdotes and photos.

All photos © Gale Mead, 2015