Digital Rabbit

A few people asked me if I saw any polar bears during my recent trip to Antarctica. No, I didn’t. Polar bears live in the Arctic. If you want to see them, either go to Canada (where 60% of them live) or get to some other Arctic location, like Point Barrow, Alaska. Find out more about them and their melting habitat on David Suzuki’s website.

One person asked me if I met any Antarctica natives. In fact, I met several thousands of them. They live there only part of the year, so you might argue they don’t qualify as natives. Unfortunately we had a big communication problem. I don’t speak penguin. Penguins are very communicative with each other. After watching them for awhile, I could understand their primary motivation in life—fish and reproduction. A few seem to have some other interests, like racing!

That’s what it felt like during my recent trip to Antarctica. A tail here, a fin there, and the occasional glimpse of a blow hole or mouth. My companions and I wanted to see more.

We were sitting in a small Zodiac boat in icy cold water watching mammals that are 50 feet long. What if one came up under the boat? I guess we trusted the whales knew what they were doing. They trusted we weren’t going to harpoon them.

You might have seen photos of whales jumping out of the water. That’s what we wanted to see. But these whales were feeding. Feeding humpbacks don’t do that, which made watching them a challenge. The whales typically approach a large gathering of krill from below, then drive them towards the surface, with mouth open. The whale engulfs the krill, snaps its mouth shut, and squishes the water out. A tasty meal.

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When the petrel sea bird feeds, its feet patter on the surface of the water. It almost looks as if the bird is walking on water. There is a story in the bible about St. Peter walking on water. Hundreds of years ago someone familiar with that story named the bird after St. Peter. At least that’s what I’ve been told.

Petrels are a type of pelagic bird—they live on the open sea, flying to land only to breed. Non-pelagic birds fly close to shore; seeing them is a sign that land is nearby. If you can’t tell a pelagic bird from a non-pelagic one, you’ll be sorely disappointed if you’re lost at sea and encounter petrels. You might think you are close to land when in fact it’s no where in the vicinity of your boat.

Because they fly for long periods of time, petrels have thin legs. Their legs can’t support their weight very well, which is one reason stay at sea except when they need to breed.

Petrels—and other pelagic birds—drink sea water. You or I would die if we drank that much salt. How do these birds survive? They have a specially built bill that has nostril tubes for blowing out salt. If you look closely, you can see the saline dripping out of the tubes.

When I was in Antarctica recently, I saw 10 different varieties of petrels. They appeared soon after we crossed the Antarctic convergence zone, circling the ship while we were in open waters. One of my favorites is the Cape Petrel. It has the most amazing pattern on its wings. It almost looks stenciled on its back.

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One of the ways to tell that you’ve passed from the Atlantic Ocean into the Southern Ocean is the appearance of albatrosses. This Royal Albatross is one of the several kinds of sea birds that became constant companions to the Polar Star during my recent expedition to Antarctica.

Like many living creatures on earth, the albatross faces many threats. 100,000 albatrosses die each year from ingesting fish hooks. Most of the hooks are discarded by fishing boats when the fisherman toss out waste and bait. BirdLife International is trying to stop these deaths with their Save the Albatross campaign. Check it out.

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I don’t know what to say about this creature. The expedition staff on our cruise had never seen an octopus in Antarctica. This one was in the shallow water near Port Lockroy. If you have any ideas on what species it is, please let me know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s not a misspelling. The bar and bra have a connection. Read on and you’ll find out.

 

The Verdansky Antarctic scientific station has a few side businesses that open only when tourist ships visit the area—a Post Office, a souvenir shop, and a bar. They claim the souvenir shop and bar are the most southern. I’m not sure I believe them. It seems McMurdo must have some enterprising scientists there as well.

Some advice on the Post Office: Your mail first goes to the Ukraine before going to its intended destination. I chose not to use their P.O. and instead waited to mail letters from Port Lockroy, the British station. Port Lockroy sends their mail to England first, which is much closer to any of the destinations that I addressed my mail to.

A wise word about the souvenir shop: It is the most high-priced on the Antarctic peninsula. There are two other souvenir shops—one run by the Polish and the other by the British. Verdansky was our first stop at a scientific station, so I didn’t have that bit of knowledge at the time, but now I can pass it on to you! The prices were from 50 to 100 percent over similar things in the states. Someone pointed out to me that the markup was likely due to transportation costs. Before I disembarked to take a Zodiac to the station, I noticed a few boxes near the gangway on our ship that were labeled “souvenirs.” Did our ship deliver the packages to the Ukrainians only to have us buy them and bring them back? If so, doesn’t that warrant a discount? In any case, the British have the best shop, so hold out for Port Lockroy! Their prices are about a third cheaper too.

Check out the bar! The Ukrainians make their own vodka that I heard was pretty good, so the chance to try it intrigued me. We arrived at Verdansky at 9:00 AM—a little early in the day for drinking vodka. But in a place where the sun never sets, the exact time matters less and less as one bright day slips into the next. (The Ukrainian scientists drink only once a week, I’m told. The bar is closed until a ship shows up.)

A caution on the options for paying for a shot of vodka: Either you leave a bra at the bar or you pay $2. I saw two bras hanging there. Notice the red one in the photo, just to the right of the younger man’s shoulder. The other bra (not in the photo) was left by a senior woman on a previous Polar Star cruise. Judging by the fact the bra was hung in the window as a sort of curtain, I’d have to conclude that it was a rather large woman who left the bra.

Leave a bra or pay $2? I didn’t think this one over too long. It was an easy choice. Pay the $2. My bras are worth at least $20 each. I would expect that one of them would be worth enough to buy a round for my best buddies on the ship. So I paid the $2 and tossed the vodka. I made the right choice. It was tasty vodka, but certainly not worth $20 a shot. But at $2 it is the best deal on the base. If you go, drink up!

(Verdanksy is where the ozone hole was discovered.)

I saw many whales during my recent trip to Antarctica. They are awesome creatures—mammals in fact, and smart ones. Although whales were hunted almost to extinction by the USA, England, and many, many other countries in the 19th and early 20th century, all countries except Japan, Norway, and Iceland have ceased commercial whaling activities.

The 1991 Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty protects whales from being killed in the Southern Ocean of Antarctica. Japan, however, illegally whales in those waters under the ruse of doing “scientific research,” which is allowed under a loop hole in the treaty. Apparently if you paint “Research” on your ship, you can kill Minke whales. The Japanese have killed over 6,800 under this ruse. After the “research” is over, the Japanese can sell and eat the meat commercially.

Japan has not produced any scientific data on these 6,800 whales that were murdered in the Southern Ocean sanctuary over the past 18 years. Let’s be truthful here—the Japanese like to eat whale meat and they will do anything—illegal or not—to continue this practice.

Sea Shepherd is the only organization taking any direct action against Japanese whaling ships. Their actions result in saving whales by caused the ships to turn back before reaching their killing quota. Watch the video, donate money, and do whatever you can to get Japan to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean sanctuary.

Australia is close to the whaling activity but surprisingly they are not taking action. What about Greenpeace? They are a protest group, not a direct action group. They can protest all they want, but the whalers just go on killing in front of them.

This is serious stuff. Just this week one of Sea Shepherd’s ships was rammed and sunk by a Japanese whaler ship when it was just sitting in the water. Fortunately, there was another ship in the area to rescue the crew, because the Japanese whaling ship would not respond to the distress call.

Until a few months ago, I thought the Earth had four oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Indian. Then I found out about the Southern Ocean—the sea that surrounds the continent of Antarctica. You could claim that the waters in the area belong to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. But there is a boundary that separates the Southern ocean from its northern siblings—the Antarctic convergence. On my recent trip to Antarctica, I not only saw the Southern ocean but I stepped into it each time I took a Zodiac to the shore.

The Antarctic convergence is the place where cold water from Antarctica meets the warmer northern waters. Unlike a land boundary, the convergence zone fluctuates somewhat throughout the year. The icy cold water moves towards the bottom of the sea, sliding under the warmer water. It’s at this point where the climate changes and along with it the marine and bird life. Although I couldn’t see the exact point at which the Southern ocean began, it was obvious I was in a new ocean after our ship (M/V Polar Star) had entered it. The outside temperature was noticeably colder. Albatrosses and petrels followed the ship. Icebergs began to show on the horizon. We spotted fin whales.

When you look at the map of the Southern ocean, you’ll notice that the band of water circles the globe. Because the ocean is unconstrained by land, the waves can get quite wild. The open ocean and temperature differences create intense cyclones that travel eastward around the continent. Fortunately I didn’t encounter any cyclones during my trip.

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The Drake Passage is the 600 mile wide channel between the tip of South America (Cape Horn) and the South Shetland Islands. It connects the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Until the Panama Canal was built, ships had to travel around Cape Horn to get from one ocean to the other.

The Drake is notorious for rough water. When I left Ushuaia, Argentina on December 19 for Antarctica, I was apprehensive about the passage. Would I encounter fierce storms or “Drake Lake?” Like my shipmates, I slapped on a seasick-prevention patch as soon as the ship set out in the Beagle channel and hoped for the best.

Although I thought I had secured everything in the cabin, I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of various items rolling and crashing about the the cabin. I couldn’t walk because of the roll of the ship, so I crawled from my bed to gather and secure the items. I learned never to leave the lid of the toilet open on a ship, lest the medicine cabinet fly open and empty its contents into it!

When morning came (which is difficult to tell with the nearly constant daylight), the rolling lessened just a bit. I crawled to the couch and shot some video. My cabin was on deck 5 in the bow of the ship, so the windows point slightly skyward. So when sitting on the couch in a calm sea, I should see only the sky. As you can see in the video, I was able to see sky and sea alternating. That gives you an idea of the roll of the ship. You can also get an idea of the roll by the movement of the sunlight through the window.

I later checked with the bridge and found out that the worst roll that night was 30 degrees to each side, with waves as much as 6 meters. The wind was a Force 8 gale on the Beaufort scale. The Drake wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I was happy I put the seasick-prevention patch on.

Our Captain adjusted our course, changing the itinerary, so that the ship (M/V Polar Star) was going with the sea rather than against it. That smoothed out the rest of the passage considerably.

The passage on the way back from Antarctica was essentially smooth, the waves being only 3 to 4 meters. and the wind a Force 6 strong breeze.

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In the upcoming weeks I’ll be writing more about my adventures in Antarctica. It was a fabulous trip—a dream come true thanks to Polar Star Expeditions.