Thursday, 9 Jan 2003
SEATTLE, Wash.
I am still haunted by the stunning beauty of Paradise Harbor and Wilhelmina Bay. Imagine steep, snow-covered mountain peaks, clear blue skies with wispy clouds, dark emerald seas, blue icebergs and tidewater glaciers, various species of whales, penguins, seals and birds, and you will have some idea of what surrounded me on my trip to the Antarctic. I approach each day now with a different mindset simply knowing that these areas exist. What significance does my life have when I live so far from such quiet beauty? I am inclined to fight to protect Antarctica and return if I can.
Two Gentoo Penguin chicks keep warm near Port Lockroy, a British Antarctic Base.
Only now can I reflect on the brief five days that my 14-day trip allotted me on the peninsula and its nearby islands. We spent early dawn with the chinstrap penguins at scenic Half Moon Island, so named for its crescent shape. A fur seal and a pair of Weddell seals rested on the beach around us as kelp gulls flew nearby. Fur seals were thought to have been hunted to extinction but have now recovered to healthy levels. Weddell seals maintain breathing holes in the ice with their teeth during the winter. Eventually their teeth wear away, causing them to suffocate and drown.
We sailed through Neptune Bellows into the center of Deception Island, a massive caldera of an active volcano that last erupted in 1969. The bay there is surrounded by a ring of reddish mountains more than six miles wide. This was a major whaling center for the Norwegians in the early 1900s. So many whales were killed that the bay was occasionally clogged with whale carcasses. We hiked to the site of the last eruption and later rested in lukewarm "hot" springs on the beach. Inspired by my adrenaline-filled day, I ventured twice into the frigid Southern Ocean. I was quite surprised when the shore dropped away completely on my third step.
We cruised Paradise Bay in our Zodiacs near massive tidewater glaciers. Although we could hear explosive cracks and see small avalanches, change actually takes place quite slowly here. Antarctica is the driest continent, so change in the glacial landscapes is much slower than in, say, Alaska. The packed snow that forms these glaciers has been building up in layers over millions of years.
A fuzzy crab eater seal resting on ice in Flanders Bay.
We encountered our first crab-eater seal resting on an iceberg. Almost all adult crab-eater seals (which actually eat krill, not crabs) have scars from being attacked by leopard seals as pups. They have beautiful fuzzy light brown fur, drippy noses, and often sport pleasant looks.
We visited Port Lockroy, an old British base and museum. At Port Lockroy, gentoo penguins nest all around you. According to seven years of research, the penguins near the museum have reproduced more productively than those in a distant, isolated, and roped-off area. It is believed that tourists frighten away Skua, thus protecting more eggs. Here, we also saw the first penguin chicks of the season. Strangely, one lone adelie penguin and one chinstrap penguin lurked among hundreds of gentoo penguins.
At Flanders Bay, we spotted a number of Minke whales and a pair of humpback whales. We took a Zodiac cruise and were able to observe the humpbacks for about 20 minutes. We were blessed with clear, sunny weather and the beauty of the snow-covered mountains and icebergs rivaled the excitement of seeing the whales. One of the humpbacks was still covered in barnacles, indicating that it had recently migrated from South America. According to our guides, the barnacles die and fall off in the cold polar waters. Humpbacks can be uniquely identified by the markings on the bottom of their tale flukes.
A recently migrated humpback whale in Flanders Bay.
At Wilhelmina Bay, we encountered a leopard seal (the only penguin-eating seal) lounging on an iceberg. We also found a group of five adelie penguins resting on some rocks near a large tern colony. Adelie penguins have black faces and striking blue eyes; they also walk with a very amusing awkward gait and make strange barking noises. The leopard seal and adelie penguins were a gift to see, as it was our last day on the peninsula.
After all this, I can see now why Antarctica haunted the early explorers and compelled them to return repeatedly to face isolation and hardships far beyond those of my cozy, gore-tex-era trip.
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