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The Ecology of Extreme Environments: Antarctica
Journal of Daniel Hauck '07
Degree: Bachelor of Liberal Arts
Major/Department: Sociology/Psychology (Specialty: Latin America)
Hometown: Port Charlotte, FL
Division: Social Sciences
Monday, December 12, 2005
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| Fellow NCF students Molly Thompson and Mikhail Peterson as we are leaving Ushuaia, Argentina. |
We met the bus to take us to the ship, the Academic Ioffe (pronounced e-yoff-ay) at 4 p.m. I, of course, was late as usual, but we all got on board safely and quickly. The capacity for passengers is 107, but they are way, way under capacity at only 61. I got upgraded from a triple do a double. Mikhail and I shared a room.
After we all had tea (have to love tea time everyday at 4 p.m.), we disembarked from Ushuaia, "the southernmost city in the world!"
That was so exciting for me, being that this was my first cruise. Of course we had the lifeboat drill that all cruises must have, but here they tell us get all your winter clothes on, all your warm stuff and get up there with those life jackets on! We looked like a bunch of marshmallows!
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| All of us, waiting for the life boat. Molly and I are standing an a bench against the wall. |
Then dinner. It got interesting later on while going through the Beagle Channel when we saw some Magellanic penguins. We only saw them from a very far distance so I don't have any pictures, unfortunately.
Later, around 10-10:30 p.m., we dropped the pilot off, which was crazy. By law, every boat that navigates the Beagle Channel must have a pilot aboard from either Argentina or Chile and after we are mostly through they get off. They leave by a boat to boat transfer where we lower a rope ladder and his other boat comes along side us and he climbs down and heads off!!! It was quite cool to see, actually.
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| Beagle Channel around 10:30 p.m., about 2 hours before we left South America behind. |
That was the day, pretty much, but one note of importance to me; around 12:30 or 1 a.m. I went up to the third deck to look out before I went to bed. The sky was still pink from the sunset and I saw a tip of land on our starboard side with nothing else in front of us. I asked a cook I'd seen outside at the same time if that was the tip of the Chilean Tierra del Fuego, and he said it was. I watched the end of South America slip slowly into the pink tinted night sky...it was amazing.
What a beginning.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
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| A humpback whale seen from the boat on the 13th. |
So the 13th was our first day out to sea and it was beautiful. Many of us were trying to get our sea legs under us so there were a few bedridden passengers; but in comparison to what the seas could have been like we were lucky. One of the naturalist was telling us how they were hit by a hurricane on his first voyage through the Drake Passage and the waves were crashing up to the bridge! We, however had the most picturesque weather you could imagine.
The amazing weather we had these two days permitted us ample time and amazing views for wildlife watching. We saw petrels of many kinds, albatross soaring through the air, and yes, whales. The magnificent immensity of the three humpback whales and the strength and agility with which they threw themselves out of the water made me giddy. The excitement on the boat was palpable as we stood starboard side and watched these creatures as they migrated southward to feed on the plentiful bounty of krill that the Antarctic waters provide.
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| Diane serving hot chocolate as we go through the Lemaire Channel. |
There were eight lectures over these two days discussing penguin adaptations, the plight of the Albatross, seal and whale adaptations, and the wonders of water. The most important to myself was the discussion of the Antarctic Treaty, led by Diane. In this lecture we talked about international law, how the claims of all countries on the Antarctic proper and surrounding islands are frozen until 2095, and the political ramifications of this freezing. While this treaty does a great job of setting aside Antarctica as a natural preserve solely for ecological study, it has egregious loopholes concerning the Antarctic waters.
Antarctica is owned by no one and therefore can be governed by no one. While this helps protect the continent from ecological destruction in search of natural resources, it does nothing to help the sea life and those animals that depend on the sea for sustenance.
International waters, even those under the "protection" of the Antarctic Treaty, cannot control the fishing industry because they have no legal ramifications.
This was discussed by Bill, our expedition leader, in his talk titled the plight of the albatross. These poor creatures are killed at a rate of 2 an hour by long line fishing boats setting their lines out to catch. Before the baited lines fall into the water, the albatross (and many other birds) swoop in and try to steal the bait from the line and in doing so are hooked and taken under the sea, thus killing them if they can't break free in time.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
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| The first iceberg in the distance. |
The 14th dawned as beautifully as the day before, with the temperature dropping and the anticipation growing. We saw our first iceberg that day, as well as our first sitting of land. Smith Island is the most northern Antarctic Island and the first we saw. It made me shiver with excitement, not with cold, to see it appear floating in a shroud of clouds, as if out of a dream.
At this point in time it was a waiting game; by the morning we were to reach the Lemaire Channel and head on our way to our most southern most stops. Our trajectory was to swing as far out as we could in the beginning and then work our way northward, ending on La Isla Decepción (Deception Island). So we waited, and attended lectures like the afore mentioned, by Bill on the albatross. We waited for the "real" adventures to begin (as if they hadn't already).
Thursday, December 15, 2005
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| A couple of Adelie penguins on some pack-ice (sea ice that’s not yet free floating and still connected to land). |
After breakfast, by the time we were ready for our first excursion (a zodiac ride through iceberg filled waters around Planeou Island about 2 hours south of the Lemaire) the clouds had lifted and the sun was shining brightly. We saw an Adelie penguin colony, some crabeater seals (who actually eat krill, not crab) and a plethora of icebergs. My amazement made me giddy with excitement and energy; I was 8 years old again and had just gotten the gift of a lifetime. It was this moment, as we pushed off from the Ioffe that it hit me; we are here, we are in ANTARCTICA!
Lynn was my zodiac driver and she had a knack for getting us as near as possible to the wildlife. She also took us on all sides of some beautiful icebergs to see them from all angles.
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| Werdie Station, the little shack, buried in the snow. |
Lynn, who has worked on the Academic Ioffe for 10 years, was telling us of a time when she was very close to an iceberg as it exploded. At that moment, right in front of us a berg rolled in the water. You could hear the rushing of water and the sound of the immense berg readjusting itself. Icebergs show only about 1/6 of their mass above water and as it melts it's weight distribution changes and they roll, shatter or break apart. Sorry there's no photo of this, but it all happened too fast for me to catch, but afterwards I grabbed a small shard and had myself a nice little iceberg quencher...very refreshing!
In the afternoon we went out for our second adventure: a trip to Vernadsky, Ukrainian research station, and then around the corner to a "museum" called the Werdie Station (one of the first British "stations" on Antarctica). Here we hike up a glacier to get a glimpse of what it was like for the first explorers.
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| Mario, our zodiac driver, maneuvering us through the narrow passage. |
Vernadsky does meteorological surveys, most specifically on the hole in the ozone layer. Interestingly, it used to be a British station and was sold to the Ukrainians for $1 and a promise: that they would keep up the research on the ozone that the British had been conducting prior to the transfer of ownership. It is one of the smaller stations on Antarctica, but the staff of 20 were very friendly and excited to see us. Plus, they had a bar with some damn good vodka!
Werdie Station was a blast from the past. It gave me perspective of the perseverance the early explorers and scientists needed to live and work here. It was a supposedly there to protect military interest in the area, but look at how hard it was to get to, how could this site do any good?
December 16, 2005
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| Look! It's an Adelie skating on his belly! |
Today began with a trip to Peterman Island where there were nesting colonies of Gentoo and Adelie Penguins. Adelie penguins are very shy and uncomfortable around humans. Whenever we got too close (even if we were beyond the "legal" distance) and they got anxious the sign of their discomfort, besides the obvious squaking, was the pronounced raising of the feathers around their heads (see the photo of "The angry Adelie protecting his/her nest").
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| The angry Adelie protecting his/her next. |
There is a group of American scientists doing research on Peterman Island, specifically to measure the impact of tourism on the two colonies. 20 years ago there were many more Adelies than there are now; since the advent of major tourism in Antarctica there has been a steady decline in their nesting population. Adelies are much more sensitive to humans than the Gentoos and because Peterman Island is one of the busiest destinations in Antarctica for tourism, the scientists are trying to determine if this is the reason for the decline in the Adelie population.
After hiking the glacier there and seeing the penguin colonies the afternoon was much more relaxing. Wee took a zodiak ride through a bay near the island and saw crab eaters, and icebergs galore, while surrounded by towering
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| The mountains surrounding Peterman Island. |
mountains. Between the beautiful surroundings, the plethora of wildlife, adn the icebergs all around it's a miracle I still had film left at the end of the day!!
Photographs
For more a complete portfolio of photographs from Daniel's trip to Antarctica, click here.
Links of Interest for Daniel's Journal
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