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| First iceberg! |
About Antarctic Cetaceans
But that was only because we attended an amazing and thoroughly entertaining talk about Antarctic whales and dolphins, given by the designated marine biologist on the trip (i.e. there are other marine biologists travelling with us as crew, but he’s the one doing the talks). Why so fascinating? To explain just how big the blue whale is, the largest of all the marine mammals, he walked from the lounge where all the presentations, talks and briefings are held, out the door onto the deck of the ship and right to the edge - and it still wasn’t long enough to show 33 meters in length. So… HUGE, essentially.
We may see a blue whale, although it’s more likely that we’ll see humpbacks. We were also reminded that orcas are not whales but rather, dolphins. Although, they are quite treacherous - they’ll eat anything, including sharks. But are also very picky eaters and tend to feed off one specific type of animal. This is why our resident orcas off the coast of British Columbia are dying out; they are used to eating only chinook salmon and we’ve overfished this specific salmon stock. Want to save our orcas? Stop fishing all of the chinook and encourage our government to place stricter regulations on this practice.
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| Approaching the South Shetlands |
First Penguin Sightings
We spent a lot of time outside on the deck, on the lookout for wildlife. There’s so much to see, even just from the ship: we spotted Wandering Albatross, Northern Royal Albatross, Northern and Southern Giant Petrels (who, we were told by one of the guides, are basically vultures - absolute opportunistic predatory birds), Antarctic fur seals… and penguins!! Hard to tell which specific species they were from the ship, but there were tons of them swimming along and flying through the water. I may have a cried a little, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
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| Flying penguins - built for water! |
Land Ho!
We spotted land at about noon, after the marine biologist’s talk.
(Aside: the marine biologist’s name is Jimmy and he is originally from Saskatchewan! So basically, he’s living my dream; when I was a kid, I wanted to be a marine biologist but talked myself out of it because… Saskatchewan. But - he’s doing it! And he’s amazing. This is his 12th season with Quark Expeditions.)
We did our first shore landings: Fort Point and Hardy Cove, which are both on the south side of the Greenwich Islands. To get to these places, the ship anchors off a ways-away, and everyone hops into zodiacs.
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| Feeding time for this Gentoo penguin chick |
At Fort Point, there were hundreds of penguins! Chinstraps and Gentoos, with their chicks - in every direction. I watched parents feed their young, penguins returning to land from the water, penguins waddling down into the water from the land, penguins watching all of us humans watching them. There were a few Antarctic fur seals at this landing as well, napping and “honking.”
At one point, I was lying down on my stomach to try and get some interesting shots and a tern walked right in front of me - and kind of gave me a little side-eye, if I’m not mistaken. Sure enough, a few minutes later I feel a “tap tap tap” on the bottom of one of my boots - and it’s the same tern! Totally reminded me of the buns at home when I’m lying on the floor and they nudge me to move out of the way. Totally made me laugh.
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| My snowy sheathbill friend |
At our second landing we saw an incredible ice glacier, along with a terminal moraine (hubs pulled his rarely-used geology background out to explain to me what this is), more Antarctic fur seals taking an afternoon nap, and a couple of Gentoos just hanging out.
If every day is going to be like this, I never want to come home.
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| "Ugh, humans." |
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| Terminal moraine © Matthew Boulton |
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| Zodiac cruising at Fort Point |
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