Antarctica
The Antarctic is a place of startling contrasts and constant changes. A wind-whipped, sun-splashed afternoon gives way to a quiet night and a still, foggy dawn. Blue-white icebergs like floating mountains fall behind us and over the horizon appears a desolate volcanic island of black cinders. What we discover is never quite what we expect but as we continue to observe, some facets of the gem become familiar and our understanding grows.
Landing at Deception Island today, the guests on this photo expedition quickly spread out across the black sand beach, hiking up the surrounding slopes for views over the caldera and wandering among the rusty ruins of the whaling station. Jagged shapes of steel, silhouetted against the sky, framed views of the dark cliffs further around the curve of the bay. A group of gentoos penguins clambered out of the water and kindly posed with our brave ship as a backdrop. And some intrepid souls provided a few more comic photo ops while bathing in a pool of geothermally heated water at the edge of the waves.
In the meantime, I took advantage of a slack tide to dive in Neptune’s Bellows, the narrow channel that forms the entrance to Deception’s caldera. I was excited to have an opportunity to dive this site that is frequently swept by ferociously strong currents, and I expected to find rocky walls beneath the sea, echoing those which line the channel above the water’s surface. Instead I found kelp-covered boulders down to only 40 feet and below that a steep slope of volcanic sand and cinders. Even here the daily ebb and flow of the tides has not yet swept away the debris left by Deception’s powerful eruptions in the 1960’s and 70’s.
Descending to 98 feet, I patrolled the sand, filming the large snails and juvenile Antarctic cod which made their homes there. After slowly making my way back up the slope, I paused at the boulders which were nearly invisible beneath thick mats of long, hair-like kelp. Remembering a few similar sites I have dived in the South Shetlands, I decided to attempt burrowing under this covering. Sometimes lovely encrusting sponges can be found on boulders like these and occasionally other interesting animals are also hidden there. After a few minutes of gentle fining and not so gentle pulling the kelp away from my mask and camera, I was able to get a look around. Sure enough, there were bright yellow and orange sponges, pink coralline algae and – Jackpot! – a weird and wonderful pycnogonid, or sea spider. It was a real prize for the video camera and another marvel from the Antarctic seas to share with our guests.
A dramatic volcanic landscape, ruins of an historic station, a dive site that proved very different than expected and a marine wonder found with the benefit of experience. All part of another day rich with contrasts, surprises and slowly growing intimacy with the Antarctic.
The Antarctic is a place of startling contrasts and constant changes. A wind-whipped, sun-splashed afternoon gives way to a quiet night and a still, foggy dawn. Blue-white icebergs like floating mountains fall behind us and over the horizon appears a desolate volcanic island of black cinders. What we discover is never quite what we expect but as we continue to observe, some facets of the gem become familiar and our understanding grows.
Landing at Deception Island today, the guests on this photo expedition quickly spread out across the black sand beach, hiking up the surrounding slopes for views over the caldera and wandering among the rusty ruins of the whaling station. Jagged shapes of steel, silhouetted against the sky, framed views of the dark cliffs further around the curve of the bay. A group of gentoos penguins clambered out of the water and kindly posed with our brave ship as a backdrop. And some intrepid souls provided a few more comic photo ops while bathing in a pool of geothermally heated water at the edge of the waves.
In the meantime, I took advantage of a slack tide to dive in Neptune’s Bellows, the narrow channel that forms the entrance to Deception’s caldera. I was excited to have an opportunity to dive this site that is frequently swept by ferociously strong currents, and I expected to find rocky walls beneath the sea, echoing those which line the channel above the water’s surface. Instead I found kelp-covered boulders down to only 40 feet and below that a steep slope of volcanic sand and cinders. Even here the daily ebb and flow of the tides has not yet swept away the debris left by Deception’s powerful eruptions in the 1960’s and 70’s.
Descending to 98 feet, I patrolled the sand, filming the large snails and juvenile Antarctic cod which made their homes there. After slowly making my way back up the slope, I paused at the boulders which were nearly invisible beneath thick mats of long, hair-like kelp. Remembering a few similar sites I have dived in the South Shetlands, I decided to attempt burrowing under this covering. Sometimes lovely encrusting sponges can be found on boulders like these and occasionally other interesting animals are also hidden there. After a few minutes of gentle fining and not so gentle pulling the kelp away from my mask and camera, I was able to get a look around. Sure enough, there were bright yellow and orange sponges, pink coralline algae and – Jackpot! – a weird and wonderful pycnogonid, or sea spider. It was a real prize for the video camera and another marvel from the Antarctic seas to share with our guests.
A dramatic volcanic landscape, ruins of an historic station, a dive site that proved very different than expected and a marine wonder found with the benefit of experience. All part of another day rich with contrasts, surprises and slowly growing intimacy with the Antarctic.
