Petermann Island
Another fantastic day for the Antarctic Site Inventory on board Endeavour. Late afternoon, we reached one of the project’s key study sites, Petermann Island, just south of the Lemaire Channel. Landing on the boulder rocks of Port Circumcision, once utilized by the noted Antactic explorer Jean Baptiste Charcot, we were greeted by scores of the island’s nesting gentoo penguins. They are at an important stage of their breeding season, which we scientists technically call the peak of egg laying. This is the best time for the Inventory to obtain nest counts, which is an important measure of population size. Changes in nest counts from season to season provide an indication whether a population is stable, expanding, or declining. Our nest counts will be supplemented later in the season by a census of chicks, which in turn enables a determination of productivity – how many chicks were produced per active nest. At Petermann, the Inventory makes similar censuses of the site’s breeding population of blue-eyed shags and Adelie penguins.
This season, the Inventory is excited to return to Endeavour and thrilled that Lindblad Expeditions has taken steps to encourage support for our important work and ensure that our science effort in the Antarctic Peninsula continues. Oceanites’ Antarctic Site Inventory is the only research project collecting long-term, baseline biological data at key Antarctic Peninsula sites that are species diverse and potentially sensitive to environmental changes. Oceanites, a nonprofit company based in the U.S., is the only private research organization working in all of Antarctica, and we’re proud that our database is being used by the Antarctic Treaty nations to ensure that Antarctica is conserved for posterity.
Another fantastic day for the Antarctic Site Inventory on board Endeavour. Late afternoon, we reached one of the project’s key study sites, Petermann Island, just south of the Lemaire Channel. Landing on the boulder rocks of Port Circumcision, once utilized by the noted Antactic explorer Jean Baptiste Charcot, we were greeted by scores of the island’s nesting gentoo penguins. They are at an important stage of their breeding season, which we scientists technically call the peak of egg laying. This is the best time for the Inventory to obtain nest counts, which is an important measure of population size. Changes in nest counts from season to season provide an indication whether a population is stable, expanding, or declining. Our nest counts will be supplemented later in the season by a census of chicks, which in turn enables a determination of productivity – how many chicks were produced per active nest. At Petermann, the Inventory makes similar censuses of the site’s breeding population of blue-eyed shags and Adelie penguins.
This season, the Inventory is excited to return to Endeavour and thrilled that Lindblad Expeditions has taken steps to encourage support for our important work and ensure that our science effort in the Antarctic Peninsula continues. Oceanites’ Antarctic Site Inventory is the only research project collecting long-term, baseline biological data at key Antarctic Peninsula sites that are species diverse and potentially sensitive to environmental changes. Oceanites, a nonprofit company based in the U.S., is the only private research organization working in all of Antarctica, and we’re proud that our database is being used by the Antarctic Treaty nations to ensure that Antarctica is conserved for posterity.
