Paulet Island, the Weddell Sea, Antarctica
We approached Paulet Island in the early morning with our senses still reeling from last night’s experience with ice and the magical light of the setting (and, soon thereafter, rising) sun. Paulet Island is home to about 100,000 pairs of nesting adelie penguins producing a cacophony of sights, sounds, and smells. In the midst of the penguin colony, we viewed the remains of a historic hut, built by Captain Karl Anton Larsen and the survivors of the shipwreck of the Antarctic. In February 1903, the Antarctic was on its way to Snow Hill Island to remove the over-wintering party of Otto Nordenskjold and five companions of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition. It never made it. The ship was caught in the ice and sank. The 22 survivors made their way to Paulet Island, where they spent the winter in a hut of stones, subsisting on a diet of penguins. The tale of separation and improbable encounters was told as we gazed over the remains of the hut. Adelie penguins competed for our attention. The rapidly growing chicks, clad in gray down, are reaching the size at which they gather into groups called crèches. This allows both adults of a pair to leave their chicks and forage simultaneously (but independently), thus increasing the rate of delivery of krill to the demanding young. Paulet Island also supports a breeding colony of blue-eyed shags, the cormorant of the Antarctic. Shags are declining alarmingly on the Antarctic Peninsula. Our Oceanites observers carefully counted nests and noted a scarcity of young of the year, indicating, again, poor productivity this season. The cause is not at all clear.
Over lunch the National Geographic Endeavour moved to Brown Bluff, on the very tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. There we set foot on the Antarctic Continent – for many their seventh continent. The ceremonious event was solemnly witnessed by a parade of adelie penguins along the beach, the thin, dirty ones gathering before leaving in a rush out to sea to forage; the plump, clean ones returning with a belly full of krill to feed their waiting young.
We approached Paulet Island in the early morning with our senses still reeling from last night’s experience with ice and the magical light of the setting (and, soon thereafter, rising) sun. Paulet Island is home to about 100,000 pairs of nesting adelie penguins producing a cacophony of sights, sounds, and smells. In the midst of the penguin colony, we viewed the remains of a historic hut, built by Captain Karl Anton Larsen and the survivors of the shipwreck of the Antarctic. In February 1903, the Antarctic was on its way to Snow Hill Island to remove the over-wintering party of Otto Nordenskjold and five companions of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition. It never made it. The ship was caught in the ice and sank. The 22 survivors made their way to Paulet Island, where they spent the winter in a hut of stones, subsisting on a diet of penguins. The tale of separation and improbable encounters was told as we gazed over the remains of the hut. Adelie penguins competed for our attention. The rapidly growing chicks, clad in gray down, are reaching the size at which they gather into groups called crèches. This allows both adults of a pair to leave their chicks and forage simultaneously (but independently), thus increasing the rate of delivery of krill to the demanding young. Paulet Island also supports a breeding colony of blue-eyed shags, the cormorant of the Antarctic. Shags are declining alarmingly on the Antarctic Peninsula. Our Oceanites observers carefully counted nests and noted a scarcity of young of the year, indicating, again, poor productivity this season. The cause is not at all clear.
Over lunch the National Geographic Endeavour moved to Brown Bluff, on the very tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. There we set foot on the Antarctic Continent – for many their seventh continent. The ceremonious event was solemnly witnessed by a parade of adelie penguins along the beach, the thin, dirty ones gathering before leaving in a rush out to sea to forage; the plump, clean ones returning with a belly full of krill to feed their waiting young.
