Port Lockroy & Useful Islands
Having gone to sleep to the soft hum of the National Geographic Endeavour's engines, we awoke this morning to the startling silence of anchorage. And not just any anchorage, either - no, we had arrived at the famously safe and calm water of Port Lockroy, former home to British Antarctic Survey Base A and current home to the museum and post office that represent its recent rebirth under the auspices of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust.
Breakfast was only just finishing up when we had a visit from Rick Atkinson, the station manager, to introduce us to the history of Port Lockroy, the base, and its role in World War II and ionospheric science. Then, in short order, we were away in the zodiacs to visit the station, its gentoo penguins, and nearby Jougla Point.
Port Lockroy’s gentoos are, perhaps, the best known gentoo penguins in the Antarctic Peninsula (because of the number of visitors to the station), and a prime research subject of the Oceanites Antarctic Site Inventory project, which has been censusing these penguins since the project’s inception in 1994. Jougla Point also offered our first good looks this trip of nesting blue-eyed shags.
The penguin and shag chicks were large and many have lost their natal down feathering. The Oceanites team counted just over 1300 breeding pairs of gentoos and about 30 pairs of blue-eyed shags nesting at Jougla Point this season. Oceanites brought on shore an extra set of "clickers" to demonstrate to the guests how penguin chick censuses are done, an activity made extra challenging by the little chicks running all about. It is only through very careful counting of penguin and seabird nests and chicks from season-to-season that we can detect changes in breeding populations and, then, to tackle a better understanding of why these changes are occurring.
From Port Lockroy we sailed to the Useful Islands for one final landing in the Antarctic, which provided our best chance to see breeding chinstrap penguins. About 200 pairs of chinstraps breed here alongside over 1500 pairs of gentoo penguins and about two dozen blue-eyed shags. The chinstrap and gentoo chicks were 4-6 weeks old. We also found many molting gentoo penguin adults, whose breeding season had ended. They spend a 10-day to 2-week period standing quietly, dropping their old feathers and growing in new ones, all in preparation for the winter ahead.
The Useful Islands also offered us excellent views of fur seals, Weddell seals, and even a southern elephant seal. Zodiac cruisers also enjoyed penguins porpoising alongside and even a few distant humpback whales. All in all, a fabulous way to wave goodbye to the Antarctic Peninsula after an amazing adventure.
For footage from this day, please click here.
