Drake Passage
Our second day at sea was filled with marine mammal sightings as the National Geographic Explorer made her way ever farther south in calm waters. Our plan is to go as far south as we can out to seaward of the islands that dot the west side of the peninsula. One of the largest is Adelie Island. Once around the southern side the ship can be taken through Marguerite Bay and then north.
That is the future though. Today we enjoyed amazing conditions, to the point that we called the Drake Passage the Drake “Lake.” The water is still enough to see penguins, hourglass dolphins, and Antarctic fur seals at the surface. Later in the morning Southern bottlenose whales were seen off in the distance. Humpback whales were spotted just before lunch and then in the afternoon great views of finback and sei whales and a slightly curious humpback whale near the ship were had from the bow as they rolled along in feeding formation. A later sighting of a beaked variety of whale gave us quite the species count for the day.
All of these marine animals are after the same prey, the giant krill, Euphausia superb; this largest of the worlds krill is the fire that runs the biological engine in the Southern Ocean. Unlike human children that can be finicky eaters at dinner time (no meat, no veggies, only bread will do), the marine mammals and penguins gorge themselves as well as they can during the highly productive summer months. We in turn benefit from their feeding behavior in the viewing of these amazing animals.
