At Sea
Just add water! It’s a simple recipe for an amazing transformation of seabirds and marine mammals.
Being a terrestrial species ourselves, we usually encounter penguins and albatross, seals and sea lions, on the shores where they come to breed. It’s a wonderful opportunity to observe these fascinating animals at close range during a very busy and active phase of their lives, watching as males battle for dominance, pairs engage in courtship displays, chicks and pups are reared to independence and sub-adults practice behaviors in preparation for future seasons. Our visit to South Georgia has been a three ring circus of this kind of wildlife encounter – in fact, it was really more like a twenty-ring mega-circus extravaganza as we wandered along beaches and cruised around rocky headlands where thousands of fur seals and elephant seals; king, gentoo and macaroni penguins; wandering, black-browed and gray-headed albatross; and many other species were busily building the next generation from scratch.
But, marvelous as it all is, perhaps these land-bound encounters give us something of the wrong impression of these creatures. At best, they tell only a small part of the story, because all of these animals are marine creatures at heart, making a brief, necessary sojourn on land, eager to return to the freedom of the sea. Bereft of their buoyancy, they are hobbled and constrained. The penguins waddle comically along the beach or hop up and down the rocks, skillfully yet tentatively. Albatross seem to risk crash landings every time they alight and always appear relieved when they launch themselves off the cliffs, back into the embrace of the winds. Fur seals too, though they are among the most agile of pinnipeds on land, can manage only an ungainly gallop over short distances before flopping down on their bellies again.
So, just add water! To really know the wildlife of South Georgia, we must also observe them in their usual homes, in and over the sea. As soon as they reach the waves, penguins are transformed; their weight redistributes in to a perfect streamline as they lean forward and then rocket outwards through even the strongest surf. With effortless flicks of their wings they glide down through their three dimensional home, then ride their buoyancy up toward the surface, leaving bubble trails as they go. Nearby, the fur seal pups only a few weeks old play in the kelp forest, chasing each other through astounding acrobatics, ripping spinning wakes past my camera, developing all the skills they will need for a life of nearly unimaginable freedom, swimming through the Southern Ocean.
For us, things are a little different. Diving at South Georgia is very demanding, requiring hundreds of pounds of specialized gear and hours of preparation, but it is certainly very well worth the necessary effort. We have been lucky enough in recent days to have great encounters with penguins and seals in the water, and through the images we brought back everyone on board the National Geographic Explorer has been granted a view into these rich seas and deeper into the lives of the remarkable wildlife of this unique Antarctic island.
