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| Map of the Bismarck Strait |
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| Map of the Bismarck Strait |
The Lemaire Channel was as far south as I went during my visit to Antarctica, approximately 65 degrees south latitude. Even in the middle of summer the channel has quite a bit of ice. We called the smaller pieces of ice "bergy bits". As we sailed the channel the ship's hull scrapped against these bits of ice. The resulting reverberating sound was very loud. There were often lounging seals and penguins on the larger bergy bits. As the ship drew near the penguins would flee into the water in what looked like a game of follow the leader. It was too bad that we disturbed them, but their behavior was entertaining.
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| Zodiac Shore Excursion Boat |
We boarded the zodiacs near the head of the Neumayer Channel in order to cruise among the ice bergs and bergy bits. While cruising the channel we had the opportunity to see some of the lounging seals up close. My favorite photo from the entire trip is one I took while we were on this particular excursion. It's a crabeater seal. They don't eat crabs, there aren't any in Antarctica. Like most seals in Antarctica, they eat krill.
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| Crabeater Seal |
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| Exceptionally Blue Iceberg |
The icebergs often look blue. Icebergs are formed when ice "calves", or falls off, from a glacier that has reached the ocean. Bergy bits are formed when ice calves from an iceberg. Air is squeezed out of the ice over the many, many years that it is part of a large glacier, partly due to the weight of the snow. The compressed nature of the ice is what causes the bergs to look bluish. The blue range of sunlight is reflected instead of absorbed. Ice bergs are like clouds, use your imagination and you can see amusing likenesses. Who says there aren't polar bears in Antarctica?
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| Calving Iceberg |
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| Iceberg Disguised as a Polar Bear |
Palmer is an active U.S. science station. The scientists there are primarily studying the depletion of the ozone layer of our atmosphere. The Palmer personnel gave us a tour of their facility. It's not large, and houses only about 50 people. A dozen or so stay year round, most are just there in the summer. They have plenty of computing power for their scientific research, but no practical access to the internet. Since there are no phone lines or local access services and communication is done primarily using satellites, they can't connect to the web the way the rest of us do.
There are also some scientists studying the impact of human visitors on the Adelie penguin rookery that is near the station. We visited the rookery and the penguins there do seem a little less concerned about humans than other rookeries we saw. There were several elephant seals near the rookery. The smell of the elephant seals reminded me of a dairy farm I used to live near, pee-yew!
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| Alimirante Brown Science Station |
We also stopped at an Argentinian science station, Almirante Brown, on the Antarctic Penninsula in the Bismarck Strait. They have a terrific hill behind their station that we climbed. After taking several beautiful photos, we sat down on our parkas and sledded down the hill. What fun!
Reading - Birds - Provisions - Photos
