Another full day at sea, really our third one since we left Deception Island around midday on Friday. We’re sailing northeast towards South Georgia Island, and until around 5 or 6 pm it was a gorgeous, sunny day, sometime nearly clear, There’s a slight swell, enough to require holding on to the railings as you walk down the hallways, but not as bad as yesterday. However, during the night, at about 2:30 am, everybody was awakened by some really rough seas; I only heard the mugs by the coffee station in the cabin sliding around, but some people said that things had fallen on the floor of their cabins. Outside the ship was wide, open ocean dotted with beautiful icebergs, some a brilliant white if they caught the sun just right.
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| We passed icebergs all day long |
I got a latish start and had to rush through breakfast because we had another mandatory briefing at 9:00 am, all about the rules for South Georgia Island. After the briefing, we had another Biohazard session where we had to bring our parkas, backpacks, waterproof pants (no more excuses that they were new) for vacuuming and microscopic inspection all over, with extra attention given to anything that might have gotten snagged in Velcro. The British agency that governs South Georgia Island has carried out an extensive program of removal and eradication of non-native species, including reindeer (brought by the sealers & whalers), mice, rats, and as many exotic plant materials as possible. We learned a lot about how the native grasses quickly came back after the reindeer were removed, and how a lot of bird species, especially pipets, had rebounded after the mice and rats were removed. Interestingly, the reindeer still appears atop the official crest for South Georgia.
So, they are dead serious about nobody bringing in stray seeds or dried plant materials, even down to bringing dogs (ironically a non-native species) onto the visiting ships to sniff out any rodents. We were told that the authorities could even pull passengers aside for spot inspections. Tomorrow, we are to arrive at the southeast tip, at Cooper Island, where we will have a Zodiac tour of the area, but won’t go ashore. Then, over the next two days after tomorrow, we will work our way along the northeast coast of the island up to Grytviken.
After the regulatory part, there were two very, very interesting talks, one in which we heard from Leo, the ship’s glaciologist, about the icebergs that we passed all day long, including how they are labelled, how big they can be (170 km long in one case!) and that the the really large ones can float round for as much as 18 years before completely dissipating. From other naturalists, we learned theories about why whales migrate, the history and geography of South Georgia, more (as always) about climate change and the retreat of glaciers, and a really interesting talk about Procellariiformes, which for our purposes includes albatrosses and petrels. We now know more about the digestive system of these birds than anyone thought there was to know, including their ability to projectile vomit an oily substance as a defensive mechanism, and also the really interesting adaptation that they use they filter the salt out of seawater (necessary during their sometimes yearslong flights over water).
The numbers of animals on South Georgia is truly astounding. We are told that we could see hundreds of thousands of King Penguins alone. There are millions of seals and birds too. Should be really exciting!
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