In today's episode, we will see hundreds of penguins, dozens of seals, visit an active volcano caldera, and an abandoned whaling station.
Our morning stop was at Hannah Point, still in the South Shetland Islands. Be prepared for lots of penguins and seals.
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| Our reception committee. These were mostly chinstrap penguins. |
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| Some chinstraps and relatively old chicks |
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| More chinstraps and chicks |
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| This is a gentoo penguin |
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| Some adolescent gentoos |
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| Another adolescent gentoo |
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| This may (or may not) be a kelp gull. The orange stuff is lichen. |
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| Penguin colony warily eying our ship |
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| These are definitely kelp gulls |
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| Gentoo chicks |
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| A chinstrap chick |
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| An Antarctic skua (pronounced skew-ah) |
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| An Antarctic tourist |
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| Quiz: chinstrap or gentoo? |
Near the penguin colonies we encountered lots of elephant seals. Most of them were in the process of shedding their fur, which made them look kind of gross. To add to the attraction, they just lay around and make loud belching sounds.
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| Some penguins investigating the seals |
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| Snoozing elephant seal |
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| The whole family. No, they aren't dead |
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| Nearby penguins gather to decide on strategy |
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| A beauty contest |
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| I don't think they were mad--just making courting noises |
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| Not smoked fish |
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| About the only movement we saw from the seal colony |
We were told that some of the other native birds feed on penguin chicks. The birds would dive bomb the penguin colonies and the penguins would crowd together and make lots of noise to scare them off.
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| An unsuccessful skua attack |
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| Penguins are not afraid of humans |
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| Another seal concert |
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| Local residents enjoying the concert |
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| A seal solo |
As you can probably tell, there's not much vegetation in Antarctica. Some of the little we saw was this short grass at Hannah Point.
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| Lush Antarctic grass |
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| A skua and chick |
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| A southern giant petrel coming in for a landing |
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| Making his final approach |
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| Another (or maybe the same) petrel |
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| Cheli loading the Zodiac to head back to the ship. |
During lunch, we sailed a few miles to Whaler's Bay on
Deception Island. Deception Island is a caldera of a still-active volcano. Whaler's Bay used to house whaling stations, which have since been abandoned. Antarctic law requires countries to completely remove abandoned stations, but the station here is still standing (but abandoned) due to its historic significance.
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| A view of Whaler's Bay from the ship |
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| A view of the ship from Whaler's Bay |
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| Landing at Whaler's Bay |
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| I believe these are cape petrels, in Whaler's bay |
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| Awaiting the next Zodiac. Yes, that is steam--it is a volcano. |
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| More abandoned stuff at Whaler's Bay |
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| Zodiac passengers emerge from the sulfur cloud |
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| A whale vertebra |
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| Another view of the whaling station |
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| Looks like whale carcasses, but it's actually wood from old crates. |
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| Some abandoned lifeboats |
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| View of the mountains from the whaling station |
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| Heading partially up the hill |
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| View of the whaling station from the side of the hill |
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| Another view from the hill |
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| Whaler's bay, from the hill |
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| A panoramic shot from the hill |
Since the island is part of an active volcano, in some places there is land covered by snow/ice, covered by volcanic ash, and then covered by more snow.
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| Volcanic ash on top of a glacier |
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| This gives you an idea of how much ice is under the ash |
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| An artistic picture of ash and ice |
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| Some kelp gulls |
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| Apparently there is some copper around |
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| It's been too long since I inserted a penguin picture |
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| A skua headed for a fellow photographer |
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| Wait a minute..... |
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| Oh nooooooo...... |
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| You lookin' at me? |
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| Back at the whaling station. I think these tanks were used to store whale oil. |
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| Former British scientific station (Biscoe House) |
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| Another view of Biscoe House |
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| It really was Biscoe House |
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| Inside Biscoe House |
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| They need to fix the windows |
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| Abandoned boilers at the whaling station |
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| A former British airplane hanger |
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| They also need to fix the windows |
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| Graveyard for whalers who died at the station |
After we returned to the ship, we attended a lecture on the history of Deception Island.
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| Our evening lecture |
Next --
Cuverville Island and Paradise Bay
