2011 Expedition

Announcement

Due to the overwhelming success of the SOI Antarctic University Expedition 2011, Students on Ice will offer a third Antarctic University Expedition in February 2013. Contact Students on Ice for further details.

Day 07 - Sunday, February 20

New journal updates & photos have been posted for yesterday, February 19!

Check out the new video added for February 19!

Visiting Antarctic Mainland - Fur Seal at Brown Bluff
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

February 19 Recap

After sending a scout boat in to check out the conditions of the landing, we decided to go to shore at Seymour Island! Our team landed
on the beach at Cross Valley, where we immediately began to find fossils, evidence of the previous geological eras. On the beach we also
found fur seals and saw many different birds. Our team hiked a very muddy and ´moon like´ terrain in search of the K/T Boundary
(Cretaceous/Tertiary Boundary) a well preserved geological indicator for the end of the Cretaceous and the beginning of the Tertiary. Students and staff found fossils of trees that once grew on Antarctica, but were burned to the ground in a forest fire when a large meteor hit the Earth. Other fossils, such as mollusks, were found, helping us to better understand the types of flora and fauna that lived during these times.

Afer returning to the ship with grins on our faces, we thought the day might not get any better that that. However, after dinner as the sun
was setting in Antarctic Sound, humpback whales were spotted directly off the bow! As we got closer, we were able to take in their full scale
as they breached out of the water tail thrashing in the air! It was an increbible site to see.

February 20 Update & Schedule

This morning we woke early to a sunny sky in Antarctic Sound. The plan after breakfast will be to make a landing at Brown Bluff, which is where we are anchored currently. This landing has a bit for everyone: an Adelie penguin rookery, a glacier, water sampling, volcanic rock. We will spend the morning here before returning to the ship and moving on. This will be our first landing on the Antarctic Continent!

This afternoon, we aim to make another landing, weather conditions permitting. Stay tuned for more updates! There is lots to read in the
journals from yesterday, so enjoy!

Tentative Schedule: February 20

630 Early Risers Activities
700 Breakfast
800 Landing at Brown Bluff (first time on the Antarctic Continent!)
1230 Lunch
1430 Possible landing (stay tuned)
1800 Presentation: Smaller is Better (The Crucial Role of Zooplankton in Polar Marine Ecosystems · Martin Fortier)
1930 Dinner
2100 Evening Recap & Briefing with a presentation on APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists by Jenny Baeseman)

***Update from the Expedition Team***

1300 - Antarctica

We had a fantastic landing at Brown Bluff! The beach was covered in fur seals, Adelie penguins and Gentoo penguins. There was something relevant for students of every discipline this morning! Some of our Oceanography students even had a close encounter with a humpback whale in the Zodiacs.

Everyone is back on board and we have just finished lunch. We are now exiting Antarctic Sound and entering the Bransfield Strait. Huge
tabular ice bergs spot the horizon, the sun is shining and the wind is quite strong. We hope to make a landing at Gourdin Island this
afternoon, if conditions are favourable.

The team of oceanography students, Eric Galbraith (McGill University) and Martin Fortier (ArcticNet) have just completed their second CTD
(Conductivity Temperature & Depth) Recording. From this, they hope to better understand the salinity and density of the ocean at different
places along our expedition.  Students are currently out on deck, taking wildlife surveys, interpreting data, completing course work, writing journals, editing photos and resting up for our next landing.

Much more to come later today!

Landing Area at Brown Bluff
Photo: Alex Taylor, Students on Ice



Carly Ziter and Gentoo Penguin at Brown Bluff
Photo: Bruce Klock, Students on Ice

University of St Andrew's students complete a wildlife survey at Brown Bluff
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

1630 - Gourdin Island

Just a quick update that we are cruising at Gourdin Island. The landing was too difficult as there are many moulting penguins on shore, but we have Gentoo, Adelie and Chinstrap penguins all around the island, as well as leopard seals. In fact, I just heard over the radio that they
were able to see a leopard seal catch and feed on a penguin. The Circle of Life in action!

Cruising to Gourdin Island in the Fog
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Icebergs off Gourdin Island
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Journals - Sunday, Feb 20

Fabrice Boucher, Universities of Bordeaux, Bilbao & Southampton

Quelle journée!

Le réveil sonne un peu plus tôt ce matin, et pour cause ! Le continent Antarctique nous attend. A peine une heure après nous voilà sur les zodiaques en direction de Brown Bluff Island ! Entouré de glaciers et de calottes dont une multitude d'icebergs ont été arrachés. La nature ici nous a présenté une de ses plus belles facettes. Sur cette île, j'y ai trouvé non seulement d'extraordinaires specimens de phoques et de manchots mais aussi comme bon nombre d'entre nous, une source infinie d'inspiration que, plus tard ce soir chacun a tenté  de partager pendant le debriefing.

Cette après-midi fut, quant à elle, tout simplement hors du commun. Où peut-on se lever précipitamment d'un déjeuner pour observer des baleines nager autour de soit ? En Antarctique ! Nous nous sommes par la suite rendu sur l'île de Gourdin qui était hélas inaccessible à cause des conditions météo. Mais le spectacle depuis les zodiaques était tout de même fabuleux. Les icebergs, les phoques, les manchots étaient au rendez-vous. Quelle journée !!!

Maryam Aljoaan, Jacobs University Bremen

We landed on Brown Bluff Island after breakfast, and there were colonies of Gentoos penguins, some Adelies penguins and seals. Oh, by the way, I almost got attacked by a seal today (got it on video).
Then we took off on zodiacs to take our oceanographic measurements. During our measurements, we spotted two whales which were swimming near us. The other zodiac group was lucky; the whale got so close to them and the whale swam under their boat.
In the afternoon, we couldn’t land at Gourdin Island because there were lots of penguins breading and we didn’t want to disturb them. Instead we had a nice zodiac cruise along the coast of the island and we went around some remarkable blue icebergs.
After dinner, the bridge noticed there was huge iceberg in front of the ship with a large numbers of penguins! Maybe a thousand… The penguins are probably molting and this iceberg is a safe spot for them. Later a whale appeared in front of the iceberg. It was a nice show by the Antarctic wildlife. Huge iceberg, penguins and whales all at once! That was the end of my fifth day and looking forward to more great moments like today
Tomorrow we will be heading to Paradise Bay and it is going to be nice weather!

Miriam Richer McCallum, University of Ottawa

Hello from Miriam :-). This will be very quick as I have only 10 minutes left before the deadline for the blog. Today was one of the best days of my life. We started by landing on the continent at Brown Bluff. We were greeted by hundreds of penguins and fur seals. I sat down for a while to really appreciate the scenery and it was so overwhelming. As you all know me so well may have guessed - obviously I cried. Then we went to visit our first glacier. From the glacier we had this spectacular view of the ship anchored and all the penguins and fur seals on shore and yes, my emotion took over and I cried again?Our second time out we cruised around a rockery (penguin colony) and well sorry to disappoint everyone but they STINK, but since they are so cute you kind of forget about the smell. We also cruised around in the zodiac around these gigantic icebergs. So to wrap this up, this was a most amazing and emotional day.

Love you all, Miriam Richer McCallum

Fiona Ashman, Imperial College London

Unfortunately our shipboard PA system had taken a hit in the Drake, and as such our announcements were not reaching all parts of the ship. This meant that the morning was surprisingly quiet. I ambled along to breakfast at about 7 and tucked into some egg and pieces of fruit. We rocked out in the zodiacs to Brown Bluff shortly after breakfast. Upon landing (onto Antarctica proper), we saw fur seals, gentoo and adelie penguins on the beach. We also saw a massive great glacier (just to set the scene). After a couple of hours of picture taking and avoiding enraged seals, the St. Andrews crew went off to count the penguins, the glaciologists went to climb the glacier, and the geologists and oceanographers were left to coo at the fluffy penguins. We then decided to hijack two zodiacs to make some oceanography measurements. We set off and started counting knots on the secci disc and made sure that the CTD was properly working this time. After we had taken some measurements, Martin saw a humpback whale and her calf in the distance, so we decided to head off in that direction. We were cruising along and all of a sudden, the mother whale surfaced right in front of us! We killed the outboard to stop from hitting her, and hoped that she didn't flick her tail (which was beneath our zodiac) and flip the boat. She and then her calf surfaced alongside our boat (you could smell their stinky whale breath!). AMAZING. We saw them off into the distance and were collecting more measurements when we heard an almighty thunderous crack and turned to see a slice of the glacier calving off into the sea. WOWZER. We were close enough to see the resulting wave, but to too close to be affected by it! We took a few more measurements and then headed back to the ship for lunch. After lunch we cruised back the way we had come towards the Antarctic sound for an afternoon landing.

Athena Lao, Harvard University

On the boat again, back from Brown's Bluff

Today was our first time on the Antarctic mainland via Brown's Bluff, and it was spectacular, to say the least. We had another day of calm seas and sunny skies, so we made a smooth landing. The first thing I noticed was how much WILDLIFE abounded around the little pile of backpacks and lifejackets we had made. Behind the beach on the incline were numerous fur seals and Gentoo and Adelie penguins simply chilling and most likely wondering what kinds of animals we were (and subsequently ignoring us). As soon as we reached land, my friends and I sat and just watched the scenery around us: penguins stretching, seals fighting, skuas screeching, etc. At one point, a penguin came up to my friend Monica, who was wearing her backpack as she sat on the ground. The penguin started biting her bag, presumably looking for something to eat. After several minutes, it hadn't found anything, so it just waddled away toward the ocean.

I too, had an encounter with a penguin, which I will compare to an awkward first date: neither of us said anything; instead, we just stared at each other curiously for a long period of time. But unlike a bad date, I came away from the interaction with more of a feeling of reverence and desire for a follow-up. The penguins were everywhere -- perched on rocky hillsides, molting, pooping, slipping down the top of the glacier on the left side of Brown's Bluff, and waddling their way from one side of the beach to the other. What was most amazing about this morning was how insignificant our presence was as visiting humans. I can only imagine what the penguins think of us. They probably think that we are just a bunch of gargantuan, oddly shaped penguins too.   

Athena Lao,  Harvard University  

In the Bransfield Strait (again!)

I know I wrote another post this morning, but I just had to mention our epic Zodiac cruise around Gourdin Island. We set off in our Zodiacs towards misty, freezing, steep crags filled to the brim with penguins. We could smell their poop from the water. Among the most amazing parts of the whole experience? Penguins diving in and out through the sea, a leopard seal attacking ("frolicking"? Can't tell) our Zodiac and us living to tell about it, and cruising around colossal icebergs. What an end to a great day!

Gentoo Penguin flees a Leopard Seal
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

McGill University students Audrey Yank and Dominique de Groot aboard the Zodiac
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Logan Seaman, Carleton Univesity

Today was full of wildlife, an unbelievable amount. We started off at Brown Bluff, on a beach that had more fur seals and penguins than sand. We had an amazing time simply wandering along the beach, trying not to step on any toes (or flippers), and had a lot of one on one time with curious penguins who would come and say hello. There was significant contrast between the tranquility of sitting a foot away from a penguin, both of us staring at each other, and having to make a quick escape from an overly enthusiastic fur seal charging. After lunch we travelled to Gourdin Island, which is a huge penguin rookery. Chinstraps, Gentoo and Adelies were all seen in large numbers, with the chinstraps leaping through the water like dolphins, in large groups. But where there are penguins, there are seals, and we got to witness a formidable predator in action. An enormous leopard seal, about 12 feet long- filleted a couple unfortunate penguins right in front of the zodiacs, and then disappeared, but not for long. Without warning its giant serpentine head popped up behind our zodiac as we were on our way to look at some icebergs, and it swam right up beside us. It stretched most of the length of our boat, weaving and rolling, and playfully (we hoped) smacked its flipper onto the top edge of the pontoon before disappearing into the depths. It was incredibly exciting. We're now back on the ship heading southwards down the Bransfield Strait. I'm not sure what tomorrow has in store but it has some serious competition after today. 

Jeremy Powell, Carleton University

Very interesting day today! We started our day off with an early morning zodiac trip to shore. Brown Bluff, as it is called, was our first real trip on to Antarctica proper as our previous landing was on a volcanic island. Even from a distance we could clearly see a lot of penguins waddling around the shore. Our morning was spent walking up and down the coastline getting up close and personal with the friendly penguins and keeping our distance from the not-so-friendly Fur Seals.

Following a short cruise on the M.V. Ushuaia, we left the ship for a mid-afternoon zodiac cruise of a major penguin rookery. After about an hour of boating up and down the penguin colony, we turned our zodiacs back towards the ship to head home. Little were we expecting an adventurous Leopard Seal to make an appearance. Sitting at the back of the moving zodiac, I was especially surprised when it began to surface right next to me and popped its head in and out of the water around our motor. Leopard Seals are pretty huge beasties, well over ten feet in length and more than happy to chomp on penguins for lunch. So needless to say, it was fairly disconcerting when it began to match speed and bump against our zodiac.

The chase lasted for about a minute and a half, during which the leopard would dip under our boat, rub his head against our pontoons and stick his head out of the water to see what we were doing. I'm still not sure if it was aggressive or playful, but our encounter culminated with a big slap of the fin against the side of the zodiac and then a dive to the depths of the channel.

Just another afternoon in Antarctica, I guess.

Sabine Laguë, University of British Columbia

One of my top tourist aspirations for this trip has been realized in full and more! We not only saw two leopard seals (multiple times) from the zodiac, but one came up right next to the zodiac, and devoured a penguin in front of us. It was a pretty incredible and powerful force of nature. The seals were guarding the entrance to one of the penguin colonies we were going to survey, and the penguins swam in synchrony, leaping out of the water and switching directions to confuse the seals. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We woke up outside of Brown Bluff, a cliff face and plateau wedged between two enormous glaciers. Upon landing, we were greeted by hundreds of Gentoo penguins and several fur seals, on which we intended to do population counts and behavioural surveying. This was my first experience with the effects of climate change on Antarctic wildlife. The penguins were two weeks ahead of schedule, with the Gentoo chicks almost fully fledged, and the Adelies already out to sea (indicative of an early start to the summer/breeding season). The fur seals, sunning themselves and camouflaged on the beach, can easily be mistaken as being lazy and inactive. However, they are very mobile and territorial, and reminded me a lot of a cross between a grizzly bear and an untrained dog. I learned quickly that, while seeking to bond with the penguins, one always has to keep an eye out for fur seals who might suddenly become "curious" and charge.

Today was a blessing, giving a real insight into the fragility (climate change), artistic beauty (icebergs), power (leopard seals), and innocence (penguins) of this incredible ecosystem.

Watching Penguins at Brown Bluff: Sabine Laguë
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Fur Seal in the Surf
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Brown Bluff
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Paul Scriver, Queen's University

Today was an incredible day. It is amazing how every day here is unique in what it offers. The landing yesterday on Seymour Island was an incredible experience that I will never forget. Studying palaeontology last semester sparked my interest in the subject, but no amount of lab experience can compare with trudging though the mud excitedly searching for the K/T boundary.

We all thought that yesterday was perfect in every way. Today, however, proved that every day down here has the potential to be as amazing as the last one.  Today started with a landing at brown bluff which was host to hundreds of gentoo penguins and many fur seals. After checking out the glacier that engulfed the bluff and a quick zodiac tour, we were off to Gourdin Island in the Bransfield Strait. We went for another zodiac tour in the afternoon where we could not land simply because there were too many penguins at the landing site. We ended up just touring around a few coves watching thousands of penguins, numerous fur seals, Weddell seals and a few curious leopard seals. One of these leopard seals was getting quite curious with our zodiac and after swimming straight towards us, put his head up on the pontoon. He then proceeded to watch us while swimming upside-down looking up at us and then as a parting shot slapped the pontoon with his flipper. It was just an amazing experience. Who knows what special things we will see tomorrow!

Shannon Fonk, McMaster University

Crazy! Life is so good!  Each day just gets better and better.  Yesterday was a fabulous day in terms of the geology.  We hiked Seymour Island and were able to locate the KT boundary, which marks the last mass extinction event 65 million years ago.  Played with a group of fur seals and had a show by a couple of feeding humpback whales in the evening.  Today was even more intense!  Landing on the peninsula this morning at Brown Bluff we got to just chill with the penguins and fur seals for a while.  Penguins are as cute as everyone says.  While the fur seals are pretty hilarious, very charismatic critters.  Explored the volcanic nature of the area, its glaciers, and oceanographic properties.  This afternoon we went to visit Gouridin Island were there is a massive penguin colony!  Easily a couple thousand penguins with all three species, Gentoo, Adelile, and Chinstraps.  There were also plenty of seals, Fur, Weddell, and the outstanding Leopard seal!  Massive! There was one that was right up against our zodiac, swimming back and forth under neither it, he rested his head up on the side and even hit it with his fin before taking off.  He was honestly about 12 feet long.  Also, we got to see a leopard seal kill and skin a penguin.  They throw them around like a cat plays with a mouse, Amazing!!!  So overall, everyone is pretty pumped, wicked day!

Nehal Al Tonobey, McGill Univeristy

Hello there,

Today is a very special day for me. I got to do real scientific fieldwork. I collected samples and tested for concentrations of ammonia and nitrogen. Despite the risk of being bitten by a leopard seal, I stuck my hand in the water to collect a sample. I guess I am ready to sacrifice a little for science, maybe too much. The highlight of my day was my close encounter with a whale. I could go on and elaborate on the emotional experience I had, but I am not too good with words so I'll leave it to your imagination to know what it is like to feel so small next to one of the biggest earthly creatures. My message to you is this: Antarctica cannot be out done in words.

Love,

Nehal

Martin Fortier and Nehal Al Tonobey Study Copods off Gourdin Island
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Wildlife survey at Brown Bluff
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Fiona Ashman and Jenny Baeseman observe a Weddell Seal
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Leopard Seal feeds on a Penguin
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Aman Malik, GGS Indraprastha University

Brown Bluff and Gourdin Island

Hello everyone! Our journey to the white continent continues and today was a beautiful day! I apologize for not writing earlier, I just could not get the words to describe this awesome place.

Never have been I so excited at the prospect of waking up and Geoff's early morning call is always more than welcome. Before I narrate the story of the day, I just cannot miss to mention the hard working and ever-smiling crew of the ship. Each meal is different and lip smacking.

Going from our centrally heated lounge to the outside and face the elements is a sharp reminder to us why Antarctica is considered inhospitable and how it has tested great men who have tried to conquer it. On the island we were greeted with one of the cutest things on the planet: Gentoo penguins. These black and white creatures may appear to move in a clumsy fashion with arms outstretched but studied have shown that this movement is up to 40% more energy efficient compared to a normal walk. I saw them stumbling on stones, sun bathing on the ground and playing with fur seals.

Gentoo group conversation on Brown bluff:

G 1: Hey! Nice warm day, how are you guys doing?
G2:  Oh! Great. I am in love with my new fur coat, it's so cool! But I am just fed up with these seals chasing me every time I go near the water. I just think they are jealous. They just groan all day and fight like idiots.
G3: Ah! Lucky for you AP2, this brown mass is still sticking out from my neck and I am looking so weird. And yes, did you check out those colorful looking beings that came up this morning on black "thingies"? They kept staring me and it was kind of awkward.
G1: No I haven't, but my father told me that he has seen similar things before. Anyway, we have a lot to do than care about these things, though I was annoyed a bit today when one of them came too close to me. Interfering creatures, that's what I would call them.

Adrienne White, University of Ottawa

Today I am writing my first blog ever. The incredible events of the past few days have been so fascinating that I must share some of these experiences with my friends, family and to all those tracking the SOI trip. I will start from the date of departure from Ushuaia. The night we left I woke up early in the morning to the back and forth motion of the ship. All throughout the day, the common sight through the window was: ocean, ocean, ocean, and sky, sky, sky and ocean, ocean, ocean. Thanks to the combination of the patch and copious amounts of Gravol, I survived the "Drake Shake". During the Drake Passage there were several lectures from the different researchers aboard: from the K/T boundary to marine mammals, glaciers, and explorers. The lectures provided the information and background to complement our daily landings in Antarctica.

By the 19th of February, we made our first landing onto Seymour Island with one main objective: to find the K/T boundary (the boundary representing the transition from the Cretaceous to the Tertiary). As we approached the shore on our Zodiacs we were welcomed by a group of Fur Seals basking in the sun. We began our trek by hiking inland of Seymour Island, which consisted of an island of scree coated valleys, permafrost and streams (a combination that makes for extremely thick and slippery mud). The day ended as a success when the geologists in our group announced that they had successfully identified the boundary.

That night the ship began to travel towards Brown Bluff, by the morning I woke up and looked out my window to the sight of giant icebergs surrounding the ship. Even better was the sight of glacier termini. Again we set out on the Zodiacs and approached the land. This would be my first step onto the Antarctic continent (I thought this day would never come!). As I stepped out of the boat I was immediately shocked by the number of penguins (Gentoo and some Adelies) and Fur Seals. After about a thousand pictures, our group (the glacier group) began a hike to the glacier. However we were soon stopped in our tracks by a territorial seal that refused to let us pass. Thankfully Geoff faced the seal, and after several minutes of grunts and charges the seal backed down somewhat. We made our way across the beach and trekked up the glacier terminus. Finally! I was in my ˜happy place" : standing on a glacier, looking across the ocean, sun reflecting off the surface, ice axe in hand. The bonus of being on a glacier in Antarctica, compared to the Arctic of course is that standing on the same glacier as you, staring out at the ocean is a group of Gentoo Penguins.

After discussing the surface features and processes of the glacier surface, we descended back down and boarded a Zodiac to explore the large bergs and get closer to the calving front (ice cliff) of the glacier. The highlight of the afternoon included a visit to Gourdin Island where it felt as though we had stepped into another world. Hundreds of penguins (including Chinstrap Penguins) were scattered across the rocky front and across the cliffs.

There is so much more to say and so little time! Until the next blog.

Luke Copland, University of Ottawa

Today was our first landing on the Antarctic Continent, and our first chance to walk on an Antarctic glacier – all in spectacular weather. There are few days when you can wear a t-shirt here, let alone while walking on a glacier! Most of the glaciers here terminate in large ice cliffs when they reach the ocean, but at Brown Bluff there is one that gently slopes down to a beach. After carefully treading our way past grumpy fur seals, we made our way onto the glacier and found a surprisingly large number of melt streams running across the ice surface. We also checked out some old avalanche tracks and moraines, and were joined by some penguins on the glacier - probably trying to cool off!

One of the most amazing features here are the huge icebergs that are all around us as we cruise around the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Most of these originate from the ice shelves to the east and southeast of us. The size of these features is hard to comprehend… we did a profile next to one today that was stuck on the seafloor at a depth of 280 m! They dwarf our little ship as we pass them, and it was incredible to see thousands of penguins using one of them as a home as we passed it this evening.

Fur Seal stand off at Brown Bluff
Photo: Lee Narraway, Students on Ice

Silje Jensen, APECS

Day two/three in Antarctica and the weather is treating us well. The sun is out and there is some fog in the air and some wind. We had our first landing this morning at Brown Bluff which is part of the Antarctic continent. The beach was full of fur seals and Gentoo and Adel? penguins together with two Weddell seals. Ah what an amazing wildlife experience. We did seal and penguin counting to see how many were at the beach. The seals didn't care too much about us, but if you came too close, they would let you know. Two Weddell seals were lying on the beach resting when we came and they only woke up to look at us and then fell back to sleep. In the afternoon we had a zodiac trip around Gourdin Island. The weather had changed and the fog was descending down over the island making it look mysterious. When we came closer to the island, we saw penguins swimming around us panicked. There it was, a Leopard seal swimming around the boat!!! He came up towards us to check us out, found out we were not edible and focused on the penguins again. This is one of the highlights of my life, because he swam next to the boat and we got to see the size of his body. We are steaming further south now on the west side of the peninsula.

Laura Drudi, McGill University

The day has been filled with many great adventures. The day began with my Adelies group venturing into the Zodiak to Brown Bluff Island, our first Antarctica mainland excursion. I spent a good portion of the morning admiring Gentoo and Adelies penguins and fur seals. I then set out with the Oceanography group to begin our research looking at temperature, salinity and depth profiles in the waters of Antarctic Sound off the coast of Brown Bluff. The afternoon was just as exciting as we went in search of more penguins and stumbled upon leopard seals and Weddell seals peeking at us with curious and inquisitive eyes. It has been one amazing adventure after another and it’s truly a challenge to formulate words for this amazing day. I suppose I will have to use today’s word of the day – ineffable.

Tanya Taggart-Hodge, McGill University

Today has been a huge highlight. We began our Zodiac cruise early in the morning into Brown Bluff – our first landing on the Antarctic continent! The sun has been shining all day so the sky was a clear blue reflecting on the snow, ice and water. Upon arrival on shore, we were immediately surrounded by a colony of Adélie and Gentoo penguins as well as a large number of fur seals. We spent several hours sitting and enjoying the sounds, sights and energy of this incredible place.

Je suis ensuite retournée sur le Zodiac avec mon groupe d’océanographie pour faire plusieurs échantillons. Nous avions à peine commencé lorsque deux baleines, une mère avec son petit, sont venu tout prêt de nous, presque assez proche pour les toucher ! Cela a été un moment inoubliable. Après quelques échantillons, nous avons tout à coup entendu un énorme bruit venant de la côte; c’était un énorme morceau de glace qui s’est détaché du glacier !

Then came Gourdin Island; a Zodiac cruise into the fog this afternoon where we spotted a leopard seal eating a penguin right in front of our Zodiac! Now that we are back on the ship, I have seen several more whales— humpbacks and minkes. We are all in great spirits and feeling the effects of our good karma! I would also like to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Anniversary to my boyfriend Scot ;)