2011 News

Postcard from...Antarctica -- McGill's Eric Galbraith and Students on Ice

Published: March 24, 2011
Peggy Curran

Eric Galbraith, an oceanographer and professor at McGill University, has just returned from his seventh trip to Antarctica, this time with a batch of McGill students who took part in a field study course.

I've written a column about their experiences for the paper, and Galbraith and his crew will be talking about their experiences in a special lecture at 12:30 today, Thursday, March 24 at the Redpath Museum. You can catch it if you hurry.

Galbraith generously sent along these extraordinary images of some of the fabulous scenery and wildlife they saw during their trip -- an abundance of Adelie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins, as well as leopard, elephant, crab-eater, fur and Waddell seals.

Galbraith said the leopard seals were funny because they didn't seem to have any fear of these strange visitors, while the penguins were curious and friendly on shore, more skittish in the water, where they are always on the lookout for predators.

One of the McGill students on the trip, Audrey Yank, recalls seeing a penguin being ripped apart by a seal right in front of the inflatable zodiac the researchers used to go ashore. "It made me think of the richness of the earth's nature and how important it is to protect it.