Antarctica - Portal Point

This morning we were at Portal Point - the first stop on the actual continent of Antarctica. Previous landings we have done were on islands off the coast (still Antarctica). All our excursions were moved to earlier in the day due to weather north of us.
We did a Zodiac landing at Portal Point and took our first step onto the Antarctic peninsula - the seventh and last continent for us to visit. It was a very rocky point with a snow and ice covered dome. There were no smelly Gentoo penguin colonies at this landing, just Fur Seals and Weddel Seals were lying around relaxing. We did have the opportunity to see a fur seal wake up and make its way down the snow bank to the rocky shoreline.
After returning to the ship we were asking about other trips out for the day and happened to find one of the scientific excursions going out, so we signed up for it. It was a sonograph scientific expedition that lowers a microphone into the water to record animal, specifically whale sounds. Our leader was Dr Brandi whose catch phrase is 'GO SCIENCE'. She is one small bundle of energy that is all about making the science fun. We got onboard another Zodiac and set out to record Humpback Whale sounds. This was different from our normal trips away from the ship since we could go wherever there were whales that we could record. After getting out and away from the ship, we found a few whales and lowered the microphone into the water. The whale was very, very close to the Zodiac and we were close enough to see the barnacles on its fin as it breached the water and dove back down. The whale was breaching all around us and it was a very close, exciting and a little dangerous. As we were listening to the sounds coming from the equipment, Brandi thought that we had recorded a whale sound. If it was a whale, it would be the first of this season. She said that the whales in Antarctica are silent to protect themselves and their young since the Orca Whales will hear them and hunt them. It was just amazing to be that close to a whale swimming, breaching, and diving so that we could see all of it's back and tail.
We finally had to go back when the ship called Brandi to return. Since we were scientific we could go and discover wherever we wanted to go, so we stayed as long as possible to record the whales. Rob handled the lowering and raising of the sonograph into the ocean. We were the last Zodiac to return to the ship and hopefully the sounds and data we recorded will help the scientists on board.Leia mais