Livingston Island - Zodiac Cruise

Paul woke up soon after 10:30am so he got up and we went to the Bow Lounge before heading to the Colonnade for an early lunch. By this time the ship had arrived at more or less it's scheduled stop, for the zodiac cruise.

Paul was awake enough to come with me for the zodiac ride, away from the ship towards Livingston Island, and along it's cliff-line. It was a bit foggy but visibility was reasonable. The sea ice was interesting to see from very close up. We also saw interesting ice bergs, cormorants and petrels, as well as a seagull. There was an interesting needle like basalt column and we had time to take a few photographs.

On the way back we got close to a sea cave that was being carved out by winds and waves. And then the fog came and we couldn't see much. The zodiac pilot had to rely on a navigator to get back to the ship. If that failed, the expedition guide/pilot would have called the ship's Bridge for guidance and they would have used a location beacon on the zodiac to ping its whereabouts and then guide the zodiac towards the ship. Fortunately it wasn't needed. Also, Paul had his phone with him and saw exactly where we were on Find Penguins app which relies on satellite to track us, so in need - he would have helped out, no doubt! Out of the gloom we saw the ship ahead of us.

Sadly photographs from our Nikon camera have not come out very well so I apologise for the quality of them. I found that my phone's camera is a lot better so I have used some of them here.

Once back on board, we had a welcome hot chocolate to warm us up and the Paul headed to bed.

I attended the recap session, and briefing about tomorrow. One lady gave a very passionate talk about krill and its importance to the ecosystem. There are only 2 protected areas for krill in Antarctica at the moment where no fishing is allowed.. Russia and and China recently vetoed (again) 2 planned conservation areas for krill. Krill is used for omega-3 supplements, it is used in pet food, food ingredient for aquaculture, as bait it in sport fishing, and more. Krill is being overfished but it is the lifeblood of the oceans. Without it marine mammals and birds will not survive. Here is a news article I found about Russia and China's veto: https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/more-krill-fi…Read more