North End of the Peninsula
December 4, 2019 | Dr. Wade Jeffrey, Director of CEDB | wjeffrey@uwf.edu
We made a trip farther north to King George Island. This is about 200 miles north of Palmer Station and is home to many research bases. There are Argentinian, Chinese, Polish, Brazilian, Russian, S. Korean, and Chilean bases there (I think there are others too). We spent most of our stop in sight of the Chilean Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva. It was opened in 1969 and has an average population of about 80 people. Because of all the bases that are here, there is also a large airstrip that can land planes as big as a C-130 (for you Blue Angels fans, that’s what Fat Albert is). The climate up here is noticeably different – so much so that you actually get grasses and moss growing on the island. Here is a photo where you can see the color on the ground – probably vegetation that we don’t see farther south. I also saw a few chin strap penguins from a distance… so far I had seen Adelie and Gentoo penguins – but always from a distance – still waiting to get up close to some. Antarctica is full of stories too – including the true story about a guy getting stabbed once at one of those stations – apparently, he kept ruining the end of books and movies for other people... A lesson to be learned about how to play well with others.
After some discussion, I was reminded that I had visited this island in 1995… my group helped set up a field station that was studying penguins, ironically called “Copacabana.” Afterward, we went around the island and visited the Polish station called Arctowksi. Since it was early September, we were the first new people they had seen in months and they were very happy to see us.
On the way south we traveled the length of the Gerlache Straights. It was a weird, low cloud day so we couldn’t see the mountain tops… but the view from the deck was still spectacular. It was also my day to see the gamut of “charismatic macrofauna” or the cool big animals. I was surprised at one point to look out the window and see a group of 4 to 6 orcas swimming by – they aren’t as common on this side of the continent (I have seen lots over near McMurdo Station). I had to run to my room and grab my camera and was only able to get a shot of their dorsal fins. At that point, I decided to go outside with my camera for a while and I was not disappointed. I saw minke whales, both Adelie and Gentoo penguins, and seals. The reflective views of the icebergs were pretty amazing too.
We are now in our last week of science. It's crunch time as we try to squeeze out everything we can before we have to clean up, pack up, and head home. We did make some Christmas decorations to get us in the mood… including lights and construction paper projects.
