Saturday 7 December 2013

Shag rocks are in the way

Another day at sea, surrounded by the immense Southern Ocean, being moved like sitting in a nutshell in the middle of an endless expanse of liquid universe. The weather was mysterious, bright one minute and the next moment it was snowing as if announcing the Christmas time and life continued in a pleasant and relaxed pace on board Fram. We were eager to know more about South Georgia, and of course about of Antarctica and therefore most of us attended the interesting lectures which were presented by our colleagues and expedition staff. The sea has been benign to us, much calmer than yesterday and we used this truce of nature to better prepare for the upcoming landings; that meant, cleaning the boots, listening to the mandatory briefings regarding behavior on land and towards wildlife, respecting plant protection measures, etc.






 

Now, it is migration time and while we are heading south, so are the whales. These fantastic creatures of these far away oceans are also heading in that direction, so it is no wonder that we enjoyed many sightings all day, all the groups moving to the same destination: Antarctica. That’s the “El Dorado” for the krill, the lure and reward for most of the animals which populate these cold seas. Tomorrow we expect to see what man has done in former days in these far away islands to survive and bring some revenues home by taking what nature could offer in those early days of sealing and whaling. Both animal populations have recovered now and signs of this process were visible from the ship since we constantly encountered groups of both species.