At Sea
With the Falkland Islands in our wake and South Georgia ahead, we are in the northern margin of the Scotia Sea. These are lonely waters, far from the human centers of the world, famed for fabulous storms and the setting of many legendary feats of exploration and derring-do.
Strange and distant as it is, this is also a sea rich with life. Today we crossed the Antarctic Convergence, the biological boundary of the Antarctic. At this invisible line, the cold water of the Southern Ocean dives beneath the warmer, more saline water of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans to the north. As the warmer water upwells it brings nutrients into the light at the surface, nourishing diatoms and other plankton that form the base of a fantastic food web, giving sustenance to fish, squid, seals, whales and seabirds. We see this clearly in the numbers of albatross and petrels accompanying our ship and, thinking of what we have seen on the shores and in the rich temperate waters of the Falkland Islands we can imagine the strange and wonderful creatures that inhabit the twilight and midnight realms beneath us.
Late this afternoon, shortly after we spotted our first icebergs, Shag Rocks came into view. These lonely pinnacles seem so harsh and forbidding at first glance, it is hard to believe that any life could take hold here. But the air all around the rocks is crowded with their namesake shags, diving seabirds that depend for their survival on the fact that the surrounding waters are teeming with fish and other marine life. A closer look reveals that the tidal fringe of the islands, right at the waterline, is heavily grown with Durvillea, the strongest, most wave-resistant kelp in the world. Seeing this, it is a short leap of the imagination to picture all the anemones, seastars, worms, sponges and more that make their homes in these lost and lonely Antarctic seas.
How amazing to find so much life at home in this frozen and forbidding region. What an astounding contrast to the forests and fields of our homes. This must be travel at its very best: to journey to the opposite end of the world and find wonder waiting for us there.
With the Falkland Islands in our wake and South Georgia ahead, we are in the northern margin of the Scotia Sea. These are lonely waters, far from the human centers of the world, famed for fabulous storms and the setting of many legendary feats of exploration and derring-do.
Strange and distant as it is, this is also a sea rich with life. Today we crossed the Antarctic Convergence, the biological boundary of the Antarctic. At this invisible line, the cold water of the Southern Ocean dives beneath the warmer, more saline water of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans to the north. As the warmer water upwells it brings nutrients into the light at the surface, nourishing diatoms and other plankton that form the base of a fantastic food web, giving sustenance to fish, squid, seals, whales and seabirds. We see this clearly in the numbers of albatross and petrels accompanying our ship and, thinking of what we have seen on the shores and in the rich temperate waters of the Falkland Islands we can imagine the strange and wonderful creatures that inhabit the twilight and midnight realms beneath us.
Late this afternoon, shortly after we spotted our first icebergs, Shag Rocks came into view. These lonely pinnacles seem so harsh and forbidding at first glance, it is hard to believe that any life could take hold here. But the air all around the rocks is crowded with their namesake shags, diving seabirds that depend for their survival on the fact that the surrounding waters are teeming with fish and other marine life. A closer look reveals that the tidal fringe of the islands, right at the waterline, is heavily grown with Durvillea, the strongest, most wave-resistant kelp in the world. Seeing this, it is a short leap of the imagination to picture all the anemones, seastars, worms, sponges and more that make their homes in these lost and lonely Antarctic seas.
How amazing to find so much life at home in this frozen and forbidding region. What an astounding contrast to the forests and fields of our homes. This must be travel at its very best: to journey to the opposite end of the world and find wonder waiting for us there.
