MS National Geographic Explorer
Dorian Bay, Torgersen Island, and Palmer Station
Thursday, February 10, 2011

    This morning I awoke to see just of the bottoms of mountains covered with ice and snow out of my cabin port. The peaks of the mountains were shrouded in fog, and there was a mixture of snow and ice falling. The decks were covered with abundant snow and ice and it was a challenge getting out to the bow of the ship to try for some atmospheric photographs. About all I got was wet and cold.

    Right after breakfast, we arrived at Damoy Point and Dorian Bay, another new Antarctic location for me. It is a pretty little bay with floating and grounded icebergs. On shore are two emergency huts, one Chilean and another British. Anchored in the bay was a small sailing ship visiting from Argentina.

    I started the day with a Zodiac cruise of the bay, weaving around the icebergs, bergy bits, and growlers. There were many opportunities for photographing the ice formations, the surrounding mountains, and the ship.

    The Zodiac cruise was followed with a landing at Dorian Bay and a chance to hike across the slippery rocks and snow to view several gentoo penguin rookeries and the survival huts. Wherever there are penguins, there are also the brown skuas looking for a quick meal of penguin eggs or chicks. It was still drizzling during the shore time, so I was thankful for the well-sealed Nikon pro camera gear I am using.

    Leaving Dorian Bay, we sailed a short distance to Palmer Station, one of the three U.S. research stations in Antarctica. Located in the bay in front of Palmer Station is Torgensen Island, the breeding site for a number of Adélie penguins. An on-going investigation is in progress on Torgensen. The island is divided in half. On one half, visitors are allowed, subject to the terms of the Antarctic agreement. The other half is totally off limits. The study is trying to gain insight on the impact of human visitation on the reproductive success of the Adélie penguins. So far, the Adélie penguins on the visitation-rights side are more successful than on the protected side. One theory is that the presence of human visitors may tend to keep the skuas away.

    After visiting Torgensen, I was able to tour the Palmer Station site. Palmer is the smallest of the three U.S. stations and employment there is coveted for the more intimate, family-like research environment. Many of the projects underway are overseen by contract technicians with experiment data automatically collected and transmitted back to the research groups in the United States. The NSF-funded facility is researching many diverse aspects of Antarctica, including studies of the Antarctic midges, viruses, bacteria, ice fish, ecological changes due to the rapid warming of Antarctica, and many more subjects.

    We plan to move on to Port Lockroy, Jougla Point (gentoo penguins and blue-eyed shags), the Lemaire Channel, and Booth Island tomorrow. It should be a busy day!