The mountains of Patagonia wave us goodbye and good luck as we sail South.
Ushuaia,
04/12/2019
Between two visits in paradise there are just 12 hours stay in Ushuaia (Argentina). We (Chris and I) just have returned from the first trip to the Antarctic Peninsula where we had a taste of how data collection of birds and whales should be, managing working hours in an almost 24 day light hours, enjoying the Antarctic scenery when off effort with landing operations for the visitors on board and admiring nature’s sculpture talent … every iceberg and a unique miracle for your eyes to speechless admire.
On board on in Midnatsol vessel… Vici from The Arctic University of Norway just joined the team while we left Chris in Ushuaia to wait for another vessel, Fram. Fram will arrive in Ushuaia in 6 days to begin the trip towards Falkland Islands and South Georgia before join the Antarctic Peninsula and back to Ushuaia, collecting data on krill predators during 21 days trip. And then repeat the trip again to collect more data.
Midnatsol vessel departed Ushuaia at 19:07 and sailing through the Beagle Channel (Canal del Beagle) is a strait in Tierra del Fuego, on the southern tip of South America. The Beagle channel separates Argentina and Chile and both countries competing for who has the southern city in the world. Argentina with Ushuaia or Chile with St Williams, even though St Williams is southern than Ushuaia is smaller in size… so it is a town and not a city. Yup I guess competitions go somehow like that.
The strait took its name from the HMS Beagle during its first hydrographic survey of the coasts of southern South America during 1926 – 1830. During the second trip of the vessel, Darwin was onboard given the opportunity to sail as an amateur naturalist. I guess somehow it feels great honour to sail through this channel being a biologist. Like the years between then and now have shrunk on “a sensation” and you co-exist somehow with Darwin sailing on the same seas.
On board, busy with safety briefings and the captains talk – we get to see the new expedition team which will be responsible for all the activities and educational material for the passengers on board. We met with expedition Leader and the science director and tomorrow we will make a plan for what additional activities and talks we can offer in addition to the data collection that we will perform from Midnatsol bridge. A relative early night tonight to wake up at the northern Drake passage and start the visual observations for the krill predators.
Where are the krill predators… how do they move along the Drake passage? And Antarctic Peninsula? What temperatures do they prefer? In which locations do they aggregate and why? If you cannot directly observe the animal that you are interested in… can you infer anything from animals that are predating from? Many questions to answer…. What is the best way to do so?
Written by Popi, 4th December 2019