Leopard Seals and Stormy Weather

"The wind is out of the east at 21 knots, gusting to 29 knots," the robotic voice of the weather station read over the radio as 7 foot swells tossed the Rubber Duke up and down and up and down. With the outboard turned hard over into the wind to stay on course, the intrepid biologists made careful adjustments to keep the acoustic transducer in position in order to save the transect. Not the wind, not the rain, not the ocean spray or 23 degree windchil could prevent them collecting their data.

If anyone ever wrote a story about this field season, I think there would be something in it like that. Who knows, maybe research action will be the next big thing in literature. I mean, look how huge chick lit is, and that stuff is boring... Today was crazy. A storm front was moving in while we were doing our hydroacoustic survey, with wind gusts over 30 knots. At the bottom of the swell, I couldnt see over it. But our zodiac, the Rubber Duke (named after one of the original research vessels that serviced Palmer Station, the Polar Duke) handled it with ease. Those boats never cease to amaze me. As frustrating as it was to try and stay on course heading into high winds like that, today was fricking awesome! We were surfing the swells in a boat roughly the same size and weight as my Monte Carlo. I can't honestly say that i've done that before. And we finished both our transects without any problems.

Here's a pic of that huge leopard seal. Ok, I'll admit I didn't take this one. This one is from national geographic. I can just imagine what that penguin is thinking right now... "Did I close the garage door?"

That seal needs some dental work. But check out the teeth. That weird tri-tipped, interlocking shape has evolved to allow the seal to take in a large volume of water and krill and spit out the water, thus retaining the krill. I heard that Leopard Seals feed mainly on fish and krill, and that penguins are a rare treat. This just hours before I heard over the radio that one was killing a penguin, so who knows...

This is the picture I took. You can't really see her smile, but it's there. She doesn't look nearly as threatening as the one above. It was incredible to be that close to something that could chomp my head just as easily as it could that little penguin. She wasn't nearly as impressed with us.

And a Chinnie that thinks he is a scientist. Don't worry any of you animal activists, noone violated the ACA, this penguin jumped in the boat on his own will, and got out without human intervention. He wanted to drive, but hadn't done boating I and II, so we had to refuse.