Educational Entertainment on Board
Educational Entertainment on Board
Even while we have a full day at sea, the crew keep us busy with entertainment.
We've had excellent lectures by the onboard Ornithologist on Albatross, particularly
the 4 species we have seen: Wandering,Black-browed,Grey-headed and Light-mantled.
It has been fascinating to learn about the ringing,(imagine ringing an Albatross!), and the
tracking work the Ornithologist has done and their new findings about the distances these
birds travel, for example the juvenile Grey-headed Albatross fly as far as the seas
off South Africa, where sadly some are caught up as "bycatch" on the hooks of the
Japanese long-line fishing boats there. Although there is now a lot of work being
done to reduce this bycatch.
We also had a lecture by the onboard Historian about the history of the whaling industry.
Having visited the remains of the whaling town of Grytyviken on South Georgia and
seen whales with our own eyes right next to the ship, this was especially poignant.
A terrible part of our history and so sad to think some nations are still carrying it out.
Today we have more lectures and scanning for whales to keep us amused, as well as doing
a bio security check on all our heavy duty outdoor kit to make sure we're not
unwittingly bringing any dirt from South Georgia to Antarctica.
Tail Fin - courtesy of Quark Expedition Literature
Yesterday we were watching Snow Petrels displaying to each other as they followed
our ship. Hoping for more today !
We'll keep blogging whenever we can so keep checking back here.