Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 20:27:16 +0000 From: "Coronesi, Stephanie" Subject: Message 20 16:55 (2002.01.31) 52 Degrees 48.821' South Latitude 67 Degrees 56.861' West Longitude (Drake Passage) Air Temp: 10.2 Degrees C SST (Sea Surface Temperature): 8.987 C Wind Speed: 19 knots 355 degrees Air Pressure: 1011.8 mBar Hey Everybody! Yay!! The weather is still absolutely lovely, which makes packing and tying up various loose ends MUCH more enjoyable. We're due for our rendezvous with the Chilean pilot at midnight tonight. He'll be driven to us on a smaller boat (maybe 80 feet in length?) and pull up to our starboard side where we have a ladder/handrail setup and climb on board. According to Captain Robert, once he's on board it's about an eight hour stretch to Punta Arenas. So before I tell you about the Gerlache, I want to relay some really neat info I got on bird tracking from one of our birders Chris, who's on board with us for the trip from Palmer back to Punta Arenas. The birders on station at Palmer track the penguins and Giant Petrals who live on the islands near the station. Every two days the birders take a trip out to Humboldt Island to observe the Adelies and collect data. There are about five tracking devices in use during the penguin breeding season, which runs approximately two months (January 1st to late February). The tracking devices are about five inches long and very light and they are attached with epoxy and tape to the feathers just at the top of the penguins' backs. These tracking devices have been carefully designed so as not to bother the penguins or affect their behavior and swimming dynamics. They are removed and switched to a different penguin about once a week in order to get a broader cross-section of behavior data. In order to save battery life the devices are programmed to go into "sleep" mode when wet, and transmit their location data up to a satellite whenever they're dry for two seconds. The satellite is owned by a company called Argos and they collect the data and relay it back to Palmer. This provides information about where the penguins are travelling to feed. The birders are careful to reclaim the devices at the end of the breeding season because otherwise a penguin could take off for good with a $3,000 tracking device attached to its back. The device would fall off when the penguin molted, but its loss would mean $3,000 down the tubes. Similarly, there are about six or seven tracking devices put on Giant Petrals from November-May, when they consistently return to their home near Palmer Station. These devices are about the size of a matchbox and have also been carefully designed not to interfere with the comfort and behavior of the birds. They have about 1600 hours of battery life and are programmed to transmit location once every four to six hours. These are also reclaimed at the end of May, except for two "sacrifice" transmitters which are attached at the end of the season to track the extensive travel of these big birds. Last year one of the two birds travelled from Palmer Station halfway up the Chilean coast, while the other one flew to Chile, then turned around and flew back down across the Drake, traversing it completely in a mere thirty-six hours (a trip that takes us about four days by ship). There are also devices that are not just used for tracking, but are also mini CTDs which are attached to penguins to track pressure (depth), salinity, and temperature during the penguin's dive. When the bird returns to the surface the information is transmitted via satellite. The folks at Palmer supposedly have some of these CTDs either in stock or on order, but they haven't deployed them yet. So I thought that all that was some pretty cool information! I've learned a whole bunch from spending spare time up on the bridge with the birders. Brett was kind enough to lend us one of his big books to help us identify the different species of birds on our trip back up through the Drake. Rich and I have been having a lot of fun casually identifying the seabirds and learning more about bird watching in general. We've had a few Wandering Albatross following the ship the past couple of days, and they are just HUGE (wing spans can reach up to twelve feet!) Before I sign off for the day I want to tell you about the most gorgeous scenery of our trip. On Monday as we headed out of Palmer we took the more protected route along the peninsula, in totally placid seas through the incomparable Gerlache Strait. It's just one of those places where you CANNOT take a bad picture. You could drop your camera on the deck and accidentally take a frame-worthy photograph, I kid you not. We were surrounded on both sides by mountains and glaciers, sailing by gorgeous blue icebergs and smaller bergy bits, sculpted and textured by good old Mother Nature at her artistic best. The sunlight shone bright and warm and the vast majority of those on board sat outside soaking up the sun and scenery. The larger, higher-resolution pics will be posted on the website, but I'll send along a little sample from the digital for now. So this is really almost it! I expect to send along my last email message tomorrow, so if there are any pending questions, this is the time to ask them! Heading into the Straits of Magellan.... Steph! Miss C! :)