Strategery 101: Torgersen Island & Palmer Station

Palmer Station and Torgersen Island.

Quite a busy afternoon over here for me as I went to Torgersen Island and also paid a visit to Palmer Station.

Torgersen first. It's a small rocky island filled with Adelie Penguins (pronounced adele-ee). Lately, with the warming seas and continent, they haven't been faring as well. However, this season they've done really well. The island is split in two with flags marking the midway point. Humans aren't allowed on one side to see if there is any effect on their health and survival by their interaction with humans. So far it seems there is no difference at all. If anything, the naturalist explained, humans may scare away skua birds, the penguins natural predator. And sadly, there is one thing the scientists forgot when setting up their control, the weather variable. Alas, seems this experiment might not get untainted results.

Ok, so Adelie Penguins. They are kind of the same height and build as the Chinstrap, but obviously look different. In fact, I'd say they look most like cartoon penguins. Nice white shirt with a black head and tuxedo. Unlike earlier today at Dorian, these chicks look fully matured, almost hard to differentiate from the adults and I'm sure they will do well at sea. Although we did see one carcass picked clean by a skua.

Here's an Adelie:

And here's an Antarctic Fur Seal that I saw on Torgersen:

After about an hour on the island we took zodiacs to Palmer Station, the US Antarctic Program's base on the Antarctic Peninsula. There are two other USAP locations, including one on the South Pole. Palmer Station houses many different scientific projects and experiments (I got to check out a few poster boards) and they have everything they need brought in once a month on a big ship (including all the most recent magazines, movies, etc). They work about 9 hours a day, seven days a week. They have a small gym, home media center, hot tub, sauna, and high speed internet. It's kind of crazy to see this all so far away from everything. Only about 1/3 of the people there stay over the winter. The rest go north. They also have this crazy tradition that whenever someone departs the Station at the end of their time there, everyone lines up on the pier and they all jump into the polar water. crazy. but fun.

I got to interact with some of the researches at the Station and payed a visit to the gift shop (no kidding, and they take credit card). I can't believe you can pay with credit card here. Still in shock.

We were quite lucky to be able to get a visit to Palmer Station. There are something like 43 ships that operate with tourists during the season (each running multiple cruises). Palmer allows roughly 12 visits per season, so everyone on board feels quite lucky to be able to see this outpost of science.