Far from sight of land, a stiff wind greeted us this morning, along with a surprising array of winged land animals that were blown out to sea: hundreds of moths and at least seven birds took refuge on our ship. We spent the day at sea, sailing south and west across the broad Bahia Blanca. We encountered our first penguins of the voyage (Magellanic penguins), and we had some interesting albeit fleeting marine mammal encounters (southern right whale, humpback whale, blue whale, common dolphin, and South American sea lion).
Conor Ryan is a congenital ecologist. His career began in the late 1980s, when he developed a keen interest in intertidal ecology, undertaking almost daily field trips to the seashore across from his home in Cobh, Ireland. Though he logged significan...
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This morning, guests of National Geographic Endurance awoke in the middle of the South Atlantic. This is a unique crossing. As the ship transits from Puerto Madryn to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, those aboard are privy to special sightings and experiences. Many seabirds rely on the building waves and wind that we observed as we near the Southern Ocean. A great force, the Southern Ocean circles Antarctica with unbroken strength. This energy creates a strong barrier, isolating Antarctica biologically and ecologically. Albatrosses, petrels, and prions use the wind to soar just above the waves, using their strong senses to identify prey in the water. These birds–Procellariiformes–have an incredible sense of smell, an adaptation that naturalist Conor Ryan shared with guests today during a morning lecture entitled, “The Smell of the Sea.” What we consider the smell of the sea is actually dimethylsulfide (DMS), which is released by organisms like phytoplanktonic diatoms. Diatoms become food for many primary consumers, including copepods and Antarctic krill. These primary consumers are, in turn, excellent prey for seabirds searching for their next meal. As they swoop from wave to wave, the birds actively hunt. On this crossing, we have been lucky enough to view the largest seabird of them all, the wandering albatross. This bird can have a wingspan of two meters, over six feet. Wandering albatrosses are monogamous and mate for life. With long lives, sometimes these animals produce offspring into their 60s. Royal albatrosses are their slightly smaller counterpart, and they tend to be rarer in this part of the world. With more black coloring on their wings and a less pink bill, they are a species that may be easily confused with the wanderer.
Two wonderful days of excursions at Peninsula Valdes and Trelew offered insights into the wildlife, cultural heritage, and paleontological riches of central Patagonia. As with any expedition, a flexible mindset is beneficial as the weather can prompt itinerary changes. Upon sailing from Puerto Madryn, our next destination is not farther down the Argentinian coast as originally planned, but rather South Georgia Island far to the east. Not to worry–we’ll still visit the Falkland Islands in the final leg of our voyage! With a following wind and sea, National Geographic Endurance provided an efficient and very comfortable passage as we transited over 1,300 nautical miles from South America to the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia. A diversity of albatrosses and petrels soared behind the ship, capitalizing on the strong breezes in our wake; several new species were added to the day’s list of sightings with growing distance offshore. Guests who braved the decks were rewarded with photo opportunities as seabirds circled nearby. Along with a shifting complement of wildlife, seawater temperatures are dropping–once cooler than ~3 degrees Celsius, we’ll officially be in the Southern Ocean. A full slate of natural history presentations and photography workshops kept the attention of those interested in learning about earth science, seabirds, and the capabilities of the cameras on their phones. However, a day at sea also presents a chance to relax. From editing recent pictures to browsing library shelves in the Observation Lounge to enjoying a massage with the Wellness Team to working on a challenging puzzle to walking three miles of laps around Deck Eight to savoring the treats that appear at afternoon tea…all those on board found ways to enjoy the spaces and resources that make National Geographic Endurance our traveling home.
“Ferdinand Magellan used the word patagón to describe the native people here,” our guide Ana tells us. She says that the exact etymology is uncertain, but some believe it to mean “giants,” or more likely, “the people with big feet.” “So Patagonia is literally the land of bigfoot?” one guest asks, the rest of the bus chuckling. Smiling and nodding, Ana replies that yes, in a way, this is bigfoot country. We have left Puerto Madryn and are driving Highway 3 westward where towering wind turbines dot the dry playa that seems to stretch out forever. Scavenging caracaras and hunting harriers float low over treeless scrub where capybaras––scavenging rodents of unusual size––and small camelid guanacos share the landscape with merino sheep. I am thinking about the giants of patagón as we pass a turbine near the roadside, imagining a twenty-foot-tall Don Quixote riding an equally large horse to fight the whirling monsters, when the real monster––the authentic Patagonian Bigfoot––appears on the horizon. The bus slows, angles off the road, and parks in front of what could be part of the next Jurassic Park movie set: Patagotitan mayorum. Titanosaur. The giant statue before us represents what might be the largest animal to have ever walked the earth. With a neck stretching 12 meters, and a thigh bone longer than Shaquille O’Neil is tall, the titanosaur roamed Patagonia when this land was a savanna some 95 million years ago. Following our visit with titanosaur, we reboard the bus, primed for our next stop: Egidio Feruglio Paleontological Museum in Trelew, where a new wing is being built to house the titanosaur skeleton whose Shaqesque-thigh bone was found sticking out of the ground by an Argentine rancher in 2013. Our guides at the museum walk us through the Mesozoic, the Paleozoic, and eventually the Precambrian Eras. At each stop, we are wowed by reconstructed skeletons made from the casts of Patagonian fossils, as well as many of the fossils themselves displayed just out of reach behind glass. Following the exhibits, we are treated to a behind the scenes tour, where scientists are cleaning, casting, and cataloguing bones from the richest fossil region in the world, where nearly every expedition yields a new species. It is these laboratories in the tiny town of Trelew that send skeletons to the great museums around the world, and, who knows, perhaps it will be these paleontologists who will one day clean, cast, catalogue, and distribute the skeleton of the next bigfoot.
