We approached Brown Bluff, a large penguin rookery shortly after breakfast. High winds made a beach landing impossible, so we moved on toward Paulet Island. Later in the morning, we landed on Paulet Island amidst a light snowfall. On our way, we wove through icebergs and Adelie penguins. Suddenly curved dorsal fins sliced upwards through the water's surface.

Encountering killer whales is always a special event. Research by the U.S. and French, as well as harvests by the Russians, document behaviors very similar to those of killer whales so well studied in the Pacific Northwest. They live in stable, matrilineal pods that last at least 18 years as shown by one French study. Males within a pod are the sons or grandsons of the matrilineal female. The feeding ecology of Antarctic killer whales also follows the pattern of killer whales in other parts of the world. There are those that consistently feed on fish, and other pods that eat marine mammals and penguins. The Russian harvest data found the whales in the latter group to average about a meter longer than those that consume fish.

We watched about 17 individuals that appeared closely associated in two groups. The yellow wash of color over the saddle patch, the light area just behind the dorsal fin, is most commonly thought to be from a coating of diatoms that grow to cover the body after about a month of living in Antarctic waters.