At Sea in the Southern Ocean
Our final day in Antarctica and the great southern ocean is one filled with joy. A vast, untouched wilderness, the largest on Earth, has been ours to explore and admire. We anticipated cold and wind and rain and snow and ice. We were prepared for an encrusted land of white. But does any new visitor to this natural museum really know what to expect? We are awestruck! It is a land that has limits on the diversity of life. We found the things that we expected to see and we immersed ourselves within them. We also found a land that enriches us with images beyond comprehension. The birds and marine mammals are hardy beyond belief. They have evolved to tolerate and survive where little else can.
Antarctica's land and ice are warmed only gently by the sun’s radiant energy, but the warmth accumulated is enough to give life to organisms that are found nowhere else on Earth. Above the water is an ecosystem of few species, surely less complex than other ecosystems we know. Below the gentle tides is an amazing complex, rich in both diversity and colour. The continent’s biological communities are no less fascinating and no less worthy of diligent protection than are other parts of the world.
As we leave Antarctica, our joy is tempered somewhat by a feeling of anxiety. This is a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands, large and small, locked together by ice. Valuable resources lie hidden within its rocky core. Will world leaders of the future speak wisely and in unison in an effort to protect and maintain this unspoiled continent? Can and will future generations resist the desires and demands for space and resources that other leaders will seek for their peoples?
We ease ourselves back into the world that has guided us to this point in our lives, a world that is changing rapidly. But the rushing world will not deter us from closing our eyes and projecting onto the monitors of our mind the scenes that we have witnessed. They are scenes of harsh beauty, towering peaks, endless snowcaps, sleek birds, sleepy seals, massive whales and sessile invertebrates. The mountains are slowly releasing their frozen and weighty cloak, even as new layers are added to it. Glaciers, the crushing rivers of blue crystal, continue to course downward to the roving ocean, melting back into the waters from which their long-frozen molecules came.
Our final day in Antarctica and the great southern ocean is one filled with joy. A vast, untouched wilderness, the largest on Earth, has been ours to explore and admire. We anticipated cold and wind and rain and snow and ice. We were prepared for an encrusted land of white. But does any new visitor to this natural museum really know what to expect? We are awestruck! It is a land that has limits on the diversity of life. We found the things that we expected to see and we immersed ourselves within them. We also found a land that enriches us with images beyond comprehension. The birds and marine mammals are hardy beyond belief. They have evolved to tolerate and survive where little else can.
Antarctica's land and ice are warmed only gently by the sun’s radiant energy, but the warmth accumulated is enough to give life to organisms that are found nowhere else on Earth. Above the water is an ecosystem of few species, surely less complex than other ecosystems we know. Below the gentle tides is an amazing complex, rich in both diversity and colour. The continent’s biological communities are no less fascinating and no less worthy of diligent protection than are other parts of the world.
As we leave Antarctica, our joy is tempered somewhat by a feeling of anxiety. This is a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands, large and small, locked together by ice. Valuable resources lie hidden within its rocky core. Will world leaders of the future speak wisely and in unison in an effort to protect and maintain this unspoiled continent? Can and will future generations resist the desires and demands for space and resources that other leaders will seek for their peoples?
We ease ourselves back into the world that has guided us to this point in our lives, a world that is changing rapidly. But the rushing world will not deter us from closing our eyes and projecting onto the monitors of our mind the scenes that we have witnessed. They are scenes of harsh beauty, towering peaks, endless snowcaps, sleek birds, sleepy seals, massive whales and sessile invertebrates. The mountains are slowly releasing their frozen and weighty cloak, even as new layers are added to it. Glaciers, the crushing rivers of blue crystal, continue to course downward to the roving ocean, melting back into the waters from which their long-frozen molecules came.
