On days like today with a grey sky atop a grey, featureless sea, I can’t help but wonder how animals find their way around. Take the black-browed albatrosses and southern giant petrels we’ve seen from the ship today. How do they find their way back to the Falklands in these conditions? If it’s magnetism, how do they perceive the magnetic field? Sight? Feel? Can they “see” it on a cloudy day? If it’s smell, how far away can they smell their nest or island of origin? If it’s ultrasonic sound, how far off can they detect that, and how do they know it originates from their island specifically?
Sea days are a treat. They allow us time to reflect on just that – the sea and all the creatures that have learned to rely on this seemingly featureless landscape.
Today it was the northern edge of the Scotia Sea, halfway between South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, that garnered my attention and raised this list of questions. Questions, it turns out, the scientific world is still looking for answers to.
