Orcas were plentiful as we headed south through the gulf, as you can see from the photo of a large male surfacing. Orcas are also known as "killer whales" because of their predatory lifestyle of feeding on penguins, seals, fish, and other whales. These whales average 23-31 feet long and can weigh between three and nine tons. The females have a smaller sickle-shaped dorsal fin while the males have a large triangular dorsal fin reaching up to six feet in height.
We spent our afternoon at Bald Head on Trinity Peninsula, the northern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula. This ice-free headland was first discovered by Nordenskjold's expedition in 1902-3 and later named and charted by the Falkland Island Dependency Survey, the predecessor of the British Antarctic Survey, in 1945.
A brisk hike took us to two freshwater lakes filled with green algae. Nesting kelp gulls made their presence known, as did a pair of South Polar skuas, the most southern-living bird in the world. Southern fur seals lounged on the beach while crabeater seals frolicked in the water along the shoreline, curious about these new visitors. Crabeaters are the most numerous seal in the world with population estimates ranging between fifteen to seventy million. These seals feed primarily on krill, a small shrimp-like crustacean, which they filter through specialized cusped molars.
Surrounded by immense tabular icebergs we continued cruising south into the night.
