At sea in Drake Passage
The four elements: earth, air, water and fire. Today it is almost all air and water, as our little bit of earth is propelled across the Drake Passage by the heat of fire. It is no wonder that most of the living things we see are creatures of both air and water—seabirds: albatross, petrel, fulmar, storm petrel and gull.
We left Antarctica behind this morning when we crossed the Antarctic Convergence, where the frigid Southern Ocean meets the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. The convergence is marked by a more or less abrupt change of temperature, like walking through a door; it is a veil or a moat that isolates Antarctica. Relatively few creatures can cross the Antarctic Convergence, some birds, some marine mammals, some marine invertebrates, some algae. See the pattern? Not surprisingly, almost everything that lives in Antarctica is associated with the marine environment, which is richer and less harsh than the terrestrial environment.
Underwater, at SCUBA depth, the scene is curious. There are no schools of fish, no crabs, no tall forests of kelp. Important predators include large anemones, ferocious creatures that wait for the unwary to pass just close enough to be scooped up and pushed whole into the anemones remarkably expansive ‘mouth.’ In the picture, the anemone appears to be staring at the remains of its last meal, a limpet shell, waiting for its next victim. But no, the anemone cannot stare, it has no eyes, rather it is leaning over, waiting for something to brush its tentacles. It can, and will, wait for a very long time indeed, there is plenty of time beneath the waves of the Southern Ocean and anemones seem to be very patient!
